The Amazing Teflon Man

"Corruption."

Such an unpleasant word, don't you think?  Whichever connotation you put on it.....

For instance: the original definition - decaying corpses, vegetation or whatever, rotting away from a once healthy life to a fly blown, maggot ridden, stinking mush.

For instance: government ministers, of whatever nationality and political persuasion, accepting money or gifts of varying (but inevitably high) value in return for services rendered.  There have been, and continue to be, many instances of this: in Britain's recent past we had peerages being dished out in return for cash contributions to political parties; in Kazakhstan and elsewhere in former Soviet bloc countries doing any kind of business without paying significant back-handers is still virtually impossible (as I wrote about in my post "Go East Old Man"), and in Trinidad a coalition government was elected last year on a pledge to specifically address such issues (see "Caribbean Dreams").

For instance: political leaders making or authorising payments and giving gifts in order to obtain special deals to their private (and ostensibly national) interests - think the Iran - Contra Arms scandal back in the 80s, or Silvio Berlusconi's constant denials of providing hookers and sex parties at his Italian villa in return for political favours (some interesting paparazzi photos on the internet for this one).

For instance: police taking payments from bar owners, shopkeepers or other establishments of perhaps questionable reputation to safeguard them from raids or closure (by all accounts rife in New York for most of the 20th century, common in London in the 50s to 70s - and possibly beyond - and documented elsewhere worldwide). 

There are plenty of other examples of corruption, but I think that's enough to be going along with.    Usually, sooner or later, the perpetrators get caught out and punsihed more or less severely.  Reagan got away scott free over the Iran - Contra affair by claiming no knowledge of it - given his subsequent death from Alzheimer's quite plausibly - , but Nixon was shamed totally after Watergate and never recovered.  In Britain a number of MPs of various parties have been kicked out of their parties and offices and in some cases imprisoned for a variety of relatively small-beer corruption (expense fiddles mostly), while the bigger fish acused of selling peerages and war crimes are still out there, making bundles of cash from the lecture circuit and high paying quangoes or company directorships where their networks of high level contacts (no matter how formed) are a source of profits and protection. 

And then there is the biggest shark of the lot.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Amazing Teflon Man, President of FIFA, Mr. Joseph "Sepp" Blatter.

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Unless you've just returned from a trip to the Andromeda Galaxy or somewhere, you will have heard of him.  He's been President of football's world governing body for getting on for 20 years now, and before that was the organization's General Secretary.  In his time in charge, FIFA has grown from a relatively small organisation that organized the World Cup every four years (and seemed to do precious little else) to a global power player that still organizes the World Cup every four years, but has turned it into such a money-making machine what with television and advertising rights that make huge profits for the organizing countries (and even more huge profits for FIFA itself) that it is able to demand - and receive - unbelievably beneficial tax concessions from the host couintries to further swell its coffers.  It has also introduced a host of rule changes that make football today a different sport to what it was twenty years ago. 

It has also produced possibly the most corrupt organization in the history of sport and quite possibly the world.  It is run by an Executive Committee of 24 members, led by good old Sepp.   Ostensibly, every member federation (there are just over 200 globally) have the final say on most matters through regular Congresses, but in all the major decisions they are presented with a fait accompli by the Executive Committee and merely vote to rubber stamp them.   The members of the Executive Committee are incredibly well rewarded - $10,000 a month retainer, $500 per diem on trips plus a further $200 a day for any travelling companions, business class travel, first class hotel accomodation, chauffeur driven limousines, free tickets in the best seats to all the top events (and not a receipt required) - and that's on top of any salaries they may earn from the parent federations.  Lucrative game, football administration!

Of course what that means is that once somebody reaches the Executive Committee they only leave it in a pine box.  Sepp has been on it for 30 odd years and top dog for nearly 15.  Some of his fellow Committee members have been on board a similar time.  They are old men - Blatter himself is 75 - and are used to a certain way of life and certain privileges and will clearly do whatever it takes to hang on to it.  They all have their little power bases, "friends" in the other federations and regional groupings - Europe, Asia, Oceania, the Americas and so on - that are carefully cultivated and kept onside by little favours and gifts in return for support in key elections and votes.   Teflon has the biggest and most carefully cultivated network of the lot, and it's helped keep him in the position all this time, through three elections.

The elections themselves have historically been farcical and an insult to the democratic principles that most organisations - including FIFA - insist they follow.  Usually come election time, a year or so's in-fighting and deal making ensures that the reigning President, if he is prepared to stay in the position, is the only candidate and thus guaranteed an election victory - coronation is probably a better description.  Blatter, being a very smart and clever political operator, has played this little game to perfection over the years.  Despite some of his more outrageous proposals he is still there and more powerful than ever.  He comes across in his interviews and press conferences as a pleasant enough man, if a little doddering now - although fluent in 5 languages his English pronunciations can be a little tortuous and rambling - but behind the Kindly Grandad image lies a very keen and machiavellian mind - not unlike other famous political manipulators and, yes, dictators, like Stalin and Peter Mandelson.  He always insists that he is only interested in serving the best interests of football and the "global FIFA family" (whatever the hell that is!), and his own opinions and feelings are secondary to this.  What bullshit!  The man is incapable of taking criticism, no matter how justified ot well meaning.

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In the past few months, Blatter and FIFA have really shown the world just how corrupt they are.

First came the vote last year for the hosting of the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.  Countries spent millions preparing their bids, enlisting the help of world famous local footballing celebrities and politicians to help sell their offerings to the FIFA members.  Billions of dollars in infrastructure projects were pledged - new stadia, new roads, new railways, new airports, all of which would benefit their citizens once the tourney were over.  Billions more were pledged in tax breaks to FIFA, broadcast and advertising rights to business partners like Coca Cola, Visa and adidas.  The organising committees toured the world pressing the flesh in a bid to secure votes and of course promises were made.  Now this is where it gets interesting - and corrupt.

Because the final decision is made not by the 208 member federations but by the 24 members of the Executive Committe, by secret ballot.    In theory, the Executive Committee members represent groups of federations and hence vote as instructed by those groupings, but in practice, it doesn't happen.  Jack Warner for instance, the Trinidad Minister for Transport and a man constantly accused of bribery and corruption, "controls" the votes of the entire Caribbean, Central and North American bloc - something like 24 votes.  Whether he carries out the wishes of those 24 nations is open to question - but what is certain is that after promising those votes for the 2018 tournament to England (promised to Prince William, no less, with a smile and a handshake) he then delivered them in favour of a competing bid - which one is not known, since the ballot is not in the least bit open to scrutiny.  There were for sure other broken promises, as the tournaments were awarded to Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022). despite their bids not being rated very highly at all by any press reviews or even by sources within FIFA itself.

Predictably, there was uproar.  Accusations of brown envelopes stuffed with roubles and oil money being passed around the hotel pre-vote abounded.  Calls for a new vote were brushed aside.  Demands for the entire Executive Committee and, of course, Blatter to resign were laughed off.  Stronger demands to open FIFA up to a thorough review of ethical practices and governance were equally refused by the organisation, with Blatter insisting there was nothing wrong, the voting was free and fair and in any case FIFA was quite capable of policing itself, thank you very much.   The whole shambles was swept uinder the carpet.

Now it just so happened that a Congress was scheduled for this year, at which there was due to be a Presidential election.  The Amazing Teflon Man announced that he would be delighted to continue with the honour and privilege of running this wonderful organiztion for a further 4 years - his usual pre-election statement.  He sat back and waited to be elected unopposed.  In the meantime, the cries for a reform of the organisation continued and strengthened, particularly after a British parliamentary enquiry made specific claims against certain high ranking FIFA officials (step forward again Mr.Jack Warner of Trinidad) and the FIFA Ethics Committee upheld the suspensions handed down just before the World Cup vote to two very senior officials (Executive Members no less) for accepting bribes (both continue to protest their innocence - appeals are pending).  Then surprise surprise, two challengers to Blatter's positions appeared.  The first was a US sports journalist, Grant Wahl, basing his bid solely on a platform to open up all FIFA's correspondence (sort of a Wikileaks expose) and reforming the entire Executive Committee and voting processes.  Predictably, he was unable to find a member Federation to support and nominate him.  The other was more credible: Sheik bin Haman, the head of the Asian Federation from (now here was a little surprise....) Qatar, who had served on the Executive Committee for many years, had been seen as a Blatter ally and headed up the successful (and suspect) bid to host 2022.  He too pledged reform, but on a less grandiose style.

Blatter was not happy, but kept his comments reasonably restrained.  Campaigning carried on for the first part of this year, both parties jockeying for position and support at the election - this time voting would be down to the entire 208 members, not the Executive Committee.  Then in the last week it all went crazy and Blatter showed his true character.  First the English FA publicly stated it could support neither candidate - they were still pissed off with losing out on the 2018 bid process and also questioned the Qatari's credentials, based on the popular and wide spread rumour that Qatar had paid a significant amount of bribes to win the 2022 bid.  Then more allegations were levelled against Warner and others, and amid the furore bin Haman withdrew from the election process.  FIFA's Ethics Committee met to consider the allegation against Warner, the Qatari and others, and even Blatter was implicated (in that it was alleged he knew sosmething might be going on but said nothing).  Warner was suspended, and responded by producing a sheaf of documents he insisted proved his innocence of any wrongdoing, including an e-mail from the FIFA General Secretary stating that Qatar had indeed "bought" the 2022 World Cup - as had been rumoured.  The General Secretary admitted sending the mail but insisted it had been taken "out of context".   Blatter was, entirely predictably, totally exonerated and walked away stating the verdict and suspensions had proved how effective and fair the internal disciplinary procedures had been.....  Finally, as delegates began arriving in Zurich for the Congress and election, the English and Scottish FAs announced that they were calling for the election to be cancelled as the lack of an opposition candidate made the entire process undemocratic and made Blatter's continued mandate untenable.  The night before Congress opened, Blatter hosted a press conference in which he insisted there was no crisis in FIFA, blamed all the "difficulties" on a scurrilous press corps and jealousy from, primarily, England, and demanded the respect of the world that he saw as his right as the long standing President of this organization.  When journalists asked perfectly acceptable questions about the validity of the election process and whether changes to the disciplinary process were being considered, he was basically very rude, ended the conference and stormed off with a final demand for respect and due deference.  It was quite extraordinary and more than a bit delusional.


Come election day, and the English delegate made his plea for cancellation from the platform and left the stage to an embarrassing silence, broken only by lukewarm applause from the English and Scottish delegations.  Thereafter federation after federation used their allotted time to accuse England of treason, attempting to poison the "FIFA family's" minds against the Blessed Sepp and all manner of collusion with the gutter press.  Of course the motion to cancel the election was kicked out by a huge majority (of 208 delegates only a handful supported the motion and a similar number abstained - but of course who those supporters were is not in the public domain).  The vote went ahead and Blatter was duly elected for another four years, by an even bigger majority.

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So there we are.  The Amazing Teflon Man remains in charge of the world game, surrounded by his power base of loyal retainers (who no doubt have been - or will be - lavishly rewardedfor their loyalty).   What will happen to bin Haman and Warner and the other officials awaiting a full disciplinary hearing is unclear - probably nothing.  Will FIFA change and become more transparent?  A little perhaps - Blatter has started his new term by promising that in future voting to host the World Cup will be open to all 208 members, but of course restricted to those candidates whose bids the Executive Committee deem worthy of consideration.  So effectively the power of Blatter and the Executive Committee has not changed at all.  He has also suggested a new committee will be formed to review the organisation's governance and disciplinary procedures, although as this review committee will be formed from within FIFA rather than from independant outside sources little is likely to change there.

How the English FA will come out of all this is anyone's guess.  They have been sidelined from the major decision making processes for years as successive delegates have failed dismally to work the politics and committee systems within FIFA, and that will certainly not change in the foreseeable future after this latest lame stand against what it (albeit honourably) sees as the continued corruption at the heart of FIFA and its President.  One thing is for sure: we'll never host a World Cup again, which means will probably never win it again either.

And the Amazing Teflon Man?  He will continue on his way, running the organisation as he sees fit.  He will probably stand again, should health allow, in four years time, and in any case will for sure continue grooming his successor behind the scenes, whoever that may be, so that his legacy will be writ in stone as the longest serving and most forward-minded President ever, who took the game to the world and made it the cash cow it undoubtedly is.

And there will be not a word about the corruption that he has brought to the table, and continues to manage in a way Uncle Joe Stalin would be proud of.