“What is a crisis?’ asked FIFA President Sepp Blatter in his press conference on the 30th May. Well since you believe, Mr. Blatter, that your organisation is not in one, that is an extremely good question to ask: you clearly have no idea.
I will not go on to list every detail of what has happened within football’s governing body in the last couple of weeks, but there has been resignation, accusation and bitching galore. Blatter has now been re-elected after running unopposed despite protests from the English and Scottish FAs, and you cannot help but feel that FIFA were more worried by the concerns of big-money sponsors Coca-Cola than they were by those of the bodies who make up their electorate.
Nowadays, money is unfortunately at the very heart of professional football and these past two weeks have made it very clear, if it wasn’t already, that it plays a huge, negative part in the way FIFA is run. I have no doubt that the organisation is rife with corruption, its own members will say as much. Jack Warner, FIFA’s Vice-President suspended for allegedly offering bribes to the Caribbean members of FIFA’s electorate, has come out with a ‘football tsunami’ of accusations regarding Blatter and co. Warner added to the already numerous accusations of corruption that have been directed at Blatter over the years as well as claiming that Qatar ‘bought’ the 2022 World Cup Finals.
I cannot have been the only person who was suspicious when it was revealed that Russia and Qatar would be hosting the 2018 and 2022 World Cups respectively. Russia: a bit of a surprise, I thought, but fair enough, there are plenty of reasons why they could put on an excellent show. The selection of Qatar, on the other hand, simply screamed out the word corruption and left the ugly letters M-O-N-E-Y metaphorically branded across Blatter’s fat, wrinkled forehead.One of Qatar’s rival bids, Australia, spent almost £30 million on its unsuccessful effort to host the 2022 finals. It would be of no great surprise to me if FIFA were revealed to have accepted such a mountainous sum of money from someone in order to ensure Qatar’s bid was victorious.
Even those of you who are severely lacking in the football knowledge department will most likely know that Qatar are not exactly known for their prowess in the sport. It is, however, a nation teeming with disgustingly wealthy men. Why is it that FIFA were so open to considering switching the World Cup to the winter in order to accommodate Qatar’s scorching climate yet are so frustratingly resistant to implementing goal-line technology- an advancement that has been called for by top players and pundits around the globe and doubtlessly would improve the game no end?FIFA is almost certainly an organisation morally crippled by the presence of corruption, I am just thankful that we at least have Lionel Messi to keep some kind of beauty in the ‘beautiful game’.