JUNE 5, 2015 — For those not familiar with soccer, a quick tutorial: A free kick is awarded to one team after the opponent commits a foul, a kickback is delivered to a corrupt soccer official willing to sell his vote to select a host country for the World Cup.
There are 11 players per team on the field, there are 14 top-ranking soccer officials and sports marketing executives under indictment. That doesn’t include Chuck Blazer, who admitted to a U.S. federal judge that he and others in soccer’s governing body, FIFA, agreed to take bribes to ensure South Africa got the 2010 games.
At one point during South Africa’s campaign to secure the event, according to the indictment, an unnamed co-conspirator flew to Paris on behalf of FIFA official Jack Warner to accept a briefcase full of cash in $10,000 stacks. Blazer, by the way, reportedly kept an apartment in New York’sTrump Tower … for his cats.
Hey, this sport is more fun to follow than you thought, right?
Soccer has its niche in America, but everywhere else on the planet, football — the beautiful game — is No. 1. And so the scandal shredding FIFA is a big deal. It’s hardly a shock, however. Awash in money from broadcast and marketing rights deals, operating globally without much oversight, international soccer has been dogged by allegations of bribery and match fixing for a long time. Nothing ever changed because the same small group of cronies remained in charge. They put the fief in FIFA.
At the top of FIFA is Sepp Blatter, 79, president for 17 years, who, incredibly, was re-elected to a fifth term two days after last week’s indictments came down. He was not charged, and he intended to keep his position — “I am the president of everybody,” he insisted. That was a misdirection, a feint, as they call it in football. Under intense legal scrutiny and pressure from advertisers, Blatter now says he will resign, but plans to stay on the job until FIFA holds a new election.
The scandal is still unfolding. Investigations are underway in several countries, while U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch says the case remains open. The 47-count indictment includes charges of bribery, money laundering and wire fraud amounting to a pattern of racketeering. Yep, that’s the RICO statute, used by the Feds to go after organized crime.
The Justice Department allegations center on bribes and kickbacks in connection with the selection of the 1998 World Cup, held in France, and the South Africa games. Suspicions go further, however: FIFA picked Russia for the 2018 World Cup and Qatar for the 2022 games at the same time, a process that looked fishy to many people because two better-qualified bids by England and the U.S. were aced out. Qatar, with no soccer tradition, to host the tournament in the searing Arabian summer?
Swiss authorities say they have launched a criminal investigation of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Michael Garcia, a former U.S. attorney working as FIFA ethics chief, conducted an investigation of the Russia and Qatar selection process and wrote a 450-page report. What did it say? We don’t know. FIFA kept the report secret, releasing only a summary that Garcia said was misleading. He quit in protest last fall.
The Qatar games raise particular concerns. FIFA picked Qatar, then moved the games from summer to winter, interrupting the European pro soccer season. The oil-rich country reportedly will spend an astonishing $200 billion to get ready and is relying on migrant construction laborers who suffer through terrible working and living conditions. The Guardian reported that hundreds of workers have died on the job. Qatar says that’s not true; no one has died working on tournament construction sites.
Soccer’s World Cup, like the Olympic Games, has a special place in sports, but the global game is in trouble.
It seems obvious that Blatter should leave immediately. He has no credibility. A new president and executive board will have to rip up the organization and create a new body committed to operating in the open. Start with airing the Garcia report on the decision on hosting 2018 and 2022. It sure looks like it’ll be called the Corruption Cup if it isn’t moved.
Back in 1994, when the U.S. played host and some of the matches were held in Chicago, more than 1 billion people around the globe watched on television. We’ve been World Cup fans ever since.
It’s a great game. It should be an honest game.
