The one thing that FIFA may have already learned from the scandal that rocked its luxury hotel doors in Switzerland last week? Image is everything.
In a move that stunned many, the most powerful man in sports, FIFA President Sepp Blatter, announced his resignation only days after being re-elected for an unprecedented fifth time.
The move is a first step, according to Domenico Scala, who serves as the independent chair of FIFA’s Audit and Compliance Committee, to begin the necessary reforms FIFA so desperately needs in the wake of massive corruption allegations.
“There is significant work to be done in order to regain the trust of the public and to fundamentally reform the way in which people see FIFA,” Scalia said. “These steps will ensure that the organization cannot be used by those seeking to enrich themselves at the expense of the game.”
Blatter’s brief remarks at the small and quickly assembled press conference indicated that, while change was in the air, his re-election last Friday still meant something to him. “Although the members of FIFA have given me the new mandate,” he said, “this mandate does not seem to be supported by everybody in the world of football.”
After the United States led the charge against FIFA with a 47-count indictment that led to the arrest of many top FIFA officials in Switzerland last week, many wondered what effect, if any, this really had for soccer’s 3.5 billion fans. Do the kids who inhabit America’s fields of play know that the global organizing body of the world’s most popular sport is corrupt and in need of change?
Maybe not, but the fall of Blatter was a key missing component of last week’s takedown. While many considered him to be made of Teflon, surrounding himself with enough people to oversee the dirty work of running global soccer, it was clear that if he remained in place, any changes that went into effect to run a cleaner, more transparent organization were shallow at best.
As John Oliver said on Sunday in yet another hilarious dismemberment of FIFA, Blatter saying “Even I cannot monitor everyone all the time” was the equivalent of Charles Manson saying “Look, I’ve got a big family.” Yet whether or not FIFA would have recognized on its own the need for Blatter to go became a moot point after evidence appeared that his right-hand, Jerome Valcke, signed off on a $10-million bribe to obtain votes for South Africa to host the World Cup in 2010.
So what should the 3.5 billion soccer fans in the world do? As the FIFA scandal continues its intricate unfolding, fans need to hold their favorite sport accountable. Just as rabid soccer fan Oliver vowed to eat McDonald’s and drink Budweiser, should those companies pull their corporate support of the sport, fans need to think about where their money is going to, where their loyalties lie, and, at least in the United States, how the game that kids play on Saturday mornings on the field or at home on their X-Box 360s is connected to the corruption that pollutes the very top.
To be sure, getting rid of Blatter looks good, but FIFA has a lot of work to do to so that a new version of him does not grow in his place. “Great day for world soccer,” SI soccer writer Grant Wahl tweeted earlier today. “But can FIFA be trusted to vote in a legitimate reformer to replace Blatter? The structure itself is rotten.”
This organization — an organization with some $1.5 billion in reserves — needs fixing, and while it may have taken a major step in the right direction with Blatter’s resignation, it is still early days.
“You’ve got to believe I’m innocent,” Richard Nixon once said of the Watergate investigation. “If you don’t, take my job.”
Done.
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