World Football: Sepp Blatter, FIFA and the Dismal State of World Football

FIFA’s image in the mind of football fans has taken a severe beating over the past few years, with Sepp Blatter largely responsible for this. When several FIFA officials were accused of bribery regarding the FIFA World Cup to be held in Qatar in 2022 and when Blatter was the only candidate in the FIFA presidential elections, the image of football’s highest-ranking governing body fell a notch further down.

When allegations of corruption emerged against Mohammed bin Hammam regarding Qatar’s bid for the 2022 World Cup, it meant that Blatter ran unopposed for the presidency of FIFA, and he obviously won the elections and was crowned the president for a fourth time.

The general consensus is that football as a sport deserves a better man to be at its helm, a man who is truly dedicated to improving the state of the game. None of these terms describe Sepp Blatter, who represents every reason why FIFA continues to be hated among the community.

To put it bluntly, the man is destroying football. Football is currently the world’s most popular sport, but you would at least expect the sport to accept technology to a certain extent even if they are unwilling to fully embrace it. Yet even now video technology remains something that we fans can only dream about. This season we have once again witnessed abundant evidence to understand the game will improve tremendously if the referees had a system that would back them up.

While several other sports are willing to embrace video technology, soccer, the world’s most popular sport, is willing to remain backward, and the heart of the problem is Sepp Blatter. He has taken a strong stance against technology, and with his re-election, we cannot expect change.

But the biggest farce of the recent scandal was the fact that the man went unopposed. With bin Hammam unable to compete, the logical thing would have been to find a new contender and hold a proper election. Instead there was only one candidate, so Blatter unsurprisingly got re-elected for a fourth time.

The fact that he ran unopposed is farcical in itself, not to mention how ridiculous it is. Blatter has slowly become a dictator of his empire of FIFA, and he seems to be using the organization to satisfy his whims rather than serve the purpose of strengthening the foundation of the game. His latest act of ridicule, including musician Placido Domingo, in an attempt to clean up football will hardly do any good in strengthening the crumbling image of FIFA.

Right now this is just one among many things that has rocked FIFA. With reports that Qatar might have bribed their way into hosting the FIFA World Cup emerging, FIFA is being rocked by scandal after scandal, and there hardly seems to be any reprise.

When Qatar was awarded the bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, it surprised many. Qatar was able to overcome the bids of nations like the USA and Australia, which came as a real shocker, as the other nations were all far better equipped to organize a mega event like the FIFA World Cup. It was at the same time that Russia was awarded the bid for the 2018 World Cup at the expense of England.

All this came as a real surprise considering that when compared to the two countries there were nations that had better infrastructure required to host an event of the World Cup’s stature.

But one must say the real surprise was Qatar.

Here was a country with no prior experience of hosting a top-quality international competition, a country with no footballing history and with a team that lies somewhere in the oblivion of the FIFA rankings.

Added to the fact that the temperatures were going to be searing hot and the fact that none of the stadiums were actually in place, this made it a peculiar choice indeed. The stadiums that will host the matches of the World Cup are yet to be built. All this combined with some of their strict rules and regulations means that it is definitely not the ideal host.

Recently reports emerged that Qatar might have bribed their way into winning the bid, which in many ways is understandable. As a result of these allegations, FIFA Vice President Jack Warner and the President of the Asian Football Federation, Mohammed bin Hammam, were suspended from their respective posts.

Further information incriminating Qatar came up when FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke stated in an e-mail to Warner that Qatar had indeed bought the World Cup. It is believed that Warner demanded that an education facility be built in his country and Nicolas Leoz of Paraguay asked for an honorary knighthood in exchange for their votes and some reports suggested that he even wanted the FA Cup to be named after him. 

These allegations of bribery and deceit have cast doubt on the location of the 2022 World Cup with fears that Qatar might not eventually host the event. There have been several allegations of corruption that have come to light recently, and it has once again questioned the integrity of FIFA.

The allegations that hit centre stage in May 2011 affected Hammam’s bid to become FIFA president. It was these allegations that rendered him unable to compete with Blatter and as a result provided Blatter a free run to the top of FIFA.

FIFA as an organization can do better, and for that to take place one gets the feeling that change has to be seen in the hierarchy of the organization, starting with Blatter. He has been at the top for far too long without any significant changes coming into the game.

This is further proof of how deep the rot truly is in football’s highest governing body and is an indicator of how much work needs to be done to restore the pride of the association and turn it from a laughingstock into a respectable and reputable body.