FIFA: Is Blatter still the right man?

RIDING on the recent corruption scandals in the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA), the credibility of the association and the present administration has been put under close scrutiny with many stakeholders under the fire and resigning as a result. Sooner, rather than later, it is expected that Sepp Blatter would end his reign as FIFA president with the current term.
 

In the wake of the furor that reached a climax two years ago, FIFA’s reconfigured two-chamber ethics committee eventually said it would look into the long-running affair. Though he was labeled “clumsy” for his part in one of soccer’s biggest corruption scandals by the committee, FIFA President Sepp Blatter was cleared of any criminal or ethical wrongdoing in a case involving millions of dollars in bribes for World Cup contracts, his tenure has however been tainted by the suspicions.

Blatter seized on that passage, noting “with satisfaction” that he had not broken any rules. The tone of his response, triumphant at his own exoneration rather than contrite over the fact he was a senior executive at FIFA throughout the period, speaks volumes.

The central charge that has dogged Blatter’s tenure – that in March 1997, when he was still secretary general and a year before he won a bitterly contested election to become president, a bribe meant for Havelange crossed his desk – is however confirmed.

He indicated that he plans to stand for another four-year term as president of FIFA when he spoke to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) congress in Kuala Lumpur recently.

The fact that Sepp Blatter intends to run for another term after this current term, comes as a surprise to many sports enthusiasts as he had previously mentioned that he would step down from the position at the end of this term. Blatter, 77, has two years of his fourth term of office remaining, but indicated that he did not want to leave when they had expired.

His predecessor Havelange, the 96-year-old who ruled FIFA for more than two decades, was forced to resign his position as president after the FIFA two-chamber ethics committee report laid out how both he and his former son-in-law, the former Brazilian FA president Ricardo Teixeira, had taken a series of bribes over an eight-year period from the now defunct sports marketing agency ISL.

A Panorama documentary also showed that others, including Issa Hayatou and IAAF president Lamine Diack, took money through the front company in Liechtenstein. Hayatou claimed his payments were for the Confederation of African Football’s birthday party and Diack said his was a gift to help rebuild a house that had burned down.

FIFA’s critics remain adamant that Blatter’s self-serving reform process has not gone far enough or fast enough and that the “internal” investigation was neither robust nor independent enough. Another decision to ban Sri Lankan executive committee member Vernon Manilal Fernando for eight years for unspecified breaches of the ethics code, could be read two ways - as evidence of tough decisions being taken or as raising new questions over transparency.

One used to think that remorseless corruption pepped up with shameless seasoning of tenure elongation was solely a Black African disease but now we know better that it is, in deed, a global epidemic. It is particularly interesting as it is intriguing that Blatter of all people, who loves to play the holier- than-thou game in his over-bearing meddling with internal football administration of other countries, especially of African extraction, could be fingered in any matter relating to corruption and most recently, tenure elongation even at his doddering age.

However, perhaps the reason is not far-fetched. Most likely that those various allegations of financial improprieties are founded after all; in which case  one way of escaping the costly test of the law is to clinch on to power in order to keep doctoring and puncturing vital documents that are capable of exposing his possible  shameful deeds in office. When the ambition of tenure extension is fulfilled by all means as the Blatter’s case is tending towards; then, the next prayer is ‘Come ye, o! Death so that this dangling cup of shame may pass over me.’ After all, the dead knows no shame.       

Former big beasts of the FIFA jungle are being felled across the globe but Blatter remains standing. And despite having insisted that this would be his last term as president, he has started maneuvering his chess pieces for yet another shot at re-election. Blatter should step aside and a new face be elected, the corrupt era should be brought to an end and a new generation with a clean breath of air brought in. We rest our case.

Banji Boye

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