WASHINGTON, D.C. May 27 (DPI) — Today’s arrests in Switzerland of six FIFA officials on corruption charges – charges brought by the US Justice Department – were welcomed by many Europeans who’ve been long weary of the global soccer organization’s rotten operation.
Many readers though recognized the sub-texts and ironies swirling around the arrests, including:
1) While supra-national organizations – FIFA, the International Olympic Committee and various UN groups like UNICEF – have long operated outside any nation’s legal reach, today’s arrests underscore the globalized nature of almost everything nowadays: entertainment, business and law enforcement, among others. Moreover, the growth in popularity in FIFA’s World Cup tournament has only increased FIFA’s visibility and stature, as global corporate sponsors today pour billions into the quadrennial event.
2) The situation with FIFA – evidence of widespread payoffs and graft, including countries like Qatar bribing FIFA officials to secure hosting the 2022 World Cup – had reached a point at which many European soccer officials had had enough, and were willing to support prosecution, by any law-enforcement agency. Public awareness of FIFA’s corruption has grown too: ESPN has been airing a documentary chronicling the ongoing graft at FIFA. The documentary’s host, Jeremy Schaap, drew from the work of British journalists whose recent book documented years of corruption at FIFA.
3) The arrests of six officials today did not include charges against FIFA’s president, 79-year-old Switzerland native Sepp Blatter, who is running yet again for the organization’s top spot. The FIFA election is scheduled for later this week, and even with the arrests Blatter is expected to win again, according to reports. It’s still not clear that the actions by the US Justice Department will have any impact on Blatter’s leadership – he’s refused to resign — and on FIFA’s culture and approach to governing the world’s most popular sport. One commenter:
What most people do not understand about FIFA is that their statutorial incorporation consists of one line of the Swiss Civil Code. This means they are not regulated like other international corporations. Real reform for FIFA is up to the Swiss, who must enable a statute that creates transparency in the governance of this organization that COULD do quite a bit of good in the world, but I’m sorry to say currently does quite a bit of evil. I lived in South Africa during the 2010 World Cup, and saw first hand how FIFA changed local laws, forced terrible urban development decisions, and through its pricing regime made the games inaccessible to local people. It also blocked local culture from the event, and even local merchants (Budweiser in Africa?). SA did not benefit that greatly from the 2010 event. It was a boondoggle if I have ever seen one! FIFA is largely to blame.
4) Many readers rightly pointed out today that any meaningful reform of FIFA will have to come from FIFA’s corporate global sponsors, like Heineken and Coca-Cola. Wrote two readers on NYTimes.com:
The accusations obviously do not come as a surprise and I am glad that someone is finally picking up the prosecutorial ball and running hard with it. I do think it is a real blemish on us Europeans that it is the US which has had the wherewithal to start pursuing this case. Let’s be clear, whilst UEFA (the European Football assoc.) is probably somewhat better run than FIFA it is certainly not an organisation which can confidently cast stones and hence I hope (it does spring eternal) that this current action leads to a general clean up of the governing bodies running football! My sense is that things will only truly change once the big corporate sponsors wake-up and start to acknowledge that they are in fact actively condoning and sponsoring corruption. It is not until the “money” starts demanding change that real change will happen. Be interesting to see for how much longer the likes of Coke, Heineken etc. like being associated with the likes of Mr. Blatter and his ilk.
I’m no great fan of the US’s self-proclaimed universal jurisdiction, but in this case I applaud your Justice Department for doing what many with greater vested interests in football (it is, after all, FIFA not FISA) have been wanting to do for years, but feared the fall-out from the Blatter regime. Someone remarked that you’re not winning yourselves many friends. I think the general glee with which this morning’s news has been received tells you otherwise. The rot is deep. Don’t expect Blatter to go any time soon, though. As one commentator put it: “worth recalling that cockroaches have been known to survive atomic bombs”.
5) Many US readers pointed out the irony that the US Justice Department was out of its jurisdiction – and there have been many corrupt practices in business in the US that have not gone prosecuted. Chief among them, in the eyes of many readers, is the failure of any Attorney General in the US to bring charges against – or even convictions or jail time to – bankers and Wall Streeters whom they see as agents of the 2008 financial crisis.
Short of Wall Street banks, this couldn’t happen to a more deserving organization.
Now if only the United States Department of Justice uses the tools at its disposal, such as the R.I.C.O. statute, to do the equivalent here: go after not the big banks but the individuals who work for them who made illegal decisions. The article states, “The charges include wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering, and officials said they targeted members of FIFA’s powerful executive committee, which wields enormous power and does its business largely in secret.” If FIFA is not too big for its leaders to be held accountable, why should banking leaders be different?
Most recommended comment on NYTimes.com:
On behalf of the rest of the world I can safely say that we’re absolutely delighted that you’re using your power for good. If Bush had invaded FIFA instead of Iraq he’d have a street named after him in every European capital.
Still, some Americans wonder about the DOJ’s reach and jurisdiction on the matter:
I’m conflicted, jailing some deeply corrupt FIFA executives is a great idea. At the same time, it seems like overreach for the US to go after foreigners that govern a sport that most Americans don’t care about.