NOVEMBER 15 ― As you will have heard, the farcical soap opera surrounding FIFA’s ludicrous decision to hand the World Cup 2022 hosting rights to Qatar has taken another twist this week.
The latest development in the saga has been the publication by football’s “governing” body (apostrophes fast becoming obligatory) of a supposedly independent report which, ahem, amazingly clears FIFA of any serious wrongdoing, quickly followed by a strong condemnation of that report by the man who compiled it in the first place, the American lawyer Michael Garcia.
From my admittedly sceptical viewpoint, the only surprise is that anyone could be surprised.
FIFA has, over the last few years, repeatedly betrayed itself as a corrupt and secretive old boys’ network, and any “independent” (again, note the apostrophes) report it conducts could only ever come to the conclusion that everything is squeaky clean in the house of Sepp.
Perhaps, on reflection, there is one more surprising thing: the fact that Garcia wasn’t paid off by FIFA to keep his mouth shut and his true findings quiet because, from the moment Qatar was announced as winner of the bid, the whole saga has stunk.
Just consider the facts: Qatar is a country with no footballing tradition, none of the infrastructure required to stage such a major event, an utterly unsuitable climate and a government routinely accused of human rights abuses.
However, it is also a country with pot loads of cash.
Add those factors together, and how could the decision to award the World Cup to Qatar be anything but corrupt?
Unfortunately, FIFA is by no means the only decadent, self-serving organisation within sport because the more closely you study it, the more you are forced to reach the sad conclusion that the whole industry sadly is firmly entrenched in corruption and unethical practises, which can be perhaps broken down into four different categories.
Firstly, match fixing and the manipulation of results by illegal bookmakers. Far more sporting contests are affected by this disease then we will ever know, I strongly suspect, and it's difficult to see how it can ever be completely stamped out: there will always be people looking to profit in an unethical manner from the universal temptation to gamble on sporting events.
Secondly, doping. Again, I am convinced a significant number of performers across all sports use or have used performance enhancing drugs and, once more, it is not something which can be easily eradicated when the stakes are so high and rewards for success are so great.
Thirdly, sport is obviously afflicted by the culture of bungs, back-handers and nepotism which surely played a fundamental role in determining the outcome of the 2022 World Cup bid, with so many men in power (note deliberate use of “men”: women are rarely allowed to attain positions of authority in sport) abusing their positions for personal gain and the advancement of disreputable friends and associates.
And finally ― and perhaps this is the category of unethical behaviour which could be most successfully regulated, if there was enough collective will ― there is the hypocrisy of sporting organisations in their claims to operate in a socially responsible manner whilst in reality doing in many ways the very opposite.
FC Barcelona, to pick rather unfairly just one example, make a great deal of fuss about the community and charity work they carry out ― and rightly so because a lot of it is very worthwhile and makes a genuinely positive difference to people's lives.
However, at the same time they have also entered into a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with Qatar Airways, which is owned by the Qatari government, which is heavily suspected of directly or indirectly funding militant Islamic terrorist organisations as well as abusing the human rights of its citizens and immigrant workers on a daily basis.
That is by no means the only example of an utterly inappropriate sporting sponsorship deal, because sport in general has a tendency to be ethically blind when selecting its commercial sponsors and partners, simply accepting the money from the highest bidder rather than giving any serious thought to the practices of the organisations with which it is prepared to be aligned.
As another example, many sportswear companies, most infamously Nike, have a dreadful history in exploiting their workers, especially those employed by outsourced companies, by providing minimal wages and dangerous working conditions. Many of us, I am sure, would feel a sense of guilt about kicking a ball around on a field or pulling on a replica jersey if we knew exactly the conditions under which they had been manufactured.
None of this should be surprising because, in the modern world, sport is big business and, like any big business, the perils of corruption and unethical behaviour are never far away.
But perhaps sport has historically been given an easier ride than most industries because it is in the entertainment business, an essentially light-hearted endeavour which is intended for enjoyment, excitement and glamour ― a fairytale escape from the real world.
I don’t think that’s right, though. Do you? And if enough of us object, maybe one day we can force sport to clean up its act.
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
