Backs to the Wahl

On June 1st, Sepp Blatter was re-elected as FIFA president, mandated to run the governing body of world football, one of the most powerful organisations in sports, for a fourth term. It was what every football enthusiast was hoping wouldn’t happen, but knew was inescapable. After all, he did run unopposed; his only rival, Mohammed Bin Hammam, was forced to retire from the race following corruption allegations levelled at him from fellow FIFA Executive Committee member and (former) buddy, Chuck Blazer. It was an airing of dirty laundry fit to rival the most spectacular of soap operas.

Watching the internal FIFA drama unfold from the sidelines, there was one outsider who made an active bid to challenge the status quo. That outsider was Grant Wahl, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. “I’ve travelled around a lot covering football and speaking to fans, and they are very unhappy with FIFA and Blatter. In December, when they announced the World Cup hosts for 2018 and 2022, and Qatar got it, it just hit me that the whole process seemed unclean, as if it was controlled by petrol dollars. It just didn’t seem right.”

Shortly after, it became clear that Blatter intended to re-run, and he was unopposed at the time. That was when Wahl decided he had to do something drastic. After doing some research, he realised that there wasn’t actually anything stopping him from running himself. “I checked it out and it turned out anyone can enter the presidential race, as long as they get a nomination from a national FA. So I thought, FIFA as it is isn’t representing the fans, so why shouldn’t I run?”

On February 7th he announced his candidacy though a column in Sports Illustrated. He made a campaign video, launching the slogan “cure the Blatter infection,” and went on the campaign trail for six weeks. His two main policies was doing a Wikileaks type expose of FIFA’s internal documents, as well as a full top to bottom internal investigation, styled after the US Foreign Corrupt Practises Act. “Even without a campaign budget, I feel like I got my message out there. There was a lot of media attention and I did a lot of interviews. It was like a second full-time job!” he explained.

But how serious was he with the bid? Did he go into the process thinking he had a genuine chance?
“I knew there was a very small chance I would actually be able to get a nomination,” he admits. “FIFA is a very closed club. I already knew that the US wasn’t going to nominate me, and if my own country wouldn’t do it, it was going to be even more difficult getting a nomination from another country.”

That’s not to say that people didn’t express their support; fans, players and people even higher up in the football hierarchy did. He contacted some 150 FAs and spoke to about 20, including a very interesting conversation with the head of a World Cup-winning football association.

“He told me that he really liked my ideas, and that they didn’t like Blatter. He told me it would be easy for them to back me if I got a nomination, because the vote is anonymous. But they couldn’t nominate me themselves, because that would be a public act and they were afraid of retaliation.”

Since the revelations surrounding the elections, FIFA has decided to introduce some reforms, including letting all the member countries vote for World Cup bids, rather than just the executive committee. In addition to bin Hammam, controversial Vice-President, Jack Warner, a man plagued by corruption allegations throughout his career, has also been relieved of all his positions within the organization. Wahl however, is sceptical that these changes will have any real impact.

“There is a small possibility that Blatter wants to restore his legacy in his last term, but I highly doubt it. FIFA cannot reform from within.”

What he sees as the biggest problem is that FIFA doesn’t work as representative democracy, and really isn’t accountable to anyone but themselves.

“Maybe their corporate sponsors have some power, and FAs and host countries could take away their tax exemptions. Or the fans could stop buying tickets for World Cups. But will that actually ever happen?”
He admits that in fact, FIFA are the one that hold a considerable amount of leverage over the FAs by being the ones who decide who hosts the World Cup. When you think about the backlash against the BBC for broadcasting their Panorama episode about corruption within FIFA just days before the 2018 and 2022 hosts were to be announced, this certainly sounds right.

“Countries desiring to host the World Cup is very useful to FIFA. The US voted for Blatter clinging to the idea that there might be a re-vote for 2022, though that is very unlikely. In the UK there was not much support for investigative journalism into FIFA matters before the vote, as that was thought to hurt their chances, but much support afterwards when they’d lost out. I guess that’s just human nature.”

Although the situation might be bleak at the moment, Wahl holds out hope that FIFA will be able to reform with some outside help. He even has a few candidates in mind for the presidency.

“The perfect president would be an outsider, someone with a lot of international respect, and a clear mandate to make the changed that FIFA needs. I myself have suggested Kofi Annan or Bill Clinton.”

Well, if Wahl can’t do it, Annan or Clinton would be a decent second choice.