FIFA aka 'The Untouchables'
FIFA has come under scrutiny once again for corruption in its ranks. Cash for World Cup votes has become the latest in a long line of scandals that are further tainting the FIFA brand. There have been accusations against a number of FIFA delegates regarding these issues, in particular FIFA's Trinidad and Tobago football executive, businessman and FIFA Vice-president Jack Warner. In an May 11, article by Harry Harris of ESPN it was stated that the English FA's, Sir Dave Richards:
"Confirmed to ESPNsoccernet that while it was never explicitly said that it was to be cash for votes, he is under no illusions that it could be inferred".
Furthermore the article advises that:
"Lord Triesman claimed FIFA vice-president Warner suggested the FA fund an education centre in Trinidad with the cash to go through him, and later £500,000 to buy Haiti's World Cup TV rights for the earthquake-hit nation, also to go through Warner".
This follows a Swiss investigation launched in December 2010. The Mail Online reported that:
"Ueli Maurer, the Swiss minister for sport, announced yesterday that the Swiss Sports Agency had been charged with investigating wrongdoing among the near 50 international sports bodies based in the country, of which FIFA is one of the largest."
This article does not intend to investigate these allegations but discuss why, with all the talk of transparency, the monolith that is FIFA is largely unaccountable to its constituents. In the 1997 film, The Untouchables, Sean Connery's character famously says of an assailant, "Brings a knife to a gun fight". It seems that anyone who challenges FIFA is coming to a gunfight with a rubber knife.
Does anyone have the courage and will power to take on the might of the FIFA juggernaut?
Formed in Switzerland in 1904 there is no greater power in world football than FIFA. It controls the laws, finance and most tournaments of its 208 member nations. Of the 208 member nations there are 24 vote deciders for tournaments such as the World Cup.
From time-to-time countries have spoken out about issues that have directly affected their own country and this can often smell like sour grapes. But there has yet to be wholesale condemnation by FIFA's member nations which is something that may make the FIFA board accountable because they have to be.
More importantly, does anyone want to?
FIFA spends a lot of money around the world and there is no mistaking that money does talk.The money that FIFA spends around the world is extraordinary. From the FIFA 2010 financial report:
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