The Guardian view on Fifa’s latest crisis: it is time for money to speak for change
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Version 0 of 1. Fifa is sport’s equivalent of a failed state. It is an organisation so self-serving that it has lost all contact with how it looks to the outside world. This the only way of explaining, in the face of multiple indictments and confessions of bribery and corruption, Fifa’s carry-on-regardless approach: its most senior officials inhabit a parallel universe. That may seem harsh when the investigatory arm of Fifa’s own ethics committee has finally taken action against the three men at the pinnacle of the organisation. Not only the president Sepp Blatter, but also Fifa’s general secretary Jérôme Valcke and the Uefa general secretary Michel Platini are suspended for 90 days. All three are under investigation by the Swiss attorney general and, in Mr Blatter’s case, reportedly also by the FBI. All three strongly protest their innocence. But so opaque is the internal business of Fifa, so totally has the organisation lost the confidence of observers, that many outsiders suspect that Mr Blatter is still somehow calling the shots. The fourth man disciplined on Thursday, the Korean billionaire Chung Mong-joon, who was banned from football for six years, protested that it was a deliberate move to destroy his hopes in next February’s presidential contest. Every step towards greater transparency that appeared to promise genuine change, like the appointment of the American lawyer Michael Garcia to investigate allegations of corruption in the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 world cups to Russia and Qatar has been smothered. When even the man who has now taken over as interim president, Issa Hayatou, has been censured by the International Olympic Committee for taking kickbacks in 2011, it is surely too late for Fifa to heal itself. Yet there are no obvious pressure points in Fifa’s complex internal structure; there are no easy incentives for those with the power to push reform in an organisation that has elevated the art of mutual backscratching to an artform. In theory, the election for Mr Blatter’s successor, for which nominations close at the end of this month, could provide leverage. But that would depend on two highly unlikely developments: first the appearance of a candidate untainted by connexions with any of the current senior ranks of Fifa and secondly the discovery, among the national footballing bodies that make up the electorate, of a sensitivity to the monstrous reputational harm that Fifa suffers with each passing week that still appears to be completely absent. A lesser proposal, although still requiring support from within the organisation, would be to suspend the election and put Fifa into something like the special measures that Whitehall imposes on failing British schools. Bring in an eminent figure, a person who carries international confidence, to oversee the development and approval of a new system of governance. The IOC, which has its own history of fighting corruption after the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics scandal that broke in 1999, could be a model. That led to sackings and resignations. Now, still not perfect, a further round of reforms, to cut costs and strengthen transparency is coming. On Thursday the IOC president Thomas Bach recommended that Fifa, which is a member organisation of the IOC, learn from his organisation’s “painful” experience. Or there are guiding principles drawn up by the Berlin-based New Fifa Now organisation, which is backed by Transparency International and the International TUC. At Westminster and in the European parliament, politicians are beginning to organise for change. That could lead to European football bodies taking a rather more muscular approach to Fifa’s problems than they have done so far. It was, at the least, surprising that even after his suspension, both the English and the French FA immediately reiterated their support for the candidacy of Mr Platini. Good governance is not that complicated; it takes institutional change and, almost more importantly, cultural change, and that requires leadership. If pressure for reform won’t come from football itself then it must come from the sponsors. That, and the greater sensitivity to the reputation of some Olympic sports, was what drove the IOC reforms. Earlier this week, long, long overdue disapproval came from the major US backers, who called for Mr Blatter’s resignation. But the big money in Fifa comes from global TV rights. Labour’s shadow sports minister, Christ Bryant, has called for British broadcasters to make buying the rights dependent on reform. He is right. It is time for the dollars to speak for change. |