NOT YET CONVINCED BY ‘NEW FIFA’

We have a new Fifa, a Fifa that is determined to clean up the game. A Fifa headed by Gianni Infantino, a lawyer by training. The former Uefa number two has enthusiastically supported the US-led investigations into bribery and corruption, centred mainly on the Caribbean and South America – let’s face it, Jack Warner is an easy target. But taking pot shots at the corrupt little man from Trinidad inevitably brings South Africa into the gunsights, forcing us to confront awkward questions around the 2010World Cup Bid and the money paid ostensibly to promote football in the African Diaspora – described by US investigators as a bribe, and considered thus by the newly clean Fifa as well. I’ve said it on this page before that I find it hard to accept the accusations pointed at South Africa – however true they may be – if I do not see simultaneous action directed at other examples of corruption; and not only in Latin America, but in Europe and Asia. I’m thinking of the manner in which Germany secured the 2006World Cup – the lifting of an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia in time to secure that country’s support; dubious business deals made elsewhere in Asia; the mysterious role of ‘Der Kaiser’, Franz Beckenbauer. I am also saying here, now, that I expect Infantino’s Fifa to take the World Cup hosting rights away from Russia and Qatar. Aside from both countries’ dubious human rights records, and Qatar’s non-existent record as a ‘footballing nation’, there are too many questions unanswered around the way those countries won their bids. As Mark Gleeson notes in his appraisal of the ‘new Fifa’ on page 60 to 62; “Swiss authorities recently reported the number of suspicious bank transactions banks flagged in connection with the awarding of the 2018 and 2022World Cups has now reached 152.” So lots of clean up work to do there then, Mr Infantino. Fifa’s ‘independent ethics committee’ has already been busy. They’ve been dishing out bans to South Africans in relation to Bafana Bafana’s rigged 2010World Cup warm-up matches (for background, turn to page 63). I welcome punishment of the guilty. But I am not sure that the worthies sitting on this Fifa committee fully applied their minds to the task at hand. Are they completely sure Leslie Sedibe is guilty of corruption? I may be wrong, but I think he is guilty of naïve and tardy administration as Safa CEO at the time; I’m not convinced he knowingly agreed to the appointment of corrupt match offcials for Bafana’s games. And I am dead certain Steve Goddard is completely innocent – he was the whistleblower after all, the man who desperately tried to get bent referees replaced with straight men. Yet he is banned for two years! Infantino is seen by many as the best man to lead Fifa in the medium term; someone who can oversee the cleansing of Fifa. He is already hard at work convincing prospective sponsors to trust his vision. But he needs to tread carefully. An example: Infantino recently welcomed the announcement of a new Fifa partner; the Wanda Group from China. Awkward then, that Wanda’s head of sports business is a certain Philippe Blatter – nephew of the former Fifa president. It is going to be a long hard road out of the valley of corruption, and Infantino and his ‘new Fifa’ will need to beat a steady path if they are to convince. Richard Maguire, Editor