When will world football change enough to also change those at the very top of FIFA?
FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, surprised no-one at a media conference in Zurich after the
Executive Committee meeting yesterday. It was remarkable, yet also unremarkable, for four matters:
The Executive has agreed to a ban on third-party ownership of players – something Blatter has been talking about doing since 2007 – and noting that, in FIFAesque fashion, it would take up to four years to implement.
Blatter said he couldn’t see what all the fuss was about in relation to the gift of 65 watches to Executive Committee members and representatives of the 32 football associations participating at the World Cup. The watches are said to be valued at around AUD$29,000 each which he apparently believes complies with the FIFA Code of Ethics as being of “nominal” value.
He said that one of the great aspects of the Code of Ethics is that reports of the Ethics Committee are kept confidential – incidentally, a provision inserted into the Code at Blatter’s behest as part of the so-called governance reforms two years ago. He reported that no-one on the Executive Committee asked for Michael Garcia’s report into the conduct of the 2018/2022 World Cup bids to be made public – despite some media reports to the contrary and Garcia’s own public advocacy of such action.
And, finally, apparently so many of the 209 member associations of FIFA want him to run for a fifth term as President that he is compelled to do so.
The only other so-far declared candidate for the Presidency is Jerome Champagne. The jury is out on Champagne – but at this stage, he’s at least saying things that many people want to hear.
But the fact of the election process is that, unless sponsors and governments can be persuaded to intervene and demand change – and that has so far proven fruitless – we will continue to have the same old FIFA until and unless fans, players and media slowly-but-surely tackle a majority of the 209 member associations to demand real change and real reform from the bottom-up.