Now that Blatter has stepped down, and multiple other FIFA execs have been charged with crimes (and more arrests likely), what can the new management do to fix the agency’s image?
From where this admittedly only-very-casual soccer fan sits, it looks like awarding the World Cup to Qatar in 2022 was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. Should the 2022 bidding process start all over again?
What else can the new management do to fix its problems?
The award was in 2010, so it was one slow acting straw.
Basically,its now a lot more interesting. Lots of people who want Blatter out, agreed on little else.
On the other hand, Sepp voted for the US bid and Platini (and some Euro countries) voted for Qatar. So… I doubt it’ll change.
I bet that the new FIFA President may do a let the past be the past type of thing and move forward for cleaner future elections.
So far the US investigation has not been dealing with the Qatar bid. I suspect that may change as the investigation goes on. But as of now Qatar is not being looked at by authorities.
Prince Ali has thrown his hat back into the ring. He said on CNN: “I’m there to support the developing nations.” - A smart, smart move. It’s going to be a race for African and Asian delegates and I think Prince Ali knows that more European competitors are going to be entering the race taking away some of his support in last week’s election.
Disbanding might be a step in the right direction.
Most of what I know about FIFA comes from reading threads on this board in the last few days, but it appears that the main complaint against Blatter & friends was that they were outrageously corrupt, while their main virtue was that they provided a lot of resources to developing countries, not ALL of which ended up pocketed by their cronies. So the politically popular stance would be “Continue giving lots of money to developing countries, but make sure none of it gets stolen”. Not sure how feasible that would be, though.
Basically, as I understand it, FIFA is an organization which controls billions of dollars and is controlled by delegates from many countries, in most of which corruption is an accepted way of life. So I’m not sure how much room for reform there is.
Some have suggested that the developed countries, whose fans generate the vast majority of those billions and which do generally have effective judiciaries and a prevailing anti-bribery ethos, should split away and form their own federation. But would such a federation be likely to voluntarily share its wealth with the developing nations as FIFA has done?
WRT to the specific question, since the awarding of the Cup to Qatar is generally believed (though not yet conclusively proven) to be BOTH the result of massive corruption AND a really horrible idea from almost any conceivable point of view, I would certainly hope, though not necessarily expect, that the new regime would reverse that decision.
It pains me greatly, but I agree with you. 
These are fantastic points and I agree with them fully. I think there needs to be acceptance that some corruption will happen in countries where that is a fact of life and that needs to be minimized as much as possible, but taking away money wholescale from developing countries is a mistake.
I think I’d be more confident in the taking away of Qatar’s WC if the people advocating it didn’t with the next breath indicate where they’d like it to be instead - it comes across too much as “we don’t want it there, we want it in our country instead”. At the very least, I’d like to see it kept in Asia to prevent that sort of vulturing.
Switzerland is already investigating both the Russian and Qatari bidding processes. If they find something illegal on Qatar, it will definitely get moved. If they don’t, they will have to think about a possible breach of contract lawsuit covering development work to date, or a straight payoff. Alternatively, they might be able to use some moral clause around the construction deaths, but that depends on the contract.
I agree, and I think the optics of taking it from Qatar and awarding it to the US would be awful. England might be a little more okay, but I’d opt for aomething like Japan, or even Brazil, continental rules notwithstanding.
Interesting… Shaka Hislop on ESPN said something interesting - the votes for 2018 and 2022 WCs happened at the same time and if they decide to move 2022, but keep 2018 (since its so close in time), it would come across as horrible optics (and inevitable charges of racism). You have to reopen both if you want to avoid those questions - it could lead to bigger questions of developing countries vs. developed countries and what is fair.
No kidding. You climb out on a tiny branch when you accuse the Qataris of corruption but give the Russians a pass.
This seems to me the biggest red herring from pro-FIFA apologists.
Did a lot of money go to the various smaller nations under Blatter’s reign? Certainly. But given that the transparency of oversight and governance involved was pretty much nil, what proportion of that money was actually translated into tangible footballing improvements within those countries?
No-one knows, FIFA won’t say and has not been interested in setting up systems to ensure full disclosure and traceability.
Accepting that bribery is a way of life in some countries is a very good reason for not doing business in those countries. The corruption there is not diminished by feeding it.
I have no doubt that a new regime could well see *more *money, not less, going to where it is truly needed. Of course those in charge of the FA’s in those countries will get less opportunity to line their pockets under a new FIFA and so no wonder they vote for the status quo.
Cite? who has actually said take it from Qatar and give it to us? Certainly the UK aren’t. If Qatar get stripped of it (as they should) then it should be thrown open again to all-comers and let the best (but not most generous) bid win.
If the Russia decision is overturned as well then, given the shorter time-scale, it needs to go to a country that can deal with it under their existing infrastructure.
The UK could certainly do it at the drop of a hat but so could any amalgamation of 2 or more European nations. A Pan-European euro 2020 tournament is in the planning stage and the World Cup could be done easily on the same basis.
It’s seems to me that their only honorable course would be to commit Harey Carey.
The Qatar award really was the straw that broke the camels back though. Everybody and their uncle always knew that Blatter and Fifa were horribly corrupt scumbags, but the Qatar award held a light up to the fact that they weren’t even bothering to hide it any more. The arrogance of that award was breathtaking, it made no logical sense whatsover and was the most blatant example of FIFA sticking two fingers up to the fans and saying “We are taking the money and we don’t give a shit what you think”.
South Africa undoubtedly involved bribes, Russia without question involved bribes, but at least you could in some way pretend to justify awarding those world cups. At least you could go through the motions of claiming that giving Africa a world cup was a good idea, or that Russia at least could handle the event. But Qatar? A nation of only 2 million, in the fucking desert and with zero football history? Bullshit on every level.
What can FIFA do? For me personally not a thing, whoever gets elected will probably do the same as Blatter. At this point I have zero faith in that organisation, its rotten to the core.
Spot on. I agree with every word.
Will any of these charges result in confiscation of funds from some of the corrupt officials?
If so, it would be really nice if conditions at the building of the stadium could be improved. They are predicting thousands of deaths.
It was more than nothing however. There are quite a few facilities that have been set up in Africa, Asia, and Oceania through FIFA money. Here is an article in the Guardian which speaks to this:
So therefore, set up a more transparent system, but keeping building facilities.
I’m not ok with writing off a vast portion of the world. It’s not “some countries”. My parents are from Pakistan - I’m aware that a bribe is usually required to get something done on the subcontinent - whether Pakistan or India, and India is quite a massive economy to say “don’t do business with them” (I’m not necessarily discussing soccer here, because India kind of sucks at it… though they do, of course, have a national team and a domestic league, IIRC).
https://twitter.com/search?q=USA2022&src=typd
It’s been a pretty frequent comment from US Soccer fans.
While we’re at it, let’s kill the penalty kicks deciding the matches after extra time. Do like the NHL and keep playing till there’s a goal.