|
|
 |
At 100, World Soccer's 'Government' Still Autocratic, Secretive
News Analysis
By Marcelo Ballve, Pacific News Service
Virtually unknown in the U.S., international soccer's governing body
FIFA -- which turns 100 this year -- inspires awe, fear and loathing
among its member states and the sport's multitude of fans
June 11, 2004 - In most countries it is recognized as one of the
world's most powerful organizations. This spring, it is celebrating its
100th anniversary with pomp and circumstance, including photo
exhibitions, emotive tributes and a flurry of press attention.
Yet FIFA, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association,
international soccer's governing body, is virtually unknown here in the
United States.
Almost everywhere else -- in France, Brazil or Iran -- soccer fans
regard the acronym with a mixture of dread and respect. FIFA's sole
business, since it was launched in Paris in 1904, is overseeing the
corrupt and unruly multi-billion dollar business of international
soccer.
The federation has a classic pyramidal structure. It grants membership
to one soccer association from any "independent state recognized by the
international community." A new state, like East Timor (which still has
not been accepted into the "FIFA family") must apply to FIFA for
recognition if it wants to participate in world soccer. This structure
guarantees FIFA monopoly power over the sport.
Today, it has 205 members -- New Caledonia being the most recent
addition -- all associations. These, in turn, typically field national
teams and organize internal leagues and local clubs.
With this structure, FIFA was global long before globalization became a
buzzword. Before World War II, then-president Jules Rimet was fond of
pointing out that FIFA already had more members than the League of
Nations.
FIFA exercises incredible influence over a country's international image
as it suspends and sanctions members or hands out its greatest plum: the
World Cup, which it organizes every four years.
It's no surprise then that federation executives normally have access to
the highest levels of political power. Last month, in an announcement
timed to coincide with its centennial celebrations, FIFA picked South
Africa to host the 2010 World Cup, the first time world soccer's
signature event will be held in Africa.
According to South Africa's Sunday Argus newspaper, few of the jubilant
South Africans knew that their President Thabo Mbeki and greatest
statesman Nelson Mandela helped clinch the deal in closed-door meetings
with FIFA executive committee members.
Yet the federation's leaders are equally adept at bestowing sanctions as
favors, and are jealous of their power. On June 2 FIFA announced Kenya's
suspension from international soccer and the next World Cup because of
the Kenyan government's decision to "interfere" in the country's
national soccer association. Many Kenyans were outraged by the FIFA ban,
saying the government had intervened only to stamp out corruption.
When he travels, FIFA President Joseph "Sepp" Blatter is received with
the same protocol as a head of state, "something that only happens with
the president of the International Olympic Committee," writes Elizabeth
Mora Mass, columnist with New York City Spanish-language daily El Diario/La
Prensa.
Yet unlike a head of state, she says, the federation's president "gives
little public accounting of his activities."
FIFA's lack of transparency is well known to soccer journalists
worldwide. In addition to the absence of real oversight of its
activities, FIFA is headquartered in Zurich, where the Swiss legal
system that prizes financial privacy acts as a further deterrent to
scrutiny.
Not surprisingly, FIFA powerbrokers are too often the targets of
accusations of mismanagement, cronyism and corruption as hundreds of
millions of dollars worth of contracts are negotiated, including the
lucrative TV rights to World Cup games, which are watched by over 30
billion people.
Since the organization's beginning in 1904 it has had only eight
presidents, and the last two, Brazilian João Havelange and Blatter, a
Swiss, have helped transform FIFA into a global sports juggernaut but
also imbued it with an imperiousness that is now part of its
organizational culture.
As an Associated Press reporter I covered the 2001 FIFA under-17 soccer
world championship in Trinidad and Tobago. Jack A. Warner, a Trinidadian
tycoon and FIFA vice-president, was accused of playing favorites by
funneling lucrative contracts to family and cronies.
During a testy press conference, Warner and Blatter lashed out at
reporters (Warner insinuated I wasn't old enough to be challenging his
management of the championship) and refused to answer questions about
why Warner's family was raking in millions of dollars in
tournament-related business.
If Blatter was reluctant to investigate there were ample reasons. He was
facing an election and needed Warner's support to fend off a challenge
to his presidency, tainted by charges of financial mismanagement,
cash-for-votes allegations, and the still murky collapse of FIFA's
marketing arm, which controlled television rights to the 2006 World Cup
in Germany.
With Warner's help, though, Blatter was re-elected the next year; both
he and Warner still hold on to their posts today and still are among the
most powerful officials of the 24-member Executive Committee. The next
elections are in 2007.
Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona, who led his team to win the 1986
Mexico World Cup, famously called FIFA a "mafia, a sect." The accusation
may be exaggerated, but in it is not off the mark in at least one sense:
Like a criminal organization or a cult, FIFA answers to no earthly
power.
Also of Interest
-
Immigrant Communities Got Game
By Pueng Vongs,
Pacific News Service
Inspired by sports stars from their home countries and a desire to fit into
the mainstream, fans in America's immigrant communities are following U.S.
sports with increasing enthusiasm
PNS contributor Marcelo Ballve (mballve@pacificnews.org)
is a former reporter for the Associated Press in Brazil and the
Caribbean and covered international soccer. |
