Whereas simple laws of probability suggest that the more scheisters a global organisation employs, the more likely it is to succumb eventually to the rot of corruption, FIFA are a phenomenon unto themselves – unrivalled, as they are, in seemingly entrusting their coffers solely to the whims of bungling greed merchants and pantomime arch-villains.
FIFA, once again, failed to heed the blatant prompt to crack down on nefarious goings-on within their confines when they misguidedly suspended the Nigerian national side from international fixtures due to governmental interference earlier this month, and football’s governing body are equally likely to forgo this most recent chance to take the necessary steps to rid it’s grimy underbelly of all the cancerous barnacles that currently serve to chronically undermine their ridiculously ill-fitting ‘Fair Play’ motto.
According to investigative work carried out by the Sunday Times (where have we heard that before? Cough, cough Lord Triesman, cough…), the results of which were published over the weekend, two FIFA members are heavily involved in a cash-for-votes World Cup bidding scandal.
Reporters from the newspaper attended meetings with the members in question, posing as lobbyists representing an American sporting consortium who were keen on ‘ensuring’ extra votes for the U.S World Cup bid, for which both Amos Adamu (FIFA’s Nigerian executive committee member) and Reynald Temarii (president of the Oceania Football Confederation) both allegedly asked for payment in return.
The BBC claim that Adamu was chasing $800,000 (£500,000) to be paid directly into his personal bank account to fund the building of four artificial football pitches in his homeland, with Temarii looking for three times that amount to part-finance a sporting academy in Auckland, Australia.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has issued an open letter (which also contains the official press statement) to all 24 executive committee members, promising that a full investigation will be made into the allegations that currently surround Adamu and Temarii;
“I am sorry to have to inform you of a very unpleasant situation, which has developed in relation to an article published today in the Sunday Times titled ‘World Cup votes for sale’.
The information in the article has created a very negative impact on FIFA and on the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. Some current and former members of the Executive Committee are mentioned in the article. FIFA has reacted by providing the following statement to the media, which I would like to share with you:
“FIFA and the FIFA Ethics Committee have closely monitored the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups and will continue to do so. FIFA has already requested to receive all of the information and documents related to this matter, and is awaiting to receive this material.
In any case, FIFA will immediately analyse the material available and only once this analysis has concluded will FIFA be able to decide on any potential next steps. In the meantime, FIFA is not in a position to provide any further comments on this matter.”
FIFA will stand by this statement, and will open an in depth investigation, which we will start immediately together with the FIFA Ethics Committee and the FIFA Secretary General.
I will keep you duly informed of any further developments. In the meantime, I would like to ask you to refrain from making any public comments on this matter.”
How many times have we had to sit through this tired old charade now? Don’t be fooled by his apparent concern, Old Sepp is just going through the motions.
If the investigation really is to be delegated to FIFA’s new(ish)ly-formed (and oxymoronically titled) Ethics Committee, then we’re all doomed.
The fact of the matter is that it doesn’t do anybody under the FIFA umbrella any favours to police this kind of injustice and corruption as the entire federation is built on – and conserved by – relentless grease-palming.
This most recent wave of flagrant scandal should theoretically place immense pressure on Blatter to act swiftly if he is to retain any semblance of credibility that he, his organisation or the World Cup bidding process have left in reserve.
However, the fact that the many allegations of rife corruption that the three aforementioned parties have been made to face over the years have not served to weaken the Swiss dumpling’s sway over FIFA speaks articulate volumes about the credibility of their utterly mythical ‘investigation’ process.
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