International Sports Leisure
Until now the biggest single scandal engulfing Fifa, with Sepp Blatter directly involved. ISL were Fifa’s official marketing partner in the 1990s, responsible for handling TV rights negotiations for World Cups. The company went bankrupt in 2001 owing millions of pounds to creditors, and two senior Fifa executives, Joao Havelange and Ricardo Teixeira stood down from their positions after court documents revealed they had received bribes from ISL. Fifa own ethics committee described Blatter’s handling of the affair as “clumsy”, because he must have known about at least one of the bribes for Havelange but Fifa’s response was that commercial bribery is not a crime in Switzerland. Nonetheless, Blatter was investigated by Swiss police over his attempts in secret to repay more than £1m worth of bribes pocketed by football officials.
Corruption rating: 9/10
Watches for delegates
Fifa is thought to have spent around £90,000 on 750 Longines watches for delegates at its congress in June, apparently breaking no rules because the cost of each watch was “trivial”. Later it emerged certain association chiefs and executive committee members had been given more expensive watches by the Brazilian Football Confederation. The FA chairman, Greg Dyke, said he had no idea of its value and that he was going to put it up for auction. The CBF said they had paid £5,336 for each watch but an independent caluation put the cost at around £16,000.
Corruption rating: 6/10
The 2022 World Cup
It seemed odd right from the start that the world’s biggest single sport event should end up with a nation of two million people, almost no footballing history and a climate that would have had games taking place in 40C had the usual date in the calendar been adhered to. The fact that Fifa are now talking about a November World Cup, to the dismay of Europe’s leading leagues, is an admission that a summer World Cup in Qatar would prove unworkable, yet no mention of this considerable drawback was made at the time of the announcement.
Fifa said Qatar had won the World Cup purely on the merits of its bid, that air conditioning technology could be installed in stadiums to make conditions more comfortable for players, and that criticism from more traditional football countries was merely colonialist resentment towards a newly emerging power in the game. Even before the allegations of vote-rigging and corruption that followed, eyebrows were being raised around the world and lawyers put on standby in the US and Australia. Of the 22 exco members who voted for Russia and then Qatar as host nations for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, the fact that 11 have now stepped down is something even Blatter might find difficult to explain.
Corruption rating: 9/10
Jack Warner, Chuck Blazer and Concacaf corruption
Warner, the president of the North, Central and Caribbean football associations and a Fifa vice-president, resigned in June 2011 amid corruption allegations. In 2006, Fifa’s ethics committee censured Warner after an audit revealed he made at least $1m illegally selling World Cup tickets. Blazer, another Concacaf executive and voter for 2018 and 2022, has also been the subject of corruption findings by an internal investigation and was suspended for “fraudulent” behaviour in 2013. Warner and Blazer are the most high profile individuals, the ongoing corruption in the Concacaf region one of Fifa’s biggest headaches, but of the 24 exco members at least half have been accused of serious improprieties over bribes, illegal ticket sales or other scandals.
Corruption rating 7/10
Michael Garcia’s report
At first Fifa claimed the investigation into all of the above irregularities could not be published in full, then they published it in such an unrecognisable form that its American author immediately disowned it. That is some going, even by Fifa standards, though it smacks of incompetence and desperation rather than corruption. The corruption and opaque decision-making is what has landed the governing body in its present uncomfortable position, the report merely a brazen attempt to deflect criticism. Broadly speaking, two outcomes are possible. Either the World Cups will have to be played in Russia and Qatar, even though it is now clear both bids were flawed and neither would be ideal as host nations.
Or, infinitely less likely, rerun the votes and admit that the entire process was unsatisfactory. These are stark options for a governing body that behind all the football family rhetoric exists only to organise and disburse World Cups. Fifa have managed to botch the task so completely that there is talk, if not so far an actual threat, of a boycott. Internal reform appears impossible, and any direct challenge to Fifa’s authority would surely find support among established football nations. Fifa’s stock around the world is possibly at an all-time low.
Corruption rating: 7/10
