It would be safe to say football is loved around the globe, some may call it the 'beautiful game' and on the outside it is. However the inside has a putrid stench, the stench of decay and the disease at the center is Sepp Blatter, the president of international football's governing body FIFA. Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 13 years of his reign, you would be well aware of the foul play that he dabbles in on a regular basis, if not, then you're about to find out. With a rap sheet any crime boss would be proud of, somehow the footballing world has let him get away with crimes against the game, most of which I will dissect for you.
From the very start of Blatter's endeavours to become the top dog of world football, it was blatantly apparent that this man was not one of integrity, with two members of FIFA claiming bribery attempts from the slippery Swiss. Both Farra Ado, vice-president of the Confederation of African Football and the president of the Somali Football Federation have claimed to have been offered up to $100,000 to vote for Blatter in 1998 in addition to the 2002 accusations of 'financial irregularities and backroom dealings'.
After catching wind of the allegations, FIFA's secretary-general, Blatter's deputy and once 'apprentice' Michel Zen-Ruffinen, composed a 30 page dossier summarizing the corruption within FIFA. The dossier claimed that the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner ISL, had headed losses of up to $100 million, strangely enough no one knows where this outrageous amount of money had got to, some say he donated it to charity, some say it was an innocent mistake but most would presume it funded his yacht. As a result of the allegations being backed by numerous other members, the dossier was handed on to the Swiss police. However Sepp, being the innocent soul he is, was cleared of any wrong doing and FIFA had to pay all the costs. After this Mr Blatter also halted an internal inquiry of FIFA because members of it 'broke confidentiality' agreements. Needless to say Michel Zen-Ruffinen was removed from office, immediately.
Let me lay the scene for you, it's December 2nd 2010, Sepp Blatter is about to announce the successful candidates to host the 2018 and 2022 world cups to a packed crowd in Zurich. After last ditch attempts to win votes from Prince William, David Beckham, Morgan Freman and Bill Clinton, Sepp's squad of 24 (which was cut down to 22 by the way for trying to sell their vote's to undercover journalists) had indeed come to their decisions. Drum roll please... and your winners are Russia and Qatar! Release the streamers, balloons and go-go dancers.
As the verdict came out the arena fell silent and then a small groan of 'Umm what?' echoed through Zurich. The camera panned across the crowd, there was a sea of confused faces, scratching their heads and a small contingent of celebrating Russians and some dancing Qatari oil merchants. Days prior to the vote, there were rumours floating around that it was going to be fixed with reports two members demanded hundreds of thousands of dollars for their votes. They claimed to build a Youth Academy in Auckland, New Zealand and four artificial fields in Nigeria but they requested the money be given to them, personally. It was the world's biggest underdog story, little Qatar, which 84 percent of the population hadn't heard of before, has beaten the United States, England and Australia, despite their far superior fan bases, better facilities and superior playing conditions (the heat in Qatar had already been cited by FIFA and deemed to be too hot. Thus it would not be safe for players, officials and spectators).
Not only had little old Qatar beaten the big three, they had obliterated them, with Australia and the United States earning one vote each and England who had the best poised bid recieving two. It has been publicly noted that Qatar had bought the World Cup and the speculation bubbled over when an overly happy Blatter commented after the decision, 'I'm a very happy President!'. This year there was another FIFA president election, with the incumbent Blatter set to run for his fourth consecutive term in charge. Conveniently the only other candidate was the Qatari Mohammed Bin Hammam who for 'personal reasons' dropped out of the race, oh and did I mention he is from Qatar and backed Blatter in 1998 and 2002, but that's normal... isn't it?
So if you knew about Sepp before this, I have just hardened your stance on his dictatorship, if you didn't, I hope to have opened your eyes. I have told you what is wrong with FIFA but I cannot provide the fix, that's because there isn't one that I can see. Blatter is far too rich and has planted his poisonous roots way down into FIFA's core. The only thing we can do is sit back and watch what was lost among all of this rubbish, the football.
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