By Joe Diglio
Lionel Messi opened the scoring in the Copa del Rey final on Saturday for Barcelona, weaving through a trio of Athletic Bilbao defenders before cutting inside of a fourth and slotting the ball home at the near post. It’s easy to be ungrateful of Messi’s abilities because he does things like that on the regular. But even if the goal was a single brushstroke on the painting that is Messi’s body of work, we still have to step back and appreciate the big picture. Right now, he is the genius of the sport.
On the pitch, that is.
Less than 24 hours before Messi worked his magic, we saw soccer’s off-field genius, FIFA president Sepp Blatter, at work. Two days before the 65th FIFA Congress in Zurich, Switzerland, where Blatter would run for a fifth term as president, Swiss authorities — in accordance with the U.S. Justice Department — arrested 14 people, including FIFA officials and marketing executives, on counts of racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering. Federal prosecutors allege that hundreds of millions of dollars were exchanged as bribes for determining the host sites for events and media, marketing, and sponsorship rights. The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland also opened an investigation into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively.
The charges brought against members of the sport’s governing body left its seemingly impervious leader at his most vulnerable in years. Blatter won the previous two elections, in 2007 and 2011, unopposed. Now he had competition in the form of Jordan’s Prince Ali bin Al Hussein and a scandal hanging over his head. UEFA called for the election to be postponed at least six months, while UEFA president Michel Platini requested that Blatter resign.
But Blatter, genius that he is, has apparently kept his name clean up to this point. As the head of the operation, surely his hands are dirty somehow, right? Well they haven’t gone after him just yet. Blatter wasn’t among those arrested, and UEFA’s shouts to hold off the election fell on deaf ears; things went just according to plan. In the first round of voting, Blatter earned 133 votes from FIFA’s 209 national associations to Prince Ali’s 73 (three votes were invalid). Blatter was short of the 140 needed for the two-thirds required to win in the initial voting, but he was a virtual lock to gain the simple majority needed to win the second round of voting. (Which is a terrible format, by the way. What exactly is supposed to change between the two rounds of voting?)
Prince Ali conceded, giving Blatter his fifth term as president. How has he managed to stay in power since 1998 with little to no opposition? It’s quite simple, as SB Nation’s Kevin McCauley explained. Blatter is something of a Robin Hood, using FIFA’s wealth to grow the sport in third-world countries. In return he earns their undying support, dominating the vote in areas like Africa and Asia. That’s how the cycle has gone for the last 17 years: Blatter builds facilities in poorer areas so he stays in their good graces, and those countries keep him in power so he can continue doing so. That dirty money may be exchanged behind closed doors for Blatter to help these countries doesn’t make him lose sleep at night. Lather, rinse, and repeat.
His work hasn’t been just taking from the rich and giving to the poor, either. The selections of Russia and Qatar have been votes against democracy. FIFA secretary general Jérôme Valcke said as much two years ago. “I will say something which is crazy, but less democracy is sometimes better for organizing a World Cup,” Valcke said in 2013. “When you have a very strong head of state who can decide, as maybe [Vladamir] Putin can do in 2018 … that is easier for us organizers than a country such as Germany … where you have to negotiate at different levels.”
Qatar, ruled by an absolute monarchy, is in a similar situation. Its labor force operates under the “kafala” system, which leaves exploited immigrants at the mercy of their employers, who often withhold workers’ passports to keep them in the country. It is under this system that Qatar has been building its infrastructure for the World Cup, and it’s under this system that an estimated 1,200 people have died, a number the International Trade Union Confederation expects to rise by 4,000 by 2022.
It’s not surprising, then, that the investigations against FIFA stem from two of the richer and politically open parts of the world in North America and Europe. Platini wants to be FIFA president one day, England — which has always butted heads with FIFA — was a favorite to host the 2018 World Cup, and the U.S. was a favorite to host in 2022. Blatter has dashed their hopes and dreams, and they want vengeance.
If you’re a soccer fan genuinely interested in the integrity of the game and you want the FBI’s investigation to have some tangible consequences, you’re hoping for two things. First, it results in the next two World Cups being moved. Pick your reason — politics, logistics (at least in Qatar’s case), the fact that both bids may have been bought —neither should be allowed to host the event. Second, it results in the removal of those in power who have done wrong, namely Sepp Blatter.
Before last week, the thought of a FIFA without Blatter was nonexistent. He had made claims before about retiring at the end of his term only to run for re-election, and he had been immune to anyone bringing him down for corruption; it seemed only his own mortality could stop him (and I wouldn’t rule out the chance of him being a member of the undead). Now, anything seems possible. Sure, Blatter hasn’t been indicted yet, but if last week’s arrests are any indication, the authorities are closer than ever. Sure, he won another election, but he had to sweat it out more than any other election so far in his 17-year term.
The idea is that if you kill the head (remove Blatter), the body (FIFA’s corruption) will die. However that’s not really true. FIFA is so large and its shady practices are so ingrained that a single change at the top won’t be enough. It will take many years and many dedicated people to make things right.
If it feels like Blatter has been an omnipresent and omnipotent figure atop global soccer forever, it’s because he nearly has been. His run as FIFA president is the third longest in the organization’s history, and before that he was the right-hand man to former FIFA president João Havelange, one of the only two men to have served as president longer than Blatter. “I am the president of everybody,” Blatter said in his closing remarks after winning re-election. Considering what he has done and how long he has been in power, it almost doesn’t sound crazy. Almost. But he clearly has an inflated sense of self; he is not as smart as he thinks he is. And the rest of the world is wising up. Eventually, we may come to find he’s not as smart as we thought he was, either.
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