Clinton van der Berg
Now the hard work to clean up sport
AMONG the many reforms put in place by Fifa last week, arguably the biggest, most important change of all, was getting a new man at the helm.
The Fifa vote swept in a president named Gianni Infantino, a dapper Swiss-Italian attorney who pressed all the right buttons on his way to assuming the top job. Reports from Switzerland paint him as an honourable man who will quickly get on with the job of cleaning up the mess.
Despite Sepp Blatter’s protestations, Fifa became a byword for cronyism and selfenrichment under his flawed presidency. Scores of officials have been suspended, banned and arrested, while the FBI continues to look into the warped machinations of soccer’s governing body.
Blatter is yesterday’s man, put out to pasture by a six-year ban that effectively ends his dark influence.
He pointedly ignored the warnings. As sports minister Fikile Mbalula once said of noone in particular, “Listen to the whispers and you won’t have to hear the screams.”
Blatter, who once had the gall to compare himself to Nelson Mandela, citing “our (collective) work for the good of the world’s young people”, ignored the whispers.
The most significant reforms include limiting presidential stays to three terms of four years. Blatter, remarkably, had five – four terms too many.
Infantino and other executives will disclose their salaries, unlike Blatter whose official pay remains a closely -guarded secret, even now.
Six women must occupy top jobs, a solid push towards gender equality, particularly in light of the explosion in popularity of the women’s game.
One of Infantino’s ideas is to expand the World Cup to 40 teams. The idea of making the game more inclusive has merit, but unsurprisingly his idea has been met with doubt and derision. It must be underpinned by excellence. Forty teams is too many.
Infantino would be better off getting started on implementing the reforms, and quickly. Fifa’s biggest problem is its public image.
The cleanout of dirty officials has helped appease fans and sponsors, but it isn’t enough. Fifa needs to embrace change from top to bottom, and show it has the means of selfcleansing. It won’t be easy.
Investigators are still sniffing around Fifa HQ. One point of enquiry remains the suspicious $10m payment to Jack Warner from South Africa’s 2010 Local Organising Committee. There hasn’t been much enthusiasm to get to the bottom of the matter locally, but international investigators will be more dogged.
The selfsame investigators are also looking at World Cup ticket allocations and the 2006 World Cup vote. While these cases remain open, Fifa won’t be able to function with full support. But the reforms are a bold start at cleaning the mess.
Infantino best have energy and a thick skin.
In a parallel recent development, the Association of Summer Olympic Federations met last week and announced plans to apply a new and comprehensive set of governance principles. Five key doctrines – transparency, integrity, democracy, sport development and solidarity and control mechanisms – are to be implemented by international federations.
Governance
This is designed to improve governance of sport at an international level, which has been pitifully poor in recent years, athletics and soccer being prime examples.
Among the new requirements, salaries of top officials would be disclosed, there would be term limits, tenders would be open for marketing and procurement contracts and whistle-blowers would be protected.
After years of dirty play, these moves offer a powerful ray of light and signal a broad intolerance of past behaviour, where anything went. Blatter and his ilk operated as untouchables from the day they took office, but the new zeitgeist of openness compels their successors to function in a different environment.
The cleanouts of world athletics and soccer must resonate here at home too.
Many of South Africa’s major federations are trapped in their own self-importance, blind to the wider view, and ignorant of good governance.
They, too, will have their day of reckoning. Just ask Blatter and his cronies.