Mohammed Bin Hamman's lifetime ban from
all FIFA activities has been lifted by the Court of Arbitration for
Sport. He was last
year found guilty by a FIFA panel of inquiry for attempting to
bribe CONCACAF officials into supporting his bid for FIFA presidency.
Once more the world's most popular
sport plunges into bureaucratic anarchy, unable to focus on anything
other than defending themselves against accusations of self interest
and greed. Much of the glare will be aimed squarely at Sepp Blatter:
the incumbent president was elected unopposed when Bin
Hammam withdrew his candidacy after speculation as to his conduct
arose.
Expect this one to stay before the
courts for a loooooong time.
FIFA can now no longer accomplish
anything without suit, controversy, speculation and countersuit. Any
real work the governing body should be doing – like, say, rooting
out corruption – is sidetracked by eternal self-defence. As an
entity, FIFA has become so unwieldy and submerged in legalese that it
seems to exist only to perpetuate their own power.
Any accomplishment whatsoever defies
the
contented inertia emanating from Zurich.
In the excellent (if slightly
repetitive) book The
Dictator's Handbook – Why bad behaviour is almost always good
politics, two US academics
assert there are five rules employed by each “successful”
dictator. These rules allow a leader to stay in power almost
indefinitely. All were followed – one way or another – by
absolute rulers such as Gaddafi, Mubarak
and Castro.
Those
five rules, broken down, are:
- Keep the ruling powers small
- Keep the “electorate” large
- Control the money
- Pay your supporters just enough to keep 'em loyal and
- Never take money from your supporters to make the population's life any better
It was
one of those matter-of-fact moments when I realised all of these
rules are explicitly – if not consciously – followed at FIFA
headquarters.
Points
one and two involve staying in power by abusing the electoral
process, a skill at which Robert Mugabe excels. The ruling power is
FIFA's
Executive committee, of which there are twenty-four members;
however, it can be said that only ten of these members have any
substantive power. Secondly, the greater “electorate” involves
all the governing bodies of all 209 recognised FIFA member nations.
When
it comes to money, FIFA's main source of finance is the World Cup,
which is doled out on cough, cough “merit”.
It's the single most lucrative month in football, the prototypical
golden-laying fowl, and enough to make politicians and administrators
all over the world treat
FIFA "dignitaries" with more respect than visiting heads of
state. Any member of this cadre wants to stay - so they are
paid just enough to keep them from upsetting the apple cart.
Finally, why would any of these members risk the gravy train to give
the average fans what they want?
Of
course, this may all be just coincidence – these principles aren't
necessarily applied only by dictators or absolute rulers, just those
whose primary aim is to stay in power. Coincidence or no, there are
just too many similarities for comfort.
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