The FIFA Scandal

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Finn Schuemann '17, Staff Writer

From the words of Christopher Eaton, “Football, not just FIFA, stands on the precipice of disaster.” Over the course of the past two years, FIFA has been caught in a scandal causing many to question its legitimacy. In a survey of eleven students at Prep, six were worried about the future of the international soccer organization.

Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, and Michel Platini, a European representative in the FIFA Executive Committee and head of UEFA, have been suspended from FIFA for 90 days. Blatter and Platini have been temporarily banned for a financial transaction made in 2011 of two million Swiss francs. Swiss prosecutors believe that this deal was bribery, whereas Platini has stated that this payment was for his earlier work at FIFA.

Blatter has been investigated after he sold a TV rights deal in 2005 for the next two World Cups to Jack Warner, the former head of CONCACAF, for an estimated total of $600,000, which was released by the Swiss broadcasting company SRF. Warner sublicensed the rights under his company J & D International. J & D International sold the rights to Jamaican TV station MaxSports in an estimated transaction between $18 and $20 million. It has been speculated that the low price of Blatter’s deal was done so that Warner would vote for him in the 2011 FIFA presidential elections.

“Most of the guidelines which we play under have been imposed by FIFA, and the fact that they have undergone corruption and controversy like this is unsettling to say the least,” said Prep soccer player Jackson Tennant when asked about the significance of what the future of soccer holds.

This information has been confirmed by Chuck Blazer, the corrupt former general secretary of CONCACAF and a whistleblower assisting U.S. prosecutors since 2011. Blazer has revealed how he was bribed to vote for Morocco to be the 1998 World Cup host, which was eventually granted to France. Blazer confessed how he accepted bribes connected to the 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup Tournament.

Blazer’s cooperation with U.S. prosecutors connects to Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, who is leading an investigation alongside Michael Lauber, the Swiss attorney general to apprehend several suspects connected to the corruption within FIFA. In May 2015, seven FIFA officials were arrested in a hotel located in Zurich, Germany, and several others have also been charged.

When asked about what may change for soccer, Tennant believes that “having stricter guidelines will allow for soccer to improve as a sport, and there will be less room for corruption after experiencing the hectic scandal.”

In light of this situation, the question of whether to trust certain institutions has been raised, and only time will tell if FIFA will survive this scandal, or be dissolved.