The Fédération
Internationale de Football Association (commonly known as FIFA: International Federation of Association Football) is the international governing body of association football (soccer), futsal and beach soccer. (Source: Wikipedia)
Founded in 1904 & currently having a
membership of 209 national associations is one of the largest sports bodies in
the world. FIFA reported the revenues of over USD 1.3 billion with net profit
of USD 72 million. FIFA is responsible for organizing & promoting the game,
however it does not govern the rules.
Recent news of an ongoing scandal in
such an old organization raised many eyebrows. It was brought into limelight by
some investigative journalists of repute. Charges raised include rapaciousness,
rigged elections, corruption & bribery. Charges have been pressed against
nine of the highly ranked FIFA officials & five other corporate executives
by U.S department of justice. It is estimated that FIFA officials have been
engaging in malicious activities over past 24 years. Out of these 18 years have
been under the leadership of Joseph Blatter. Under his leadership football has
increased its popularity many a fold. FIFA also became more successful
financially during this tenure. In recent developments, even after the scandal
became public he has been re-elected to lead the organization for the 5th
consecutive term.
Is FIFA only party to the scandal?
As they say, you cannot clap with just
one hand, a scandal will require involvement of atleast two parties. A giver
& a receiver. Wait, there will be one more party to it, a middleman since
the deal cannot be struck officially there will be an intermediary involved who
will facilitate the transactions off the record. With the FIFA, all its
associates are likely to be scrutinized for the involvement in corruption. This
means two of the world’s largest sportswear & marketing firms Adidas &
Nike, football federations of Russia & Qatar, for being awarded the venue
for upcoming football world cup.
With time even more companies & federations
will come into picture for & play a part in proving corruption &
scandals in FIFA.
What were these people exactly doing?
Justice department has mainly cited
deals struck between FIFA, sports marketing firms & broadcast networks for
exclusive televisions broadcasting rights for the FIFA events. Justice department
has alleged that FIFA officials accepted bribes from marketing firms for
exclusive television rights. The amount of money involved is anticipated to be
around USD 150 million according to primary analysis.
What is the recipe for perfect corruption?
1.
Red Tape: excessive bureaucracy or
adherence to official rules and formalities create the perception that bribes
is the only means for getting a job done. Organizations like FIFA have been
closed to share any information apart from the revenue & profits. Add to
this the confidence in power of position which leads to arrogance in believing
that they are untouchables.
2.
Organization culture: in
case of FIFA, according to Yenkey, an assistant professor of organizations and
strategy at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
corruption was acceptable & nobody felt any evil about it. He cited the
example of Chuck Blazer, a former official with FIFA and Concacaf, a governing
group that oversees soccer in the North American, Central American and
Caribbean region, who pled guilty in 2013 to charges that he engaged in
racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering and income tax evasion
