FIFA: An Organization Out of Control

Courtesy of FIFA

With the recent presidential vote victory of incumbent Sepp Blatter amongst indictments and arrests of several high-ranking officials within the organization FIFA proved itself to be the worst sporting organization in the world.  Many people would compare FIFA to the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and though bribery and unfair practices have been part and parcel with the IOC for years, nothing to the magnitude of what has happened recently within the ranks of FIFA.

Today brought a new bombshell: Sepp Blatter (just four days after "fighting" his way to a presidential victory) has announced he is stepping down as president; walking away from what would have been his fifth term as the world's Football organizational leader.

This is great and terrible news.

Sepp Blatter

I'll start with the great.  This is a huge win, mostly due to the FBI oddly enough (considering this countries striking indifference to the sport but our government agencies due love to investigate stuff) because it means that a man who has been at the center of significant controversy including but not limited to the three most recent World Cup announcements (Brazil, Russa, Qatar) will no longer be in control or part of these decisions going forward.

FIFA as an organization is meant to help regulate and oversee the game of Football throughout the world; to inspire and grow the sport for the betterment of the sport.  If any of you are MLS fans, you have FIFA to thank for that.  During the bid process for the 1994 World Cup (the last to be held in the US; a country with the third largest population in the world) a requirement was put in that the US had to create a sustainable Soccer league; and in the 20+ years that followed there have certainly been some ups and downs but recent years have shown expansion and growth in the sport.  Sure we get great players way past their prime (Beckam, Kaka) but some of our own homegrown players are choosing to play here rather than abroad to help foster the sport here.

Courtesy of Major League Soccer

Now the terrible; at this time there is no plans to eliminate and replace all members of the governing body's congress (made up of representatives from the included nations).  These are the same people whom just four days ago elected a man who; within the next few years if he doesn't completely disappear off the face of the earth, will be in US Government custody being brought up on any number of major criminal charges.  These people, who felt that a man whom was so obviously corrupt was their best option as a leader will be selecting the next president.

Anyone else immediately seeing a HUGE problem with this?

Now I realize that not everyone within FIFA is corrupt and it may seem unfair to summarily eliminate every member but it seems like the right decision.  At least eliminate everyone who voted for Blatter in the last election.  That would be a start.

In the end FIFA is one of those things that CAN cause trouble, and does, but outside the World Cup events they are mostly seen and not heard.  Each region has it's own governing body and major leagues oversee their own rules.  Europe - clearly the most powerful region of football organizations, is mostly controlled by EUFA (those people who run that Champions League everyone loves to watch - June 6th final...ahem) where the US is part of CONCACAF (don't even ask, it's insane).

My hope is that this new age without Blatter running things will create an opportunity for those FIFA agents in charge to right the ship and display a greater level of transparency in regards to selection processes and how funds are managed.  Perhaps the new people in charge will even manage to limit the insane amount of power FIFA tends to exert over World Cup host nations...though I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.

I realize this is not what this blog is usually about, but as a HUGE Football fan this was something I was compelled to write about.  I promise to return to my normal nerd talk in the near future.

For now; go watch some Football (soccer to my Yank readers) and enjoy the beauty of the game.

Tb