Soccer fans welcome assault on FIFA corruption
For Sepp Blatter, the president of the Federation Internationale de Football Association, this week was to be a straightforward one.
With FIFA representatives from across the world convening at the Baur au Lac Hotel in Zurich, to participate in today’s election deciding the new president of the world’s largest sporting federation, Blatter could rest easy in the knowledge that his claim to the presidency of FIFA was relatively unchallenged.
Despite some resistance from UEFA — the Union of European Football Associations — and his lone challenger, Jordanian Prince Ali bin Al Hussein, most expected the result to be a foregone conclusion. After all, Blatter is running for the fifth consecutive time, and, thanks to strong allies within the organization, had easily won each time in the past.
Unfortunately for Blatter, but perhaps more fortunately for the rest of the soccer world, an unex- pected wrench has been thrown into the otherwise unfettered clockwork that is the Zurichbased soccer organization. With FIFA representatives from all across the world gathered to attend the election, Swiss authorities raided the Baur au Lac Hotel early Wednesday morning, arresting seven representatives on suspicions of racketeering, wire fraud and money-laundering conspiracy. Two former soccer executives were also charged in New York, as were four sports marketing officials. The U.S. has indicted a total of 14 soccer executives on 47 charges.
Blatter was not arrested and, so far, has not been directly accused of committing any crimes, but people close to the president of FIFA have been implicated in these allegations. Despite numerous claims of similar crimes in the past, no arrests have been made on such a large scale as this.
The investigation was led by the FBI in co-operation with Swiss police. The arrests were peaceful, with officials leaving the hotel with their luggage and without handcuffs, but the repercussions of the arrests are sure to be disturbing to many in the soccer federation’s executive department. As more and more people close to him are faced with criminal prosecution, Blatter might find that his strong allies will become more reluctant to support him.
With more allegations sure to come, and with names slowly leaking to the press, the question remains as to the impact the arrests will have on the footballing world.
The arrests might not directly affect today’s FIFA election, but each course of action the federation was planning to take has now been cast under significant doubt. The 2022 World Cup, to be held in Qatar, was already being built on shaky ground. With many people calling for the relocation of the World Cup, due to numerous human-rights complaints over working conditions in Qatar, these allegations could provide more proof that FIFA’s intentions in allotting a soccer competition to a country that has caused more than 200 deaths in its preparation were not entirely pure.
As a soccer fan, I, along with every other soccer fan I know, celebrate the news of FIFA corruption being handled seriously. For too long, claims of injustice have been just that: claims. Thankfully, these arrests appear as though they will serve a more substantial purpose.
Many people have known that the inner workings of the organization in control of the world’s largest sport have been rotten for some time; the allegations from the U.S. Justice Department serve as evidence for these claims.
It is objectively unfair for a game that affects billions of people on this planet to be run by such a select few, hiding in Zurich offices with tinted windows. Blatter might not have been charged with any crimes, but when you are the head of an organization that holds an internal investigation into allegations of corruption, publishes a report that clears that same organization of any wrongdoing, only to have the lawyer who worked on the report come out and question its validity, it is hard to claim ignorance of malpractice for long.
Whether these arrests lead to anything conclusive is inconsequential. Any conviction would be a large step, but by simply arresting those who appeared to be untouchable, the U.S. and the FBI have taken a big step toward cleaning FIFA of its seemingly incorrigible corruption.
Soccer is rightly praised as a game that is free, flowing and pleasing to watch. For too long have the inner workings of FIFA been constricted and hidden — which is why I take great pleasure in watching the beginning of its purging.