Will Ooi gets you caught up on all the happenings with the FIFA take-down and what it means for the sport.
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No doubt you’ve heard the news: high ranking FIFA officials being arrested early in the morning ahead of presidential elections after a coordinated effort by FBI and Swiss authorities. Not that this stopped the controversial head of the organisation, Sepp Blatter, from winning another term days later, taking his grip on global soccer to what would have been five consecutive tenures totaling a 20-year reign.
Several bizarre events then followed:
We saw former FIFA vice president Jack Warner fall for an Onion article in what can only be called an undignified YouTube rant.
Vladimir Putin, a staunch Blatter supporter following the award of the 2018 World Cup to Russia, providing his own two cents on the matter feeding into his own conspiracy theories and bravado-self-victimisation.
And Blatter himself attacking the US and British press for concocting this humiliation whilst simultaneously crediting authorities for stamping out corruption that, obviously, he himself is fighting against. Because, lest it be forgotten, the infamous investigation he commissioned into corruption resulted in the very author of that report disowning the final publication as a load of self-serving nonsense.
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But then, it gets even better.
Rumours are that the FBI have not only long been building a case against FIFA as an organisation, but are now targeting Blatter specifically. The 79-year old tendered his resignation overnight, where he will seek a replacement at the end of the year.
The all too predictable signs were there early on, as they have been for decades, that the world governing body for soccer is rotten to the core. Challengers to Blatter’s throne fall by the wayside or onto their swords, citing an unsightly and dishonourable process to garner support. Countries bidding to host future World Cups have found out, the hard way, that earning votes from committee members is the same as buying them. Host countries that make it that far need to account for millions of missing dollars, funneled into committee member pockets, whilst future hosts, Qatar in 2022 being most in the spotlight, display disgraceful human rights abuses and label any criticism of it as racism or jealousy. A look at the living conditions for predominantly Nepalese workers building infrastructure and stadiums in Qatar shows how far removed the reality is from “the beautiful game”.
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Whatever it is that has prompted Blatter into such a surprising u-turn, to give up his tyrannical grasp on power, it must be serious, and nothing short of deserved. And for all the support he believes he has, one can bet that the culture of greed and self-interest he has helped cultivate over the years will come back to bite him as his arrested colleagues start bargaining with the FBI to lessen their own culpabilities.
For as long as many of us would care to remember, soccer’s executive level controversies have always been an unwelcome distraction to the game itself. But at long last, actual change is on the doorstep, bringing down the international body so that the sport may rise again and be rebuilt.
Get the popcorn ready.
FIFA is dead. Long live football.
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Photo Credit: Associated Press/File
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