FIFA folly
June 2, 2011
Entertain this notion: A major corporation is rocked by multiple corruption scandals over many years, but the chief executive remains in his post. Unthinkable. Not so at FIFA.
World football's governing body has continued through the various scandals as a cash machine, soaking up huge sums of money, distributing allocations to national associations, and keeping a solid chunk for itself. To put this into perspective, between 2007 and 2010, FIFA pocketed a record three billion euros ($4.3 billion), mainly thanks to the World Cup in South Africa.
At the apex of this football empire has stood Swiss national Joseph "Sepp" Blatter since 1998. Some who have led associations for such a long time can, perhaps, still claim to be unaware of corruption in the ranks, though Blatter cannot simply palm off responsibility over the abuses. Responsibility rests with the FIFA head.
One could be merciful towards Blatter and say he had no control over his own shop, so to speak, during the corruption scandals of recent years. However, one could also easily speculate that he knew of the abuses. Either way, the 75-year-old's tenure is no longer really tenable.
Concealed rivals
Theo Zwanziger, who leads the German Football Association, the DFB, commented that without Blatter, FIFA would be leaderless and crippled. He said that new members of the powerful FIFA Executive Committee, as well as his colleagues in the upper echelons of the organization, should keep this in mind. Nevertheless, surely it can not be that a global organization is so dependent on its head that without that person the body would break down.
Where are all the supposedly "clean" soccer officials who could assume the mantle of leadership?
Perhaps all those who could oppose him have decided to remain under cover because, at some point in the past, they, too, have benefited from the system - they, too, have skimmed off the top.
FIFA loves to give the impression that it is organized democratically. In reality, however, it is run more like an oligarchy. It appears that money is the ultimate decider of who controls the purse strings and the reins, as well as of who is given the right to host the FIFA World Cup.
Economically, FIFA is beaming healthily. Morally, the football body is very, very ill. A transfusion of fresh blood is sorely needed - an honest leader who does not go by the name of Blatter.
Author: Stefan Nestler / dfm
Editor: Nicole Goebel