In a few hours WikiLeaks will release thousands of secret FIFA documents detailing World Cup match fixing and widespread corruption within football’s governing body.
Never before have such confidential documents been released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into FIFA’s activities on the shores of Lake Zurich.
The documents, which date from 1998 to 2010, contain 15,652 confidential communications between FIFA executive committee members in Zurich and corporate sponsors, media networks, and other football officials throughout the world.
But seriously, on Thursday, December 2, FIFA’s ethically challenged executive committee will award the hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup. The stench emanating from the bidding “process” has been overpowering to the point that we — the citizens of FootballWorld — would benefit greatly from the assistance of Julian Assange and the people behind WikiLeaks.
As the work of Andrew Jennings showed, revelations of overt facts can damage the image, if not the profits, of FIFA and its corporate allies. Such information would give a vital boost to good governance in the game and instill hope for a healthy football community.
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5 replies on “WikiLeaks Targets FIFA”
It is paradoxical that football is suffering from its positive attribute as a arguably the most socially, culturally and economically important game in the world …much the same way as very attractive and intelligent women suffer in society (especially in Sub Saharan Africa) in school, at work, everywhere, until they are well past 50 years old.
But when will football’s suffering end, when another sport takes its place in terms of socio-cultural and economic significance? God forbid! Or when it gets too old to attract! Of course the reverse is true in the case of football, the older the better … just see for instance how the English Premier League clubs have attracted modern world businessmen, the latest being the story of Blackburn Rovers and the Indian Rao family!
I can predict that the footballscape will get a lot more “smelly”, and we shall have many more scandals in future, and it is so intriguing, especially when we consider the fact that some time back, sociologists such as Huizinga thought that sport would moralize the world, and even the church encouraged the youth to engage in sport, to stay on the straight and narrow …
“Eagerness to ignore allegations does England bid and Fifa no credit”
by David Conn, The SportBlog (The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/dec/01/fifa-england-2018-panorama
To “ethically” challenged, I would add “gender” challenged.
And speaking of Australians, the Antipodeans have clearly appreciated this by dropping the Elle McPherson Supermodel Smartbomb on the committee.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/101201/59/3hznq.html
this is brilliant news, despite all allegations of corruptions FIFA have never provided an acceptable response or in fact run any internal investigations. They are answerable to nobody. I cannot think of any other industry where this would be allowed. Hopefully, pressure brought by wikileaks will cause an entire overhaul of how the sport in governed. Too many fat cats with no footballing experience looking after each others bank accounts rather than the sport loved by all.
Hope the players do not melt in qatar, hope the african players don’t mind constant racial abuse from russian fans. But these things do not matter when your getting a couple of million from an oil tycoon, do they sepp?
Soccerleaks: The football files
By James Montague, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/SPORT/football/03/21/soccer.wikileaks.manchester.myanmar/index.html