QATAR: Three days before the FIFA Presidency elections, the sons of Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Jassim and Mohamed bin Hammam, met with Sepp Blatter at FIFA. Speculation arose that the prince, on behalf of the Emir, told Hammam to withdraw his candidature from the elections.
As per the alleged deal, Blatter would win the election unopposed, and in return, he would stop mentioning Qatar’s World Cup bids.
Sepp Blatter went on to win the election, and Hammam and FIFA’s Vice-President, Jack Warner, were suspended by FIFA’s Ethics Committee soon after.
Warner predicted that more damaging revelations were yet to come for FIFA. The public hailed Chuck Blazer as a passionate lover of football who blew the whistle on the corrupt members inside FIFA, which was, in fact, far from reality. Blazer had incurred considerable profits by participating in the corruption inside FIFA.
A month after his suspension, Jack Warner resigned from FIFA. Soon after he quit, secret information regarding Chuck Blazer’s corrupt activities began leaking to media sources.
Despite no proof of significant income supporting his lavish financial growth, evidence of various benefits and expensive possessions owned by Blazer began to arise.
The FBI steps in
The multiple corruption charges inside FIFA caught the attention of the FBI long before the infamous voting scandal of 2010. However, they had little information regarding the situation.
However, once the FBI got evidence of corruption by Chuck Blazer, a US citizen, the investigation into FIFA’s corruption made significant inroads. The FBI looked into Blazer’s background and found him guilty of several charges, including wire fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, and non-compliance in reporting foreign bank accounts.
The FBI approached Blazer with an offer to be an informant for the FBI. In exchange, he would have to serve a shortened jail term instead of a significant one. The FBI told Blazer to aid them in exposing the corrupt individuals in the hierarchy inside FIFA.
The FBI silently kept collecting evidence of corruption against FIFA officials. They focused on Jack Warner due to his history of close friendship with Chuck Blazer. His two sons, Daryan and Daryll Warner, laundered the money for him.
FBI arrested Daryan and Daryll since they couldn’t detain Jack Warner as he enjoyed Trinidad & Tobago’s diplomatic immunity. The FBI offered Jack an opportunity to free his sons in exchange for details of corruption at the topmost levels of FIFA. He turned down the offer.
FIFA’s attempts to salvage reputation
FIFA employed Alexandra Wrage to establish an internal governance program to attempt to repair the damage to its reputation as football’s organizing body worldwide.
In 2011, after the executive committee members re-elected Sepp Blatter as President for the fourth time, the FIFA congress decided to implement several features, including transparency in finances, an improved organisational ethics board, and a better-governing panel.
In a later interview, Alexandra Wrage witnessed the hierarchical structure within FIFA and labelled FIFA’s move as a cynical PR stunt.
Jeffrey Webb, from the Cayman Islands Football Association, ran for the CONCACAF Presidency after FIFA ousted Jack Warner. He emphasised working through the scandal involving CONCACAF in his electoral campaign. However, after winning the election, he turned out to be no different than his predecessor.
In November 2014, FIFA released a summary of the report made by its ethics body over the corruption allegations regarding the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The ethics committee, headed by former New York prosecutor Michael Garcia, held an internal investigation into the accusations.
Contrary to public expectations, the report gave a clean chit to the Qatar bid. However, Garcia later disowned the report, putting the spotlight on the credibility of FIFA’s new transparency policies.
In the meantime, Sepp Blatter’s greed for power and fame saw him try to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to grace a football match in Zurich between Israel and Palestine to promote peace in the war-torn region. Many assumed that Blatter had his sights set on winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Reports of human rights violations in Qatar
One of Qatar’s bidding committee’s claims during the bidding process was the opportunity to enhance workers’ job opportunities and living conditions.
Qatar’s promises, however, did not see the light of day. According to the Indian and Nepalese embassies, over 1,000 immigrant workers died in two years in Qatar.
FIFA shrugged off all responsibility over the deaths of workers participating in the preparation of Qatar in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup.
According to a few media sources, around 5,200 people lost their lives during the construction of infrastructure for the 22nd World Cup.
Hassan al-Thawadi said that building any significant event on the blood of innocents is unacceptable. He went on to deny the speculation that people were becoming fatalities in the World Cup project.
The FBI goes after FIFA
The FBI was making slow but steady progress in collecting evidence against FIFA. In their own words, the FBI was making a “watertight case” exposing the widespread corruption within FIFA.
The $10 million paid by South Africa to Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer under the pretext of funding the growth and support of minority African communities in the Caribbean was vital evidence of corruption against FIFA.
Chuck Blazer pleaded guilty to accepting the bribe from South Africa in exchange for his vote. Jack Warner, however, denied the charges.
The FBI indicted fourteen FIFA officials for corruption. They issued a warrant to the Swiss police to arrest the officials.
On May 27, 2015, Swiss police arrested several people, including Jeffrey Webb, in Munich on behalf of the FBI. The police led the FIFA executive committee members out of the Baur au Lac hotel, shrouded in bedsheets.
Sepp Blatter, who was not charged with corruption by the FBI, scrambled to organised a meeting with the remaining committee members to address the crisis that had struck the governing body.
Loretta Lynch, the US Attorney General, addressed the media at a press conference in the USA. She read out the charges against the arrested members.
The FBI, the US Department of Justice, and the IRS made the investigation public. The scale of corruption at FIFA shocked the general public.
The downfall of Sepp Blatter
Sepp Blatter was re-elected as FIFA President for the fifth time, just two days after the arrests in Zurich.
On June 2, 2015, six days after the arrests, Blatter announced his resignation from FIFA’s Presidency. He said he decided to step down as head of FIFA because the football world did not support the electoral results.
On the 20th of June, Simon Brodkin, a comedian, heckled Sepp Blatter during a press conference. The incident garnered global attention.
Brodkin showered fake dollar bills over Blatter, saying, “This is for North Korea 2026.” Sepp Blatter was visibly furious over the security breach. Brodkin was taken away by Swiss police.
After Sepp Blatter stepped down, UEFA and the European football associations backed Michel Platini as the candidate for the FIFA Presidency. Platini was all set to succeed Blatter when details of a “disloyalty payment” between Platini and Blatter emerged.
According to reports, Swiss authorities found that Sepp Blatter paid Michel Platini an amount of 2 million Swiss francs through FIFA. Blatter allegedly paid to make Platini back down from participating in the 2011 FIFA Presidency elections.
FIFA’s ethics board suspended Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini for 90 days. Blatter, however, pleaded innocence and claimed that he made the payment to cover Platini’s services in 2002, a payment made after nine years.
The FIFA Ethics Board subsequently banned Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter from FIFA and football-related activities for eight years.
The aftermath
The announcement of Gianni Infantino as the new candidate for the FIFA Presidency polls came after a few days. Jerome Valcke, who had moved up his ranks to the post of Secretary General, was suspended for his alleged involvement in corruption, which he has repeatedly denied.
In February 2016, nine months after the arrests, Gianni Infantino was elected as the new President of FIFA. While addressing FIFA for the first time as President, Gianni made it clear that FIFA’s finances would be closely monitored by the governing body. He condoned the misappropriation of money by football associations.
In 2021, after indicting more than 50 individuals, the US Department of Justice announced that FIFA was a “victim” of corruption. The FBI did not press any charges against Sepp Blatter or Michel Platini.
Chuck Blazer died in 2017 before the announcement of his sentence. Jack Warner, wanted by US law enforcement, enjoys diplomatic immunity in Trinidad & Tobago.
In July 2022, a Swiss court cleared Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini of corruption charges over the 2 million Swiss franc payment.
Qatar survived the allegations aimed at them and currently hosts the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Human rights organisations worldwide believe that thousands of migrant workers lost their lives in the build-up to the World Cup due to Qatar’s preparation to host the marquee event.
The big sport needs to acknowledge its power and represent the force of good globally rather than being a commodity that nations led by dictators and marred with human rights issues can purchase with an obscene amount of money.
Also Read: FIFA Controversy Part 3: The Key to Qatar’s Victory
