By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (May 25, 2011) US Soccer Players -- World soccer’s governing body is once again providing a critical assessment of itself. This time it’s not one but two Confederation presidents accused of ethics violations. And one of them happens to be running for FIFA president.
On 24 May 2011, FIFA Executive Committee member and CONCACAF General Secretary Chuck Blazer reported to FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke possible violations of the FIFA Code of Ethics allegedly committed by officials.
In particular, the report referred to a special meeting of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), apparently organised jointly by FIFA Vice-President Jack A. Warner and FIFA Executive Committee member Mohamed bin Hammam, which took place on 10 and 11 May 2011. This meeting was linked to the upcoming FIFA presidential election. from FIFA’s official press statement.
Anyway you choose to look at it, there goes a fairly contested election. Regardless of what happens with FIFA’s investigation of CONCACAF president Jack Warner and FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam literally days before the FIFA Congress votes on the next president, the shadow of ethics allegations has handed this election to Blatter. It was likely his anyway. Depending on your point of view, that either strengthens the case against Warner and Bin Hammam or has you wondering what’s really going on.
Since this is FIFA, the benefit of the doubt is hard to come by. Then again, it’s worth stressing that it’s a report from CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer that’s started the process against Warner and Bin Hammam.
Over the 11 years I’ve been working in soccer I’ve never heard anyone within soccer with a bad word to say about Blazer. Even those that disagree with the politics of CONCACAF and how the region operates don't extended that to the character of Chuck Blazer. It's clear that he puts organizational needs in front of his own and has taken action to directly benefit the American game. My own assessment is that he is one of the most intelligent people working in soccer and CONCACAF is fortunate to have him.
Regardless of what you might think of Blazer as a public figure, it couldn’t have been easy for him to level charges against his boss and a person he helped get elected as FIFA president. Whether or not that makes it any easier for the FIFA Ethics Committee to come to a quick consensus in a tight window remains to be seen, but I can’t imagine there’s nothing to these allegations.
Even if that turns out to be the case, putting a presidential candidate before the Ethics Committee has all but ended the presidential election. In what was supposed to be differing views of FIFA’s future, we now have the worst aspects of FIFA’s past and present. That should be of concern to every FIFA critic, and should have others joining their ranks. If a world governing body can’t run a fair election without ethics violations being leveled at Confederation presidents, it doesn’t say much to recommend that governing body.
That’s where FIFA finds itself, likely heading into four more years under Sepp Blatter’s leadership. I’m not arguing Bin Hammam’s version of the future was any better, but at least it was a challenge, a public acknowledgement that there are people within FIFA that don’t see what’s been happening as one success leading to another.
Nobody should be expecting an incumbent to run against his own record, but there’s a lack of shame when it comes to FIFA’s current leadership that’s troubling. There’s a very good reason for everything that goes publicly wrong for FIFA, and it’s rarely taken as a reflection of the ultimate level of leadership.
We’ve seen the current administration accused of ethical lapses in the campaign that won it the FIFA presidency, rid itself of a marketing partner, a high level executive, attach countries to World Cups a decade out, and seemingly unable to trust the integrity of its own executive committee. It’s an open question why this seems to be looked at as a mandate rather than an indictment.
Meanwhile, Bin Hammam is right in stressing the continued increases in power for the role of the FIFA president. That position isn’t supposed to be its own island. Yet at seemingly every turn, challenges to the power of the position of the presidency are met with one or several members of the Executive Committee shown to be on the take. It happened shortly before the World Cup vote and there’s the potential for it happening all over again before the presidential election.
At some point, these have to stop being treated as isolated incidents. What they are in practice is their own unintentional mandate for change. That doesn’t mean isolating even more power in the presidency. It means a top to bottom reformation.
Comments, questions, solutions to problems that have yet to present themselves. Please, tell me all about it.
