Dissecting the root of corruption at FIFA

Before football body to elect its president today, current chief Blatter calls charges humiliating for the game but refuses to step down

A day before FIFA elections, Sepp Blatter, the president of football’s global governing body, said recent corruption charges against the body were shameful and humiliating for the game. But he rejected calls for his resignation over the scandal.

Swiss Police had on Wednesday arrested seven top FIFA officials, on behest of US authorities, in a surprise raid at a five-star Zurich hotel. However, few seemed surprised at the allegations levelled against the officials. The culture of what the US authorities recently called “rampant, systemic and deep-rooted corruption” has been reflected in countless charges of corruption and fraud, even human right violations, against both Blatter and his predecessor João Havelange.

What is surprising, though, is that the US authorities took this long to finally get cracking. 
 

FIFA’s tainted history
 

The first major allegations had started coming during the tenure of Havelange, who is credited with expanding both the number of corporate sponsors and the number of teams playing the FIFA World Cup, and raising revenues significantly. Charges against him suggested he might have taken kickbacks from a company during this time of aggressive expansion for World Cup marketing and broadcast rights. 

Blatter was alleged to have known all about this and attempted to cover these up after taking office.

More recently, FIFA found itself under fire for aggressively protecting sponsors, and for this going to the extent of challenging national laws in World Cup host countries. The Budweiser controversy was one of the most visible to the public. A major concern has been that the football governing body is seen as arm-twisting host nations into complying with its demands, even as it rakes in a near-complete portion of the total profit. 

Also, there were accusations of vote-buying while awarding the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar. While FIFA initiated its own investigation into the bidding process, the full results were never published. Michael Garcia, the former US attorney who led the inquiry, was reported to have said before resigning that the public report was inaccurate.

Other criticisms and scandals include match-fixing charges against World Cup officials, inappropriate labour practices in construction of a Qatari stadium, and allegations that Blatter had bought votes to become FIFA president in 1998. 

Blatter was also accused of misusing FIFA “development money”, meant to promote football in poor nations.
 

FIFA in a judicial grey area
 

The fundamental reason why top FIFA officials have in the past mostly escaped unscathed from charges is that the body falls within a legal grey area: It is neither a business, nor a governmental organisation, nor a conventional NGO.

A recent Vox article explains: “FIFA is primarily a members’ club that’s hit the big time... but FIFA has got to a point where, in terms of scale, it has characteristics of a governmental organisation or a big business.”

While there are certain rules through which such organistaions are governed, the fact that FIFA has grown without following those rules “is really what’s led to its corruption”. 

The recent arrests, in fact, were part-culmination of the fact that FIFA conducted business on US soil, and also violated anti-corruption laws in Switzerland, where it is headquartered. 
 

How the current probe unfolded
 

The current investigations follow US corruption charges against nine FIFA officials and five sport executives who allegedly accepted $150 million in bribes from sports broadcast and marketing executives for giving out broadcast rights in North and Central America and the Caribbean, which fall under the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF). Four have already pleaded guilty.

Loretta Lynch, US attorney-general, claimed that bribes were paid to influence the award of the 2010 World Cup to South Africa, in the 2011 FIFA presidential election, and in a deal involving sponsorship of Brazil’s national football team.

According to a report in The New York Times, former FIFA executive Chuck Blazer, one of the officials who pleaded guilty and forfeited $1.9 million in 2013, will make a second payment on sentencing. A BBC report said Blazer took part in the undercover work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Additionally, the indicted employees face extradition from Switzerland, whose authorities also announced a separate criminal investigation into awarding of the next two World Cups. Swiss officials will be interviewing 10 FIFA executive committee members who were part of the 2010 bidding process, and are already in possession of banking records and other files.

Reuters and the Financial Times reported while US prosecutors aimed to make more arrests, they had not commented on whether FIFA president Blatter was a target of the probe. Blatter, 79, is contesting re-election to a fifth term at the FIFA Congress in Zurich on Friday, and FIFA said the vote would go ahead as planned.

The European soccer body, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), however, has called for postponement of the election, saying “the European associations will have to consider carefully if they should even attend this Congress”.