If you think FIFA is all about sport, you’re missing the most important and potentially transformative campaign to uncover and punish the misdeeds of people who use soccer as a way to enrich themselves and their friends.
The news that FIFA über-boss Sepp Blatter has agreed to step down is much overdue. So is the announcement of the U.S. Justice Department indictments against top officials and FIFA business partners.
If the case against FIFA is pursued with relentlessness, it will go a long way in uprooting one of the most pernicious, destructive practices corroding our world. While the headlines normally focus on uncommon “man bites dog” events, corruption is one of those evils that does its work quietly, making itself routine and accepted, so it almost always manages to succeed at dodging attention.
But graft, bribery and extortion create unimaginable devastation for individuals, societies, nations and even the environment. Corruption perpetuates poverty, destroys businesses, makes a mockery of democracy and saps people’s faith in their justice system and government. In places where it is rampant, it poisons human interactions, undercuts sound decision-making and creates cynicism and mistrust.
It is not an exaggeration to say corruption helps open the city gates to extremists who bathe themselves in the promise of religious piety as a way to eradicate dirty politicians.
Corruption acts as a reverse Robin Hood, with the poor squeezed to pay the rich. And the rich, too, get squeezed to satisfy the greedy. Corruption hurts everyone, and combating it deserves a high place on the list of global priorities.
Going after FIFA is a fine place to start. As Attorney General Loretta Lynch said, corruption at FIFA is “rampant, systemic and deep-rooted.” If the combined power of law enforcement agencies in the hundreds of countries where FIFA does business cannot tackle its outrageous deeds, what hope is there for attacking the daily destructive acts that affect millions of people around the world?
Corruption kills more people than ISIS when its practitioners divert needed funds from health care and economic development, or by making safety inspectors look the other way in exchange for a bribe. It keeps people in poverty, prevents economies from prospering and hollows the essence of democracy when elected officials act for their own benefit instead of the well-being of the people they represent.
FIFA is a perfect place for crooks. It is little wonder that dictators love doing business with it.
It has long been an open secret that votes are bought and sold; decisions are made on the basis of maximizing personal gains and private agendas. In the end, the results are often grotesque and nonsensical. That’s what happens when corruption takes over.
Sports events such as the World Cup and the Olympics (Olympic officials should be getting nervous) have become trophies for tyrants, not only allowing them to display their might but by allowing them to play with massive amounts of money, some of which are disbursed in patronage deals to make key people wealthy and thereby ensuring support for the mighty.
What ends up happening is that billions in taxpayers’ money — money that comes partly from the poor and middle class — goes to building white elephants, giant stadiums that stand decrepit and unused after the events. Money that is urgently needed to build hospitals and schools to pay for teachers and doctors goes instead to construction firms, bribes and crooks.
When FIFA officials voted 15 years ago to let the desert emirate of Qatar host the 2022 World Cup, there was only one conceivable explanation for the bizarre choice. Charges that the super-wealthy Qataris “bought” the tournament came almost immediately. Qatar and FIFA denied it, but rumors only intensified. Qatar is one of the worst possible places to hold the summer event. Temperatures routinely go above 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and the population is not particularly passionate about soccer.
Even worse, most of the work in the emirate is done by “guest” workers, and human rights advocates say thousands of them are dying in brutal temperatures and tough working conditions as they build the venues. As new information comes to light about the millions of dollars that changed hands in the selection process, Qatar may end up losing the 2022 tournament.
Then there’s Russia, preparing to host the 2018 World Cup after last year’s Sochi Games. Sochi was Vladimir Putin’s big show just as he prepared to invade Ukraine and illegally seize Crimea. The games cost more than $50 billion — more than any before. Sochi was an odd choice — the Winter Games were held in a subtropical location. It was an awkward international performance for the Russian strongman, and a reminder of how major sporting events create a platform for domestic political propaganda. Most Russians were proud of their country and President. But on the global stage the glory was short-lived and stolen by events in Ukraine.
Anti-corruption activists detailed the billions of dollars that “disappeared” in the Sochi budget. Among the critics was Boris Nemtsov, who produced evidence of $30 billion in stolen funds, calling the games a “monstrous scam.” Nemtsov was killed in front of the Kremlin a few months later.
The legal case against FIFA is just beginning to unfold. The stakes are high. Just ask people in Latin America, now rising up in several countries against corruption, what the FIFA case means to them. Ask people of Nigeria what corruption does to their daily lives. Ask the widows of activists who have lost their loved ones in the fight. Ask the families of last year’s South Korean ferry disaster — another result of corruption.
If FIFA gets a thorough scrubbing, it would give new impetus to the war against corruption.
