Soccer is one of the most lucrative parts of the entertainment industry in the world. Just to give you a tiny idea of how much money is involved, US broadcasters recently paid $425 million just for the rights to air six month-long tournaments, the overwhelmingly majority of which was for only two (the 2010 and 2014 men's World Cups). And that's just the broadcast rights for one country, a country where soccer is hardly the biggest thing on the sport radar screen.
Yet for an industry with so much money involved, there sure are a lot of shady dealings.
Take the case of the Trinidadian Jack Warner. Warner is the president of CONCACAF, the regional confederation that governs (if you can call it that) soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean. He is also a vice-president for the international soccer federation FIFA. As such, he was instrumental in seeing his home country awarded the 2001 World Youth Championships. According to The Trinidad Express, Warner was allegedly involved in some curious business practices surrounding stadium construction and renovations for the tournament.
The paper reports that along with some partners, Warner formed a company called Concacaf, which conveniently had the same acronym as the confederation he heads but for a different purpose: to arrange stadium construction and renovation. The budget for the projects skyrocketed more than 2 1/2 fold after the involvement of Concacaf (the company). The Trinidad and Tobago government is still repaying the loan, having been a guarantor. Subcontractors have complained that Concacaf (the company) has demanded they pay an extra two and a half percent for the development of Trinidad and Tobago's national soccer team. They were told in writing that they would not get contracts in the future if they failed to comply.
Warner has also been found guilty of violating FIFA's code of ethics (snicker) because of his involvement with a travel agency that sold tickets to this year's World Cup in Germany.
That story was also broken by The Trinidad Express as well as a report that Warner was misrepresenting the amount that the Trinidad and Tobago soccer federation would receive for qualifying for the recent World Cup.
As for the reporter who broke all of these stories, Warner tried to deny him accreditation to cover to World Cup, but FIFA overruled him.
This sort of greed and ethically challenged 'leadership' is why the Gold Cup, the most prestigious tournament in CONCACAF (the confederation), is not available on free television in English in the United States. This is why American TV viewers can watch Deportivo Quito try to win the Ecuadorian league or Trabzonspor's quest for the UEFA Cup but not the US national team's attempts to win North America's continental championship.
After such embarassment, you'd think the international governing body would try maintain at least the appearance of propriety. Yet, The International Herald Tribune reports that of all the people who could've been chosen to head a Swiss company that trades in soccer's lucrative broadcasting rights, the 'best' person they could find for the job was none other than Philippe Blatter... son of FIFA's Swiss president Sepp Blatter.
The elder Blatter insisted that his son's position would not affect FIFA's business relationship with the company.
I'm sure the company only hired the younger Blatter because he dressed well.
You'd think the international federation's code of ethics (snicker) would ban dealings between FIFA and companies run by employees of FIFA or their relatives. But apparently not. This incestuous culture in the world's most popular sport has led one German writer to deride the federation's mindset as a 'Republic of cousins.'
FIFA's motto is 'For the good of the game.' Perhaps they mean 'For the good of the lords of the game.'
2 comments:
That seems worse than boxing.
I think boxing is more corrupt proportionate to its size. But soccer probably has more raw corruption.
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