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Date: 11th December 2024
Sports Washing: the danger at the top of our game that poor governance enables
Over the past 20 years, the governance of the game at the highest levels have been shown to be well below the most basic standards that would be fit for purpose for most industries. With multiple arrests, money laundering, theft and court cases aplenty, we all hoped that the worst was behind us as the memory of Havelange, Platini and Blatter drifted out of sight.
What of course followed was the fall out from the terrible decisions to allow Russia and the Qatar to host the greatest show on earth, The FIFA World Cup. Qatar, in particular, saw headlines be written for all the wrong reasons, with migrant worked deaths week-in-week out and the accepted figure of around 3500 dead in the pursuit of the perfect World Cup . The claims of the event being carbon neutral have also been put to bed by independent evidence that suggests there is a lot of hot air coming out of Switzerland.
As the Swiss FIFA caravan moves on to the next World Cup, once again the fans have been let down by having to travel from Canada to Mexico via the USA to see their country play. Long gone is the notion that the sport is the people’s game. However, the real scandal that is emerging comes from FIFA’S very own World Cup bid evaluation report, which has seen Saudi Arabia’s bid for the 2034 World Cup awarded the joint highest bidding score ever (despite the fact that the stadiums aren’t built yet!). To any neutral, outside observer, having an organisation with the power and wealth that FIFA has being allowed to mark its own homework will only lead to continued controversy. It once again questions the integrity of FIFA’s report writers and the organisation itself. It is of course no surprise that all the leading human rights and environmental groups have slammed FIFA for “whitewashing” the country’s human rights record and called out the glossing over of environmental concerns. Just as we saw in Qatar, if there is a way that FIFA can deflect these minor irritants away then they will do with the minimum of effort.
The world knows that Saudi Arabia has invested massively in football and positioned itself with this bid in mind. In the past decade the Kingdom has woven an extensive web of political influence across football’s global landscape, with sponsorships, partnerships, and investments connecting them with the sport’s most powerful decision-makers. Money talks and FIFA listens intently. It also uses the unique position it has as a global business where it operates with the minimum of scrutiny and has a disparate membership ( national football associations) from across the game who rarely ever see the point in challenging the decision-making process. There are the occasional calls to actions, usually from the Scandinavian countries (Norway in particular in this case) who make a statement and try to raise the issues to the wider audience. The chance of a boycott of the Saudi World Cup is as fanciful as seeing Albion Rovers playing in the Champions League. In theory it could happen but it will always just remain the dream of a Football Manager kid from Coatbridge. The problem is that FIFA and UEFA are organisations that have seen exponential growth fuelled by television money and there is no framework that provides accountability or scrutiny of its often questionable actions. There are no meaningful checks and balances or, dare we mention it, independent scrutiny. But what can the individual countries do? Don’t expect the SFA or the FA to take the moral high ground anytime soon, even if they have concerns about the human rights issues or the fossil fuel money that is funding the desert football extravaganza they will go unsaid. They themselves are not open, accountable or transparent enough, which is why the calls for independent regulation remain on the table from both Westminster and Holyrood.
The late, great Bill Shankly worked in a business that was all about serving his loyal tribe, “my people” where he told the world that football was about the holy trinity where all that mattered was the players, the manager and the fans. Sadly, the football business he knew is long gone and the new trinity of power, wealth and avarice means that football at an international level is accountable only to itself. And the sad thing is that nobody can do a thing about it.
Scottish Football Supporters Association 11.12.24
Posted in: Latest News
Tags: Fan Led Review, FIFA, Football, governance, paul goodwin, World Cup