THE FIFA FOUL UP

It has been a long standing belief, especially amongst British football fans that FIFA (Federation International de Football Association) was allegedly corrupt. One of the British complaints was that they were denied the World Cup in 2022. Whereas Qatar - who, to be honest, don't even know what a football looks like, and where, in summer, it's 110 degrees in the shade - got awarded it. 

On Wednesday, the fans got the confirmation that FIFA were allegedly corrupt after seven FIFA officials were arrested in Zurich in connection with wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies involving $150 million. This was ahead of a FIFA meeting. There is also a chance they will be extradited to the US where a raid was done on the offices of CONCACAF (The Confederation of North, Central America, and Caribbean Association Football).

This has shaken up the wider football community, even though no-one is entirely surprised. 

A lot of European countries are threatening to boycott the 2022 World Cup. The President of UEFA,  Michel Francois Platini has asked the President of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, to do the right thing and step down. David Cameron has also made the same request. Blatter has made the excuse that he can't just resign like that.  President Putin of Russia has also decided to put his ha'penny worth in to tell the USA that this is absolutely none of their business. But then he can say that; he has the World Cup in 2018. He is probably afraid that if he sides with the USA against FIFA he could lose it. 

Of course, he  - Blatter - is saying it has absolutely nothing to do with him, because "We - or I - cannot monitor everyone all of the time". He says it is the fault of individuals, and "we have to earn trust back" etc, etc. When he was asked if he feared arrest, his reaction was, "For what?" Well, for not doing your job and stopping the corruption for a start off. Saying he is not responsible for this is clearly nonsense. Being the head of FIFA is his job and he has been doing it for 16 years! If he can't monitor his people and stop corruption in his organisation, even though he has been at the helm for that long, then something is seriously wrong. 

Of course, the whole thing is so unsurprising that it has provoked lots of humour from a lot of people. On Morning Joe, my hero, NBC's Bill Neely sarcastically called Qatar "that hotbed of soccer - literally!", because it may be hot, but that's it. And on Mitchell Reports, he said, "Maybe [Blatter] has a sign on his desk that says, 'The buck doesn't stop here!' ". Even the New Yorker joined in with their satirical Borowitz Report article saying that Senator John McCain was proposing military action against FIFA. And this old Daily Mail piece is amusing too:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1393330/Sepp-Blatter-speeches.html

As I write this Sepp Blatter has - not surprisingly - just been voted back in. Well, almost. They actually needed a second vote, but the other candidate, Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein, withdrew before they had the chance and was gracious in his defeat.

This whole thing is a disaster for International Football. 

The questions we need to be asking are: why did the investigation and subsequent arrests take so long? Was Sepp Blatter so blind that he couldn't see what the hell was going on under his nose? No. And saying, "I cannot monitor everyone all of the time" and "it's certain individuals" etc, doesn't excuse anything!

Also how many teams will now boycott the World Cups in both Russia, because of Putin's stance; and Qatar, because they should never have got it?

Will UEFA move away from FIFA altogether? And will FIFA as we know it now become non-existent?

And what are the wider implications to football in general? How deep does this corruption actually go? 

One thing is clear. Blatter can give the fans and UEFA his bluster about "we will root out any wrongdoing and regain trust" and so on, but football fans the world over will be unlikely to trust FIFA, or Blatter, ever again.


On 02 June 2015, in a move that totally shocked everyone, Sepp Blatter suddenly, and for a reason no-one can understand as he was so determined to stay, quit. I suspect it wasn't as simple as him just saying, "That's it, I quit!" So what the hell did happen?

 It's just another mystery in the world of FIFA, and I suspect this story isn't going to go away anytime soon.