Never in the history of the beautiful game of football has it been brought into its present disrepute as the tenure of the Swiss born President of the association, Sepp Josef Blatter who has crushingly domineered the leadership of football’s governing body as he clinched a fifth term on Friday, May 29, 2015 during the FIFA Congress in Zurich, Switzerland.
The victory of Blatter could not be widely applauded globally as the corruption charges and arrests made few days to the elections against seven top officials of the body including the Vice President, Jeffery Webb has left passionate fans and major sponsors shocked at the filth and stench which Blatter’s leadership has propelled all through his four tenures.
I used to think that corruption and dictatorship in most establishment were strong features of developing nations like Nigeria until Sepp Blatter re-defined the strategy of a sit tight ruler of football obviously the biggest sport globally with strong allies and stooges in his Vice Presidents across the continent like his fellow journey man Issa Hayaotu of Africa and Jack Warner of CONCACAF just to mention a few.
What has happened in FIFA is a total disaster and if morals are still a criteria for leadership in the body, then that fateful congress which re-elected him on May 29,2015 should not have taken place till all the investigations are fully carried out and a clean bill of health given by the investigating authorities.
But his desperation for survival and power ensured that he intimidated the likes of Luis Figo away from the race while Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein stood firm till the end of the elections.
Expectedly, after his re-election, Blatter who has taken the shine off the on-going Under 20 World Cup has been trying desperately to defend his re-election and the surrounding corruption charges around the organisation he leads.
In his interview shortly after his re-election in Zurich, he claimed the arrests were times to interfere with the Zurich Congress even as IRS Officials warned of more charges while he took a swipe at Europe’s football Leaders led by Michel Platini a long time arch rival of propelling a hate campaign against him and the body.
Blatter has blamed the United States of America for providing a lee way to destabilise his administration and the entire body even as investigators last weekend extended their search to the South American country of Argentina.
He has blamed the United States for the current negative accusations on his leadership because they lost the 2022 World Cup bid to Qatar and England another major critic of his administration who lost the World Cup bid to Russia for the 2018 edition.
Obviously, the European bloc has been at Blatter’s neck over the years and the Swiss has barely survived by reaching out to developing nations soliciting for votes with more development programmes that have made them more or less stooges including the Nigeria Football Federation and the Confederation of African Football on the continental scale.
According to the United States authorities, nine officials and five sports media and promotion executives were charged in cases involving more than $ 150m in alleged bribes over a period of 24years. All indicted officials were as at last weekend expected to be extradited to the United States of America for trial. They said that the investigations exposed complex money laundering schemes, millions of Dollars in untaxed incomes and tens of millions in offshore accounts held by FIFA Officials.
At the elections proper, Blatter polled 133 votes as against 73 by Ali who was very eligible to take the contest to a second round but withdrew from the race with a warning that the world was watching and the ‘’ FIFA does not exist in a bubble’’.
Sepp Blatter is facing the biggest crisis of FIFA since its inception over a century ago, a well split body and a major concern for major sponsors who at this stage have spoken out loudly with grave misgivings on the consistent allegations of corruption in the football body over the years.
Major sponsors like Coca Cola, Budweiser, McDonalds and Visa have called for more transparency in FIFA activities as they have stated that these issues can no longer be swept under the carpet.
One of the early danger signals of Blatter’s dictatorship rule and corruption romance was the scandalous revelation when Nigeria’s Amos Adamu a then FIFA executive board member representing Africa was caught on tape negotiating for bribe towards facilitating a football projecvt in his home country.
Adamu was made a scapegoat and was summarily ‘’hit’’ by the mafia group in FIFA for being caught unguardedly in his transactions and has since served out his punishment. Now that his Vice President has been linked with corruption charges, we begin to wonder how long Blatter will hold on to his crumbling empire.
This will be his final challenge for survival for a post he has held since 1998 and will do virtually everything to deny and avoid his executives even as another interview he held with the media in Zurich on Saturday watched on cable television showed how he strongly denied any knowledge of tax evasion and other related corruption allegations on a personal note.
Like I stated earlier, the Blatter Empire is fast crumbling and he may find it difficult to survive the whole tenure even as Europe intensifies plans to boycott the 2018 World Cup if it succeeds with major players on the bloc conceiving the plot.
Unfortunately, most of the continental associations like Isa Hayatou of CAF have consistently walked the path of their mentor as sit tight rulers of football never thinking of giving space to younger and vibrant administrators as the greed and selfish pursuit for economic expansion has destroyed the administration of the game and encouraged match fixers who have become more emboldened under Blatter’s tenure to be publicly involved in match fixing exercises.
Gradually, football is in the news for the wrong reasons and not for the FIFA Under 20 World Cup has started in far away New Zealand last weekend in which African Champions the Flying Eagles of Nigeria will carry the African hope of glory and the Women World Cup in a few days time in Canada where our Super Falcons holds sway on the continent as Blatter and his legacies face the greatest test of their credibility and challenge as he resumes a record fifth term.
The Swiss born FIFA President has held the body like a gangster would dominate his territory with no fear of his daily increasing opponents within the fold and despite the age challenge on his path has consistently found a way in having a stronghold on the various associations which are about 209 as he ensures that he always, always succeeds at these crucial elections with promises of a last term.
FIFA under Sepp Blatter has lost global respect for their leadership and the present challenge today as a new page begins for his fifth term will be a new revolution of ideas that can once again bring this beautiful game on the front burner of respect on the global stage and that can be re-defined of these gangsters in our football take the honourable path of dignity in bowing out so that we can savour a stronger transparency in developing our football.
We appreciate the laudable strides he has gained in his four tenures especially for Africa with the several development programmes and increased slots at the World Cup, but the integrity of the game is at stake and the fans are worried and the men involved must not shy away from the monster they have systematically created since 1998.
When you have a close high ranking member as your Vice President involved in corruption charges with strong evidence of tax evasion lingering, then trying so hard to absolve yourself is just another mere wishful thinking. FIFA has been hijacked and the Mafia is at work.
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