Alex Duff Madrid
FIFA officials and staff spent years avoiding conflict, using a culture of favour-swapping to create a governance model resembling a cozy private club, say executives of national soccer organisations and sports groups that dealt with the body now battered by a corruption scandal.
Six current and former executives including Cayman Islands banker Jeffrey Webb, were accused by US prosecutors of crimes including bribery, racketeering and money laundering last month, prompting Fifa president Sepp Blatter to announce plans to step down.
Chuck Blazer, one of the six, said executives received bribes to vote on the 1998 and 2010 World Cup hosts, according to testimony released by a New York court last week.
The system “is all about exchanging favours”, said Zico, the former Brazil star who helped organise the 2014 tournament, in an interview. “When you come into soccer politics, you have to repay the person who invited you.”
The 24-person executive board meets about five times a year in the soundproof basement of Fifa’s headquarters on a hilltop in Zurich. They fly in from different parts of the world, stay in five-star hotels and rule on everything from the dates of the World Cup to the regulations of the sport. For their work, they receive a $300 000 (R3.7 million) stipend plus expenses.
Asked to address Zico’s criticism, a Fifa spokeswoman referred Bloomberg News to June 2 comments by Domenico Scala, the chairman of Fifa’s audit and compliance committee, who is helping lead changes at the organisation. He said the structure of the executive panel was “at the core of the current issues Fifa is facing”.
According to Michel d’Hooghe, a Belgian surgeon who has been an executive committee member since 1988, top officials have held no more than five votes in the last quarter of a century in an attempt to avoid rifts.
Fifa’s middle managers who are based at its headquarters in Zurich have also been wary of upsetting the status quo during Blatter’s presidency, according to Gregor Reiter, the chief executive of the German association of agents who has worked with Fifa management since 2008 on regulations.
“Fifa has plenty of administrators who are young and intelligent but the one reply I also got when dealing with them: we need permission from Blatter, or it’s up to Blatter,” Reiter said.
Blatter plans to remain as president until a replacement is elected in six to nine months’ time. – Bloomberg