The two truths revealed by Blatter's blunders

What you need to know:

  • FIFA’s Code of Ethics prohibits its officers from accepting bribes or cash gifts or from otherwise abusing their positions for personal gain.
  • Controversy is not new to Blatter. He has wreaked polemic throughout his service at the helm of the FIFA Executive Committee. He resigned four days after being elected and is now “walking alone”.

Soccer is an emotionally draining sport. It is as exciting as it is depressing at the same time. What is exciting for Barça is depressing for Real; what is exciting for Manchester is depressing for Arsenal, and vice versa.

As a matter of fact, most fans watch multiple matches; they watch their team hoping for a win, which is love, and they watch the rival team desiring a massacre, which is hatred and revenge.

Certainly, there are teams for whom it is all depression. Osasuna has broken its own record by jumping down from La Liga into lower and lower divisions. Its fans have no fun anymore. Something similar could happen to Lokomotiv Moscow, Palermo, Reading and many others.

We thought soccer could be equally exciting and depressing, but FIFA’s corruption trail has tilted the balance, and depression is setting in faster and deeper.

FIFA, officially registered as the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, bears a special responsibility to safeguard the integrity and reputation of football worldwide.

One of its primary objectives is to promote integrity, ethics and fair play with a view to preventing all methods or practices, such as corruption, doping or match manipulation, which might jeopardise the integrity of matches, competitions, players, officials and members.

FIFA’s Code of Ethics prohibits its officers from accepting bribes or cash gifts or from otherwise abusing their positions for personal gain. The code of ethics further provided, from its inception, that soccer officials owed certain duties to FIFA and to its confederations and member associations, including a duty of absolute loyalty.

FIFA’s governance is designed in three arms, according to its website: the Congress, the Executive Committee and the General Secretariat. Congress is the supreme and legislative body. The General Secretariat is the administrative body. The Executive Committee (ExCo) is the executive arm and undertakes the executive functions of FIFA on a day-to-day basis.

The Executive Committee consists of 25 members: 1 President, elected by the Congress, 8 vice-presidents, elected by the Confederations and installed by the Congress, 1 female member of the Executive Committee, elected by the Congress, and 15 other members, elected by the Confederations and installed by the Congress. The President is elected to serve for a four-year term and may be re-elected.

BLATTER’S RECORDS

FIFA has been scoring amazing own goals, and Sepp Blatter seems to share a big chunk of the blame. Controversy is not new to Blatter. He has wreaked polemic throughout his service at the helm of the FIFA Executive Committee. He resigned four days after being elected and is now “walking alone”. 

The 79-year old was first elected president on June 8, 1998, having already served in FIFA’s governing body for 23 years across a number of roles. He joined FIFA as Director of Technical Programmes in 1975, before becoming General Secretary, and subsequently President.

Blatter was re-elected as head of FIFA in 2002, before further successful re-elections in 2007 and 2011. At FIFA’s 65th Congress, Blatter garnered 133 votes out of 209. His contestant, Prince Ali, got only 73.

Blatter fell seven votes shy of earning a two-thirds majority, forcing a second vote that would have required only a simple majority. Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan opted out of the second vote and conceded to Blatter, who then assumed office for a fifth term. All seemed to be set for the Swiss supremo.

SCANDALS GALORE

Corruption seems so entrenched into FIFA that one could wonder how Sony left these undercutting deals and bribes out of its PlayStation’s FIFA 15. A day before the start of the 65th FIFA Congress, a number of individuals including nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives were indicted in a federal court in Brooklyn, United States.

They were indicted for racketeering, wire-fraud and money laundering conspiracies in a more than two–decade-long scheme of self-enrichment.

Among the nine implicated FIFA officials are two current FIFA Vice Presidents: Eugenio Figueredo and Jeffrey Webb. On the same day, seven of the indictees were arrested in Zurich by Swiss authorities at the request of the US.

They are accused of having conspired to use their positions to engage in schemes involving the solicitation, offer, payment and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments, bribes and kickbacks.

The indictment also states that, “Although they also helped pursue the principal purpose of the enterprise, the defendants and their co-conspirators corrupted the enterprise by engaging in various criminal activities, including fraud, bribery, and money laundering, in pursuit of personal and commercial gain.”

The U.S. Attorney, Kelly T. Currie, stated that “this indictment is not the final chapter in our investigation” which indicates that there might be more indictments possibly within FIFA to be expected.

Chief Richard Weber of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation declared:

“When leaders in an organization resort to cheating the very members that they are supposed to represent, they must be held accountable…Whether you call it soccer or football, the fans, players and sponsors around the world who love this game should not have to worry about officials corrupting their sport.  This is about fairness and following the law.”

Sepp Blatter, in his celebratory speech, had said about the recent scandals:

“Yesterday, the day before and today, I am being held accountable for the current storm. OK, so be it. I will shoulder that responsibility. Just as I said, I will take it upon myself. I will accept it and I want to fix FIFA together with you.”

 One may question how the scandals took place under his watch without his knowledge, or whether ‘fixing FIFA’ is tenable within the current term seeing that Blatter has already spent 17 years at the helm of the ExCo.

RICH COUNTRIES ARE ALSO CORRUPT

The indictment of the FIFA officials and the corporate executives indicates that the corrupt scheme transpired over a period of twenty-four years. Blatter would therefore, be very incompetent if he were to claim that he did not have any clue about the misdeeds by the officials under his watch.

If he knew about them, he would be expected to explain why no action was taken against the corrupt officers despite the presence of a FIFA Ethics Committee which is supposed to enforce the FIFA Code of Ethics.

Blatter said when announcing his resignation last Tuesday:

"FIFA needs a profound overhaul. While I have a mandate from the membership of FIFA, I do not feel that I have a mandate from the entire world of football - the fans, the players, the clubs, the people who live, breathe and love football as much as we all do at FIFA. Therefore, I have decided to lay down my mandate at an extraordinary elective congress."

Two things are clear from this; the first one is that corruption is not the preserve of poor or Third World countries.

Second, there is a general problem with the architecture of systems of representation in modern governance structures. Blatter had been re-elected, although he knew he lacked the support of fans, players and clubs. Who then elected Blatter and why?

This may give ample material to the next soap opera. There are many more blunders in FIFA than what meets the eye.

Dr Franceschi is the dean of Strathmore Law School. [email protected], Twitter: @lgfranceschi