As the investigations into all the alleged corruption and bribery continues and grows, I believe the time has come for an alternative to Fifa, or at least a complete rebuilding of Fifa. The American and Swiss charges were initially against football officials not employed by Fifa, officials who sat on Fifa's Executive Committee or who represented Fifa in their continental federations or national associations. Now it has been revealed that Sepp Blatter is also being investigated. So if he is accused of acting illegally then is the organisation he works for, and heads, also involved in criminality? Blatter says he didn't know that when he was the secretary general, a payment made to the then president Joao Havelange was a bribe. Since Blatter became president and allegations of his involvement in corruption were made against him, how many of the other high ranking employees at Fifa are going to say the same thing? How far down does this inheritance, and denial, of a culture of payments and favours go?
Therefore, as a starting point, the Presidential elections set for February, should be scrapped. All the candidates are a part of this disease. Jerome Champagne was a former Fifa secretary general. How much did he know? Gianni Infantino is UEFA's secretary general. He worked closely with his President, Michel Platini, who is banned from football, and facing a long suspension, for allegedly receiving a large payment from Blatter. Surely Infantino knows a lot more than is reported. The other candidates are all officials who have worked with Fifa.
Fifa needs to bring in an outside body, or individuals, to take over the running of it-lawyers, business administrators, people who know how to run an organisation without any political involvement. It will be a bit like bringing in bureaucrats to run a country that politicians have run into the ground. So scrap the elections, put the whole place in order and formulate a system for a proper electoral system that eliminates vote buying and elects a president elected by voters who truly understand what their organisation needs.
Fifa is a huge organisation that employs many, many people who's careers should not be tarnished by what goes on above them. How far down it goes will be up to the "cleaners" who move in to decide. If Fifa as we know it does indeed disappear let's hope that the existing brains and manpower are utilised to build the new Fifa.
With every passing week, and every new investigation, there must be a dwindling number of anybody who loves football that believe that Fifa can survive. Let's start from scratch, even if this means jeopardising the chances of there being a World Cup opening match in 929 days.
No comments:
Post a Comment