When the circus comes to town it engrosses many and is full of interesting and unusual characters.
The FIFA corruption scandal is a lot like the circus, odd, unusual, unbelievable and when the clown accidentally lights himself on fire it turns into complete and utter chaos.
And chaotic is exactly the word to describe this week’s FIFA corruption scandal with recently re-elected FIFA president Sepp Blatter deciding to step down as president just three days after gaining re-election. Blatter will step down pending FIFA’s next congress, which cannot be held until December at the earliest where Blatter will call for election to decide on FIFA’s next president.
In the meantime, Blatter will serve as interim president until a new president has been chosen with Blatter’s pending resignation just the latest revelation in what has been a series of surprising events for FIFA.
More:
» Sepp Blatter resigns
» Blatter under FBI investigation
» Who could replace Blatter as FIFA president?
For years many have predicted corruption within world football’s governing ranks, but it could never have been exposed until an FBI investigation exposed seven high ranking officials within FIFA, with a 164-page FBI indictment documenting a 24-year spree of corruption where $150 million is supposed to have been received by FIFA officials in the form of payments, kickbacks and bribes.
Blatter’s resignation is quite unusual given his comments and tone on Friday where the 79-year-old seemed defiant and determined to continue his rule as world football’s leader, claiming that he could not possibly be responsible for the corruption around him as in his words “How can everybody be responsible? That’s impossible.” He pointed out he could not be expected to personally police the 1.6 billion people he said were “touched by our game”.
1.6 billion people is an impossible task to be held responsible for, but the leaders and the top lieutenants within your organisation are absolutely within your realm of your responsibility. As Robert De Niro put it in Casino, if you didn’t know about it you were incompetent and if you did then you were in on it, but either way you’re out.
The reasoning for Blatter’s resignation are not entirely known as the now interim president of FIFA claimed that he wanted to resign to focus on “profound reforms” but news from America says otherwise as according to the ABC “Sources familiar with the case told ABC News today that Blatter is being investigated by the FBI and US prosecutors as part of the probe that led to last week’s stunning indictments.”
A FIFA official stepping down amidst corruption allegations, unheard of right? but the day that many envisioned is finally here, admittedly a lot sooner than most expected. As has become the norm with Blatter’s speeches they are highly unusual and bizarre and apart from referencing FIFA as a boat, there was one interesting point he raised about the nature of the investigation.
“If two other countries (England and USA) had emerged from the envelope, I think we would not have these problems today,” said Blatter, which is a very good point.
Although the FBI based their investigation on the grounds that US banks were used, the fact that the US’ bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup was rejected is a salient point, but the US’ interests aside, corruption is corruption no matter what way you slice it and it doesn’t matter if it’s the FBI or Finland conducting the investigation, if there’s millions of dollars being exchanged between top ranking officials it should be made known and those guilty should be brought to justice.
The next FIFA congress will arguably be the most important in the organisations 111-year history, and whoever fills Blatter’s soleless shoes will have a lot of work to do in order to restructure and reform the organisation to ensure widespread corruption is wiped out completely.
Until that day comes football fans can rejoice in the fact that Blatter’s run is nearing an end and the healing process can now comfortably begin.
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