US does world a favor by exposing FIFA corruption

So, if football (or what we Americans call soccer) is the most popular sport in the world, why did it take the U.S. Department of Justice to expose rampant corruption in the ranks of the sport’s governing body?

Because it was a dirty job that most other countries weren’t willing to tackle.

But when the United States issued arrest warrants for 14 people, including the second-highest ranking officer of the Federation Internationale de Football Association, the world had to take note.

Some of that note-taking was less than flattering. Russian President Vladimir Putin, for instance, condemned it – which a cynic might take as unofficial confirmation that bribes were involved in Russia’s winning the bid for the 2018 World Cup.

For every Putin, though, there are a million fans in Europe thanking the U.S. for taking the lead. It is precisely because soccer is so big in much of the rest of the world – and there is so much money involved – that the United States was in the best position to take the offensive.

WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

Of course a second question might be why the United States should care. And that was answered by FBI Director James Comey: “If you touch our shores with your corrupt enterprise, whether that is through meetings or through using our world-class financial system, you will be held accountable for that corruption.”

The charges allege “the systematic payment of bribes and kickbacks” that were paid by marketing executives interested in selling media access to tournaments or by officials seeking to influence where tournaments would be hosted – including the 2016 Copa America in the U.S. These bribes were at times organized during meetings in the United States, and some of the money was transferred through U.S. bank accounts.

FIFA has a long way to go before its critics will be satisfied with its purity. But just as this scandal centers around the ability of money to talk in a corrupting way, there’s another way money talks. We’ve seen it in sports scandals in the United States, and it is when corporate sponsors demand remedial action, or they take their advertising dollars elsewhere.

That financial pressure, coupled with the light that the U.S. indictments have shown on FIFA’s culture, is the best hope for restoring luster to what fans call the beautiful game.