The sweeping indictment of soccer officials by the US and Swiss authorities, and a day later of the governing body itself, is the surest sign of what the world’s richest sport has become in the hands of administrators. Such unbelievable sums are being spoken of as bribes handed out to allot World Cups among bidding nations that we can just about begin to imagine how tainted the world’s most popular sport really is, and rendered so not so much by the canker of match-fixing by players and referees as it is by the naked greed of administrators.
The obstreperous Sepp Blatter may not have enriched himself, but by remaining silent for 17 years as head of FIFA, even as he played administration politics like a football kicked here and there, the Swiss gentleman has betrayed the multibillion dollar sport he governs in its most ridiculous self goal yet. The image of a beautiful game has been destroyed by the sinking credibility of its administrators and the suits who market it.
The question is whether the corruption investigations, particularly into the role of Trinidadian Opposition leader Jack Warner whose vote was said to have been instrumental in South Africa hosting the event in 2010, will get to the bottom of the scandal. Conspiracy theories are bound be floated about how unhappy the soccer world is with the next two World Cups going to Russia and Qatar. Will the displeasure of the US and Europe with the hosts of 2018 and 2022 be sufficient to change the hosts? The scenario has political implications and the game faces its biggest upheaval.
