PART FOUR
THE ADMINISTRATION
Our fourth set of changes revolves around the body of government that rules over the sport of football – FIFA.
The following are my recommendations for changing what’s wrong with the current administration:
16 – Reorganization
After the most recent allegations of fraud and deep-rooted corruption within the FIFA organization, it is clear that something must be done to shed football’s governing body and start anew.
The whole organization is a group of good ol’ boys; it is a closed organization of tight-knit individuals who will hold onto power (and the money associated with it) for as long as they can.
Take for instance, President Sepp Blatter’s brilliant attempt to tell the world that he will “root out all corruption from FIFA before his last term is finished.”
Just for you folks, I’m going to translate that last quote:
“I will erase all records of my own wrongdoing, and throw other people under the bus to divert attention from myself before my last term is finished.”
Listen… no one is buying this garbage. I’ll give another example of just how foul this group of racketeers is:
FIFA, led by Blatter, appointed an outside ethics committee to investigate the corruption allegations that raised their ugly heads in 2011. Oh… and the ethics committee will report all its findings to… the FIFA board.
Nice.
In 2015, when I run for FIFA President, I will ensure that the entire board and all its representatives are removed (forcibly if needed), and that they all be replaced with competent individuals who do not have any knowledge of where all the FIFA skeletons are hidden.
17 – Representation
Speaking of competent individuals, we need to address the issue of representation.
All countries associated with FIFA have representatives on their committees. I suggest that these officials (including the President him/herself) be chosen from within each country’s football federation.
But I have one very important caviat: these officials must be true football personalities; no lawyers, accountants, owners or sports agents should ever be allowed to run for office. You know… the sharks.
Instead, a country should choose managers, sporting directors, or club presidents that have the best interest of the players (and clubs) at heart when it comes to making the important decisions – especially monetary ones (more on that in Part 5 – The Finances). Preferably ones who are not, nor have ever been tied with corruption, scandals, or bribery, as has been the case with club presidents from Juventus of Italy, F.C. Porto of Portugal, and pretty much every Turkish club known to mankind.
Once the right candidates are brought forth, elections should be held in a fair and equitable manner.
18 – Elections
There was widespread international condemnation of the Fifa presidential election earlier this year, when it emerged that Sepp Blatter had triumphed over nobody (that’s right, he had no opponents) to win football’s top job by a margin of 186 to 17. Besides the obvious question, “Who did the 17 vote for?”, there is another, more important query: “How can an organization as large as FIFA hold elections when there was only one viable candidate with absolutely no competition?” This is just another clear-cut example of corruption cover-ups within the organization.
Elections to FIFA’s top positions should always have multiple, competent candidates. Not giving someone the opportunity to run as opposition is a grave sign that something is rotten from within. I suppose even Kim Jong-Ll of North Korea would say, if asked about these elections, “Sepp Blatter is giving fraudulent, unopposed dictatorship a bad name. He should be ashamed of himself.”
The cream of the crop should be easy to find. FIFA should always have at least three or four candidates for each of the top positions, so that fair elections can be held.
The time for dictatorships is over.
19 – Term Limits and Restrictions
The old corrupt guard is gone. New blood has been chosen from each represented country in FIFA. The top brass has been appointed. They are now ready to do their job.
I have one more rule: members at the very top within FIFA should not be allowed to stay in office for more than two years. That’s right. They should be appointed after each World Cup, and removed after each Continental Championship. Then the next officials would be elected, again, until two years later.
When an organization is as vast as FIFA, and with so much money flowing through it, one cannot be given the opportunity to learn all its secrets; to find all the little loopholes.
This is how fraud and embezzlement occur. This is how corruption fosters.
On top of this term limit, there is one more important restriction: former officials should not be allowed to run for FIFA office again. Period. There are millions of competent individuals involved in the business of football. The pool is vast; we don’t need the same individuals coming back, regardless of how well they have performed while in office.
The way this works in the real world is with… transparency.
20 – Transparency
The best leaders are transparent ones. Why hold onto a good leader for an extended period of time, when you can learn the lessons from that person, document them, and make them absolutely transparent, for everyone to see?
Giving someone the opportunity to linger opens them up to becoming comfortable; once someone is comfortable, they become even more accustomed to a situation. Pretty soon, the fine line between good and bad becomes harder to define and interpret.
Good people who have power go bad.
That is why all decisions within FIFA should be broadcast openly, and documented thoroughly. All decisions, especially financial ones.
Has anyone actually gone in and audited all of FIFA’s financial records? How money is earned? How it is invested? Where it is spent? Who benefits?
I’m scared to think that the answer is no, though I figure it likely is.
Football is a multi-billion dollar industry, yet, every day you hear of professional clubs going bankrupt, with no protection from FIFA or its federations. You hear of professional players going unpaid for months at a time, yet there is no insurance coverage for this sort of thing.
Make the books transparent, and put the money to work where it makes the most sense. But I’m not going to get into finances here. You can find that in Part Five – The Finances.
And so it begins…
Proceed to Part Five – The Finances
Go back to Part Three – The Competitions
SERIES GUIDE:
Part One – The Rules
Part Two – The Regulations
Part Three – The Competitions
Part Four – The Administration
Part Five – The Finances