Football, futbol, soccer. It doesn’t matter what you call it, the game is played and loved by people from every corner of the world. The most common nickname is “the beautiful game”. You would think that a game with such a title would be treated with respect and honor, but when certain individuals, namely the ones who are in charge of the well-being of the sport become money hungry, the beautfiul game becomes tarnished.
The Allegations
In May 2015, 14 FIFA officials were indicted or arrested on 47 accounts, the majority being money laundering, wire fraud, and racketeering. These 14 criminals have been plotting this scheme for 24 years only so they can illegally enrich themselves.
Among the other charges was bribery. The current and former presidents of CONCACAF (Confederation of North American, Central America, and Caribbean Association Football; headquartered in the U.S) Jeffery Webb and Jack Warner were among the ones charged with bribery. More officials from South America have been charged with the same offense- paying over $150 million in bribes and kickbacks only so they might obtain media and marketing right to international soccer tournaments.
Russia 2018 & Qatar 2022
For a country to have a world cup tournament on its soil, they must place a bid to the FIFA officials and then the officials will sit, collaborate, and vote on which country should have the tournament. The world cup happens every 4 years and in 2014 it was in the South American nation Brazil.
FBI officials are currently investigating this bids for Russia and Qatar to hold the world cup in 2018 and 2022 respectively. The FBI has been looking at Qatar’s bid since 2011. In an interview with a former Qatar bid employee, Phaedra Almajid, reporters state that she was there when the Qatar bid organisation put up over $1.5 million to 3 members of FIFA’s executive committee to secure their votes to have the world cup in Qatar in 2022.
In June 2011, a gentleman by the name of Mohammed Bin Hamman was found guilty of bribery and banned from football, on the national and international stage, for life. Three years later in June of 2014, the British newspaper The Sunday Times came out with a report stating that it received millions of documents, all which say that former FIFA executive Bin Hammam had made payments to officials in return for their votes for Qatar 2022.
Hope for the future
Amidst all of the corruption and controvery swarming the governing body of officials, the president, Sepp Blatter decided that it was his time to resign. He was never investigated so that leaves the door open for speculations and questions if he too was part of the corruption.
With nearly the entire executive commity either guilty, indicted, or arrested hopefully a new group of people can come in and make right what was done wrong. The integrity of the game must be protected if the world wants to enjoy the game that is known and played on 6 continents and enjoyed by millions upon millions of people.