SA’s integrity at stake in Fifa scandal

ON Friday, the most slippery dictator in one of the world’s most powerful organisations engineered himself the most unlikely victory. In the face of an unprecedented assault on Fifa’s integrity and reputation, Sepp Blatter outmanoeuvred his rival, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, to score his fifth consecutive stint as president of the world soccer body.

That this could happen illustrates that it is not just in South Africa where, amid a deafening roar for accountability in the wake of an eye-popping scandal, leaders still weasel their way into power.

The scandal, it seems, did have some (minor) impact on the voting. In the past, Blatter has been the runaway winner. This week, he fell short of the required two-thirds majority in the first round of voting when he snaffled only 133 of the 209 votes available. But Prince Ali clearly saw the writing on the wall, and withdrew anyway.

This means Blatter’s reign is assured until 2019 — in defiance of the wishes of the majority of soccer fans across the world.

It is a depressing and unwelcome result, but this should not overshadow the fact that this week Fifa was well and truly unmasked as a mansion floating on a sea of corruption, buttressed and protected from accountability by an old boys’ network of conspirators.

The indictment against 14 soccer officials and marketing bosses made this, as US lawmakers argued, the World Cup of corruption.

While it is no shock that Fifa is rotten, it was perhaps more surprising that Blatter himself was not one of those led away in handcuffs. But then, he has made a career out of sneaking past the net and strong-arming politicians to do what he wants — like getting Thabo Mbeki to agree to build Cape Town Stadium in Green Point, not in Athlone, where it would have been of more value to the community.

After Friday’s vote, Blatter vowed that he will haul the boat that is Fifa back to shore. This seems unlikely. He has had 17 years to puncture the cloud that has hovered over Fifa. But under his watch, it has just got darker.

The focus will now shift to South Africa and the central point: was a $10-million bribe paid to Jack Warner so that South Africa could host the 2010 World Cup? This is what the US investigators believe, and they have said two South African soccer officials were the bagmen, but they are cryptically described in the indictment only as “co-conspirators”.

Many South Africans are wondering, quite rightly, how the US authorities could publish far-ranging and damning accusations yet fail to provide names or evidence. It is as if the Americans have chucked the waterbomb into the air — containing grave allegations of corruption involving South Africans — and everyone is waiting for it to drop.

Those names will eventually emerge and the evidence will be tested. Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula was adamant this week that no bribes were paid by any South Africans. But if this past week has taught us anything, it is that the beautiful game has been contorted into something quite ugly where nothing seems impossible.