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Why FIFA Won't Change

FIFA's Corruption & Inept Management Aren't Going To Change. Here's Why.

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The scripted emotional crescendo of the FBI’s investigation would be an indictment of Blatter himself. Even if that happened, it might not make much difference: Blatter is Swiss, and under Swiss law, Swiss citizens cannot be extradited to other countries. But no matter what happens, Blatter is unembarrassable. He may even be hoping to stay in office. On June 26, he told a Swiss newspaper that he hadn’t resigned, but had just “offered his mandate” to a FIFA congress. The implication: the grateful congress might beg him to stay. That might actually happen: the guy remains popular inside FIFA.

Roger Pielke Jr, an expert on sports governance at the University of Colorado, had anticipated this manoeuvre. He points out that delay is Blatter’s standard tactic when faced with scandal. The Swiss leader has promised before to step down as president when his term elapsed, but has always hung on. David Triesman, former head of England’s Football Association, commented after Blatter’s “resignation”: “It reminds me of that film, Alien. You could not get the alien out of that spaceship, no matter how hard you tried. And when in the end they did get it out, they found that it was clinging on to the outside.”

David Triesman with David Beckham

The Swiss alien now claims to be at his desk beavering away at reform. Pielke asks: “What better opportunity to show that he, and he alone, is the man to take FIFA forward in the 2016 presidential election?”

Still, the betting must be that Blatter will go, probably at an extraordinary FIFA congress next January. In theory, reforming FIFA should then be easy. Mark Pieth, a Swiss expert on governance, who in 2012 led a doomed attempt to clean up FIFA, suggested some pretty obvious reforms. The organisation needs an independent ethics committee, term limits, and, added Pieth, rules “to prevent new corrupt guys from coming in.” FIFA should also publish the salaries of senior executives (no outsider knows what Blatter earns), while some executive committee members and committee chairs should be independent.

All these are standard rules for big non-governmental organisations. But FIFA might not implement them. Blatter’s 133 voters are all still around. Most of them prefer FIFA opaque and unaccountable. That’s how a lot of them make money. Blatter has another six months to twist some arms to get his favoured successor named – possibly the Kuwaiti Sheikh Ahmad. One guy who Blatter probably doesn’t want as president is his ex-ally turned enemy, UEFA’s French chief Michel Platini.

UEFA’s French chief Michel Platini

Whoever takes over, don’t bet on a clean-up. FIFA is set up as a patronage organisation: each of the 209 national associations has one vote, the Cook Islands the same as World Cup holders Germany. In this structure, any president will be tempted to stay in office by giving presents to smaller and poorer countries.

Similarly, don’t bet on Russia or Qatar losing their World Cups, even if the FBI proves they paid bribes. Few in football want to upset these two mighty countries. Anyway, bribery to host World Cups is an old FIFA custom. And as Michael van Praag, head of the Dutch FA and an opponent of Blatter’s, told me: “To take the tournament back from Qatar gets ever more complex. Crazy financial claims would be slapped on you, which FIFA perhaps couldn’t even pay.” (Incidentally, Van Praag’s Dutch theatre company is now making a musical black comedy about Blatter.) The likely outcome on hosting, according to a senior international soccer official: Qatar and Russia keep their cups and the bidding process for future tournaments is reformed. In a way, Qatar has already been punished. The tiny country had imagined that hosting a World Cup would build its national brand, but instead Qatar has become famous for bribery, unbearable heat, and the deaths of migrant workers. It can expect seven more years of bad PR.

It would be nice to think that when Blatter eventually goes, we’ll have a shiny new FIFA. But as the German philosopher and soccer fan Wolfram Eilenberger has remarked, this reasoning is fatuous: “’If that person goes, the problem is solved.’ Only a child can believe that.” Blatter inherited a corrupt system, and he will probably bequeath one too.

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