The shakeup of FIFA continued on Monday, as CONCACAF Vice President Jack Warner ‘voluntarily’ resigned from his post. Warner, a Trinidad native, spent 28 years on FIFA’s executive committee, many of which he spent representing the North American soccer region. He stepped down just days after some of his Caribbean Football Union followers were interviewed by former FBI agents, enlisted by FIFA, to investigate the scandal. This resignation is the latest in a string of bad press for FIFA, which has been under relentless criticism since the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts were announced last December.
Last month was the tipping point for FIFA allegations, as Warner and Asian soccer chief Mohamed bin Hammam were suspended over allegations of bribery. The two leaders were accused of offering $40,000 cash payments to Caribbean voters during bin Hammam’s failed presidential campaign to unseat incumbent FIFA President Sepp Blatter. Because of bin Hammam’s suspension, he was ineligible to run for President, and Blatter won an unopposed 4th term under a growing cloud of suspicion.
Although the allegations of corruption and bribery are damaging the sport, the United States seem to be making some major political moves to work its way into FIFA’s inner circle. Let’s start with the allegations leading to the suspension of bin Hammam, and the resignation of Warner. These accusations came from Chuck Blazer, the General Secretary of CONCACAF, and a long time lieutenant of Warner. Blazer, the only American on the FIFA Executive Committee, is the first within the exclusive FIFA inner circle to blow the whistle on a colleague, and the allegation brought so much outrage that acting CONCACAF president Lisle Austin attempted to fire Blazer five days later for insubordination (the action was blocked, and now Austin is under investigation).
Although Blazer’s allegations angered those in the CONCACAF region, it only helped Sepp Blatter. Bin Hammam was Blatter’s only opponent in the Presidential race, and his suspension allowed Blatter’s bid for a 4thconsecutive term to go unopposed. Meanwhile, shortly after the election, Blatter vowed to clean up the corruption in FIFA (much of it his own doing), and has gone out of his way to form an anti-corruption ‘solution committee’. One of his first calls was to Henry Kissinger, who just happened to be a prominent member of the USA 2022 bid committee, and has been a long time friend of Sepp Blatter.
Now, as FIFA is in the midst of an internal investigation, many American fans are wondering if the final shoe will drop—Qatar. Seven months later, many around the world still aren’t sure what exactly led to Qatar winning the 2022 World Cup bid, and some also are curious about Russia earning the 2018 bid. If over time, more comes out about Qatar and its bid, Chuck Blazer and the rest of the United States Soccer Federation can now proudly say that they have a clean reputation, and are completely against corruption. FIFA claims this is what they want, and Blatter has triumphantly announced a ‘zero tolerance’ policy against corruption, but now the pressure is on to do the right thing. Perhaps more importantly, the pressure to do the right thing is not just a moral obligation anymore. Major sponsors Coca-Cola and Adidas publicly expressed concern about FIFA, with Adidas saying that “the negative tenor of the public debate around FIFA at the moment is neither good for football nor for FIFA and its partners.” Visa and Emirates Airlines echoed the sentiment, breaking their usual silence to express concern about the stains the scandals have left on the sport and, by extension, their global investment in soccer.
While the internal FIFA investigation continues, the United States will sit back and let the rest of the world put pressure on FIFA to clean up corruption. Inevitably, the assumption is that something will come out about the 2022 Qatar bid, and then we will truly see if Sepp Blatter is committed to cleaning up his own mess.