LONDON — When the 208 national associations of FIFA, the ruling body of soccer, meet in Mauritius at the end of this month, they should call upon their president, Sepp Blatter, to step down.
They will not do so because the associations feed upon the handouts that FIFA distributes from the profits it makes from World Cup tournaments. This system of paying each member country sustenance money in return for the votes that keep the leaders in office has been operated since João Havelange became FIFA’s president in 1974 and made Blatter his assistant.
Havelange, a Brazilian who turns 97 on Wednesday, is now discredited after he resigned from honorary positions with both FIFA and the International Olympic Committee. A Swiss court has finally ruled that he took millions of dollars in secret kickbacks from FIFA’s financial partners. Havelange ruled FIFA until 1998, when Blatter succeeded him.
Courts, reporters and even a self-appointed FIFA “ethics committee” are still uncovering endemic corruption, reaching all parts of the organization, all across the globe. The bigwigs of the ruling executive committee have fallen like flies: Havelange, his fellow Brazilian and former son-in-law, Ricardo Teixeira, the Paraguayan Nicolás Leoz, the Trinidadian Jack Warner, the Qatari Mohamed bin Hammam and the American Chuck Blazer.
All except Havelange, who by then was merely the honorary life president of FIFA, were on the ruling executive committee that decided the World Cups would be held in Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.
Most departed claiming that ill health or advancing age prevented them from continuing. And both FIFA and the I.O.C. accept resignation as a way of drawing a line in matters involving tens of millions of dollars that evidence shows was diverted into private bank accounts.
During all of this, the Swiss courts and the FIFA self-investigators have exonerated Blatter from what was going on in the hierarchy. But it happened on his watch. He was Havelange’s right-hand man during the Brazilian’s rule, and with the aid of some of the now disgraced leaders, Blatter succeeded him in 1998, and he has kept on winning the vote for the presidency.
In the recent finding of the FIFA adjudication chamber that led to the removal of some of the top brass, a German court judge, Hans-Joachim Eckert went so far as to describe Blatter’s handling of the scandal as “clumsy.”
Blatter thanked the adjudicators and stated: “I note with satisfaction that this report confirms that ‘President Blatter’s conduct could not be classified in any way as misconduct with regard to any ethics rules.’
“I have no doubt that FIFA, thanks to the governance reform process that I proposed, now has the mechanisms and means to ensure that such an issue — which has caused untold damage to the reputation of our institution — does not happen again.”
On Monday, Blazer was provisionally barred by FIFA from all soccer-related activities for 90 days.
Blazer, who blew the whistle on alleged bribes to Caribbean soccer officials during the last FIFA presidential election, could be facing an Internal Revenue Service investigation, Reuters reported recently.
Blazer was known as “Mr. 10 Percent,” accused of taking a percentage of money from deals in the American and Caribbean regions; he now stands accused of embezzling as much as $21 million.
Blazer is a colorful character with a Santa Claus-type beard and has blogged of his friendly vacation travels with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, so he knows the avenues of power.
Blazer was elected chairman of FIFA’s Marketing and Television Advisory Board in November 2010, responsible for negotiating the incomes that reach into the billions during every four-year World Cup cycle.
It is this triangular and profitable arrangement — the sport, TV and sponsorships — that Havelange, a former Olympic swimmer, brought to FIFA and then to the Olympic Games, 40 years ago.
Throughout his terms in office, Havelange regularly threatened the livelihoods of journalists, myself included, for questioning the relationship between FIFA’s income and its governance.
When Blazer filled in the question-and-answer for his biography when he became a member of the executive committee, he wrote about his idol in the sport: “Not a player, a majestic symbol of elegance in our sport, Dr. João Havelange.”
The World Cup will be played in Havelange’s home country next year. But Havelange and Teixeira are no longer on the committees that run the sport in their country.
They are no longer welcomed in FIFA or Olympic circles. And they both cite sickness to avoid being questioned further about their roles in the finances of their game.
It is a familiar refrain: a resignation being tantamount to a pardon, with a little money paid back but much more unaccounted for.
FIFA has thrown overboard the aging and sick administrators blamed for the scandals. Blatter, the chief officer who knew nothing of their misdeeds, remains. His rule is faintly damned by the word “clumsy.”
But the only people who can decide if now is the right time to sweep away the whole administration that was involved, or ignorant, of the financial shenanigans are the delegates from the 208 countries, who are preparing for their congress in Mauritius.
They will, no doubt, applaud President Blatter’s cleanup campaign, and overlook any clumsiness in his past.
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