FIFA's reform sham continues

“The IOC? It is like a club of princes, princesses and kings. They have no transparency! Our accounts are open, theirs are not. They manage their money like a housewife.” – FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter in response to the IOC’s investigation of FIFA exco member Issa Hayatou, January 2011

It’s been a comically depressing week for football fans as FIFA highlighted its continued inability to reform itself.

It all started on Tuesday when world football’s governing body announced on their website that Issa Hayatou had been appointed by FIFA to chair the organising committee for the London 2012 Olympic football tournaments.

At the time, with Hayatou under investigation by the International Olympic Committee for corruption, you could only applaud FIFA’s sense of irony.

Then on Wednesday came one of the most bizarre press releases I’ve read in a long time.

“Due to a technical error, appointments for FIFA Standing Committees have appeared on the FIFA website,” read the statement from FIFA adding, “Therefore, Issa Hayatou has not been appointed as chairman of the Organising Committee for the Olympic Football Tournaments.“

Apparently it only took FIFA some 24 hours to work out this “technical error” had taken place. How reassuring.

“I do not care. In fact, shit. F–k you lot. In 2014, I can do whatever I want to the press. The most slippery, unthinkable, Machiavellian cruelty to them, they cannot touch me.” President of the Brazilian FA and FIFA exco member Ricardo Teixeira tells Piaui magazine what he thinks of allegations in the UK press he asked the English 2018 World Cup bid for a bribe

This week the countdown to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil passed the 1000 days mark.

At the same time workers at Rio’s world famous Maracana stadium were forced to return to work after a court ruled their strike was illegal.

The Maracana workers were striking for the second time in the past few months in protest at their daily wages of AU$21.

Here are some numbers to consider: FIFA made AU$595 million in profit from the four year World Cup cycle between 2007 and 2010. At the same time the average salary of FIFA’s employees rose to AU$156,378.

It would seem appropriate to me if Teixeira spent less time hurling profanities at the press and more time ensuring the rights of those actually building the World Cup in his backyard were being protected.

“We will put the ship back on course in clear transparent waters. We have been hit and I personally have been slapped.” – FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, June 1st 2011

So, as we await the October announcement of Sepp Blatter’s plans for reforming the organisation he leads, this week’s developments have further exemplified why we cannot trust those who have made FIFA what it is today, to reform it.

The only way genuine and positive change will come is from outside the organisation and I fully support the recommendation from ChangeFIFA that the game’s world governing body be “reformed by an interim time-limited administration, led by an eminent person with a mandate to develop a new constitution and conduct elections because FIFA is not capable of reforming itself.”

For this to be achieved governments around the globe must lead the charge, Football Associations must show courage and football fans must continue to demand change.

Otherwise, how many more “technical errors” will we be forced to suffer through?