13th Nov 2014
Fifa’s ability to surprise must be the most impressive thing in world football. Just when you think you’ve seen and heard it all from Sepp Blatter’s evil empire, just when you think they’ve hit rock bottom, sunk as low as they can possibly sink, they pull something out of the fire and surprise you.
Surely that deserves some sort of award or at least a pat on the back, something Blatter and his cronies in Zurich are very good at – self congratulation.
After allegations surrounding the legality of bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups came to light, Fifa handed former New York district attorney Michael Garcia, head of football’s governing body’s ethics committee’s investigatory chamber, the task of investigating into them. This, after all, was part of Blatter’s new, transparent Fifa. Clean, angelic, pure as the driven snow or so he wanted us to believe.
That was all well and good except that Garcia’s chances of uncovering the whole dirty truth were hamstrung from the start.
Russia’s 2018 bid team were unable to comply fully as they could not supply him with any emails that were sent during their campaign because, and I quote, the computers they used during that time had been “destroyed”. How convenient. I must try that should I ever come under investigation.
Spain and Portugal reportedly didn’t take part in the investigation AT ALL and of the 11 former members of the ExCo that voted to award the hosting rights of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, only five were questioned and two simply couldn’t be found. Couldn’t be found? Really? In today’s surveillance society?
Nonetheless, Garcia ploughed on with this thankless task, determined to, in his own words, “punish people who do bad things”.
Upon filing his report some 18 months later, all 430 pages of it, there were calls for it to be made public so football fans and society at large could see what goes on in the murky corridors of power, something that was immediately rejected by one Judge Hans-Joachim Eckert.
Garcia himself lent his weight to supporters of true transparency but the esteemed Eckert, the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of Fifa’s ethics committee and a man who is on record as saying: “Ethics and morals are the basics of life”, refused the request, sparking tensions between the two.
And now we know why…
Yesterday Eckert’s summary of Garcia’s report was released, a 42-page piece seemingly of fiction that absolved Russia and Qatar of any wrongdoing, pointed an accusatory finger at the English FA (shock horror) and even had the audacity to hail Blatter for Fifa’s compliance in the whole thing – Teflon Sepp rides again.
Of Qatar’s bid Eckert said there were some concerns over some sections but they weren’t enough to warrant a revote.
“The effects of these occurrences on the bidding process as a whole were far from reaching any threshold that would require returning to the bidding process, let alone reopening it.”
End of story; case closed.
The English FA, the most vociferous opponent of Blatter, unsurprisingly came in for the harshest criticism for its courtship of former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner.
While the report was right to do so, at the same time it glosses over the link between Qatar and disgraced former Fifa vice-president Mohmmad bin Hammam, banned from football for life for making illegal payments during his bid for Fifa presidency.
The Qatar bid was quick to distance itself from any association with Bin Hammam after he was foun guilty. Curious then that they labeled him their “biggest asset” just before the vote took place.
Eckert also, incredulously, congratulated Fifa on the 2018 and 2022 bidding process saying, “Fifa designed a bidding process for 2018/22 which was well thought, robust and professional.”
It was? Then why the hell have we been talking about it for almost four years and will continue to do so up until the 2022 finals themselves if not beyond?!
In the wake of the publishing of Eckert’s report, naturally, the vast majority of the footballing world was outraged by these findings, unable to believe there had been no skullduggery and again demanding the release of Garcia’s report.
But, as expected, it wouldn’t be forthcoming because as far as Fifa were concerned the whole matter was closed:
“Fifa welcomes the fact that a degree of closure has been reached with the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber stating today that ‘the evaluation of the 2018/2022 World Cup bidding process is closed for the Fifa ethics committee’,” said Fifa in a statement. “As such, Fifa looks forward to continuing the preparations for Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 which are already well underway.”
Head buried well and truly in the sand; move along, please, there’s nothing to see here.
Or so they thought…
Clearly they hadn’t counted on at least one person associated with Fifa having a modicum of integrity.
With Fifa convinced all their problems had been buried by Eckert, Garcia rode roughshod all over that idea by derailing the whole thing with one incendiary statement.
Garcia said: “Today’s decision by the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber contains numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions detailed in the investigatory chamber’s report. I intend to appeal this decision to the Fifa appeal committee.”
And appeal he did, reporting Eckert to Fifa’s appeals committee. Whether that will do any good remains to be seen; the appeals process will be overseen by, of course, Fifa itself.
But what his statement did do was dent their credibility even further and plunge Fifa into chaos and that can be no bad thing.
With any luck, Garcia’s explosive revelations will cause a real and voluntary shakeup in the corridors of power in Zurich but sadly that’s unlikely.
What we can probably expect is that Fifa will close ranks behind good ol’ Sepp who, in another of his self-delusions, will be more convinced than ever that he is the man to lead Fifa out of this crisis. Either that or he will simply revert to his 2011 self, he of the “crisis, what is a crisis?” comment.
Sadly nothing will ever truly change unless Blatter and the rest of his Cult of Sepp acolytes are removed from power and that won’t happen unless the authorities from outside the world of football get involved.
There is a possibility that could actually happen with the FBI apparently moving ahead with a probe into corruption allegations regarding senior Fifa members.
According to the New York Daily News, former Fifa ExCo member Chuck Blazer has turned informant for the Bureau, reportedly wearing a hidden microphone in a key ring to record a series of conversations with leading officials on a visit to London in 2012.
The FBI, which plans to seek access to Garcia’s report, is now said to be moving forward with their three-year investigation that could result in senior officials being charged.
Should this be the case we might finally see a change to the way football is governed at the highest level and that would be fantastic news for football fans the world over.
Fifa said Eckhert’s summary of Garcia’s report meant the case was closed but the American’s appeal means it is anything but and maybe, just maybe this could be the beginning of the end of Sepp and his acolytes.
But I won’t hold my breath…