A summary of recent events concerning FIFA
By Amir Pliev
This year, on the 2nd of June 2015, Sepp Blatter resigned his position as president of FIFA. The resignation followed a series of events that drew a lot of attention from the worldwide media. Why the attention? Well, what happens to FIFA can have far reaching consequences, because of its significant influence and broad interest in football. FIFA is therefore not an organization to underestimate. So if you already feel disinterested because this seems to be an article about football, you are mistaken. This article aims to explain why the scandal that preceded the resignation of Blatter is so important to the world and what we can expect next from FIFA.
FIFA has had a reputation of being involved in corruption for quite sometime, but until recently, no major evidence was brought to light to support this claim. However, FIFA’s corruption was very much imbedded in its public image. For example, why is the 2022 World Cup being held in Qatar of all places, a country where temperatures can rise up to 50 degrees Celsius in the summer? Anyone can see that it is practically impossible to play football in these conditions, let alone create a huge event with millions of visitors and not have any of them die from dehydration. This strongly suggested that FIFA accepted bribes to “help” them with their election process. Additionally, conditions for migrant workers on the stadium construction sites in Qatar are so bad that The Guardian estimates casualties to be in the thousands. There is a reason that Blatter is often depicted as a bond-villain.
It was not until the USA started meddling with FIFA’s affairs – curiously also the country that seems to have very little interest in football – that substantial evidence was finally found. The FBI launched an investigation into the company and uncovered decades of bribery and fraud that involved an immense amount of money. This investigation helped Swiss authorities (FIFA is based in Switzerland) to arrest 14 FIFA officials on the 27th of May in Zurich which signaled a series of investigations into the inner workings of the company. Allegations about bribes resulting in the election of the last World Cup in South Africa have been confirmed and many more followed.
Meanwhile, Sepp Blatter plead to be innocent, saying that he simply cannot control everyone inside the organization. On the 29th of May he was re-elected president, continuing his long term that already started in 1998. However, as new allegations kept flowing in, four days after the elections, Blatter resigned. The world was and is shocked. But since he was facing some allegations himself, a lot of people following the affair reacted quite relieved: The evil bond-villain was finally defeated!
As of now, the situation has not become any less chaotic. With new elections scheduled for February, internal and external investigations are crisscrossing, resulting in parties that are investigating parties that are investigating parties, etc. Unsurprisingly, the next two World Cups (2018 in Russia and 2022 in Qatar) are in danger of being cancelled. This is of advantage for many people involved in unfair situations in the host country (especially migrant workers in Qatar), but not so great for all football fans. Nonetheless, the FIFA Ethics committee has banned numerous officials (albeit 90 days), including Sepp Blatter, earlier this month and has also conducted some much needed reforms within the company. Even though the situation seems more than messy now, let’s hope the international football community can enjoy a better organization after it emerges from this scandal.
Amir Pliev, Class of 2017, is a Psychology, Cognitive Science and Law major, from Bolsward, The Netherlands.
