DOCSLIB.ORG

Can FIFA's Corruption Be Stopped?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Can FIFA's Corruption Be Stopped? Can FIFA’s Corruption Be Stopped? The world’s governing body of soccer is reeling from a scandal involving the next two World Cups in Russia and Qatar. But making it accountable will take more than an investigation. BY ROGER PIELKE JR. ans of American football have weathered a season of scandal, with claims of F willfully disregarding knowledge of concussion damage and a culture of domestic abuse battering the National Football League's top officials. But nothing comes close to the hailstorm that surrounds the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the Swiss-based non-profit that oversees international soccer, including the quadrennial World Cup finals. Since 2010, the organization has found itself buried in an avalanche of allegations of corruption, notably surrounding how it awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar. On Wednesday, Nov. 12, FIFA released summary results of its internal investigation into the various allegations, and to the surprise of no one, found the 2018 and 2022 World Cup decisions to be "well-thought, robust, and professional." Despite uncovering a litany of dodgy episodes and running into investigatory obstacles, such as destroyed computers from the Russian delegation, FIFA concluded that "the various incidents which might have occurred are not suited to compromise the integrity of the FIFA World Cup 2018/2022 bidding process as a whole." In other words, this is basically par for the course. In many ways it is: Since October 2010, when the Sunday Times successfully pulled off a sting of FIFA Executive Committee members accepting bribes in exchange for their votes in the World Cup bidding process, it has been fairly obvious to even casual observers that something was very wrong inside international soccer's governing body. FIFA has also been criticized for its inaction over alleged human rights violations in Qatar, associated with the building of stadiums for the 2022 World Cup. And it has steadfastly supported Russia during the ongoing international concerns over its invasion and appropriation of parts of Ukraine. FIFA issued an apology last week for showing a promotional video of the 2018 World Cup that included Crimea as a part of Russia. (In addition to taking territory, Russia has also absorbed Crimean professional soccer teams into its domestic league.) UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations (itself a subset of FIFA) has declared that it will not recognize the results of Crimean clubs within the Russian league. So routine are allegations of impropriety that the general public seems no longer surprised by the chicanery; it's top executive, the long-serving autocrat Sepp Blatter, would lose badly to Dr. Evil in a popularity contest but still manages to keep an iron grip on power. But perhaps this scandal is different. One British MP called it a "whitewash." Greg Dyke, the chairman of Britain's Football Association, went further: "I don't think Fifa is a straight organisation and hasn't been for many years," he said on television. And then, in a plot twist worthy of an episode of House of Cards, no reaction to this week's FIFA announcement was more surprising than that of Michael Garcia, the U.S. investigator who was appointed by FIFA itself to prepare the 430-page investigatory report (which is being closely held by FIFA). Upon FIFA's release of its internal conclusion on the integrity of the World Cup bidding process, Garcia said that the summary of his investigation contained "numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts." The president of the Bundesliga, the German soccer league, has already put forward the unthinkable -- that UEFA might leave FIFA if Garcia's report is not released in full. FIFA appears to be having an internal struggle. Garcia has appealed the FIFA verdict on his report to its internal ethics committee. However, no one should get their hopes up for the announced outcome to be overturned. One member of that ethics committee was recently One member of that identified by the Sunday Times as a recipient of a bribe ethics committee offered by a former member of FIFA's executive was recently committee from Qatar. identified by the FIFA's troubles are hardly unique in the sports world, SS uu nn dd aa yy TT ii mmee ss as a just the most visible. For instance, the FIVB, which recipient of a bribe oversees international volleyball, has faced years of offered by a former allegations of corruption among its leaders. The IWF, member of FIFA's the International Wrestling Federation, has been the executive subject of similar accusations. So too have organizations committee from which oversee handball and cycling; the list just gets even longer. Qatar. How can such shenanigans go on? And why can't FIFA be held to even rudimentary standards of good governance? The answer is that FIFA and other international sports federations sit in a global governance void. Over the past century the world has come together, with varying levels of success, to address issues of anti-corruption, environment, and human rights. Sport however has been left pretty much on its own. For a long time, these organizations operated out of sight and faced little scrutiny. Even when they engaged in dodgy practices, there was little concern about how they did business. In part, that's because the money involved with hosting mega-events like the World Cup or the Olympics is massive. For instance, the Sochi Winter Olympics last year cost a reported $51 billion. This summer's World Cup, in Brazil, cost $15 billion -- and spurred protests across the country that the money to pay for it was siphoned from educational and social projects. People have long since stopped pretending that sport is anything other than a business, but the public does still expect that the spirit of fair play and competition will be reflected in how the organizations which put on these games do their business. The institutional details matter for understanding why FIFA officials can operate with such impunity, thumbing their noses at journalists, independent watchdogs, even governments. The organization is technically a non-profit, despite its great wealth accumulated mainly through television contracts and sponsorships. It sits in Switzerland, along with dozens of other sports organizations, where it is accountable only to Swiss law. Despite occasional threats from Swiss politicians to crack down on corruption in sports organizations, the Swiss government has done very little. Part of this is due to its structure: FIFA is a patronage organization, with decisions made by supermajority -- one country, one vote. And when FIFA doles out millions of dollars to poor countries and their football programs and teams, that buys a degree of loyalty that has kept Blatter in power for decades -- and his targeted largesse flowing. FIFA's sponsors have the potential to exert influence on how the organization operates, but to date they have only issued the occasional press release expressing concern about governance issues. FIFA and its World Cup make big money. In 2010, for instance, World Cup ball and jersey sales alone accounted for $2 billion of Adidas's total global revenue. No sponsor yet has shown an interest in killing the golden goose, no matter how badly the goose behaves. After the 2010 revelations of various irregularities in the 2018/2022 World Cup bidding process, FIFA established a good governance reform effort. This effort achieved little, despite FIFA's pronouncements of success, with its most significant result being the creation of Garcia's investigatory effort and the sanctioning body that this week found the 2018/2022 World Cup bidding process to have been "well thought, robust, and professional." FIFA can operate FIFA can operate with impunity with respect to with impunity with corruption, human rights, and international geopolitics respect to because it has very little external accountability. The corruption, human organization has shown, repeatedly, that it is just not up to the standards of good governance in the 21st century. rights, and international So what can be done? geopolitics because History provides some precedent. In 1998, the Tour de it has very little France was embroiled in a huge scandal over doping, external which came to be called the Festina affair, after the team accountability. first caught with prohibited performance-enhancing drugs. Around the same time, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) found itself caught up in its own scandal over bribes given by the Salt Lake City organizing committee, which landed the 2002 Winter Games. Jens Sejer Andersen, of the Danish non-profit Play the Game, observes that the Festina affair created enormous pressures for something to be done about doping in sport. But the organization best suited to respond to the doping problem, the IOC, had itself been damaged by the bribery scandal. So a response had to come from somewhere else. The result was the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which is governed by sports organizations and governments together. That organization was formalized under an international treaty under UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in 2005, and has become one of the world's most successful governance regimes on any topic. More than 170 nations are party to the treaty, including the United States, Iran, and North Korea. The treaty creates a framework for coordinated international policies on prohibited substances and a shared approach to investigations and sanctions. Each signatory nation is required under the treaty to establish a domestic anti-doping agency for sports that qualify for the Olympics. These bodies then police national athletes and leagues that are covered under the WADA Code, with the oversight of the supranational body.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Why the United States Should Have Jurisdiction Over Those Being Charged in the FIFA Corruption Scandal
    Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review Volume 40 Number 1 Summer 2017 Article 3 Summer 6-1-2017 Where Should They Go? Why the United States Should Have Jurisdiction over Those Being Charged in the FIFA Corruption Scandal Mike Leary Loyola Law School, Los Angeles Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/ilr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Mike Leary, Where Should They Go? Why the United States Should Have Jurisdiction over Those Being Charged in the FIFA Corruption Scandal, 40 Loy. L.A. Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 51 (2017). Available at: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/ilr/vol40/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews at Digital Commons @ Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FINAL (DO NOT DELETE) 7/10/2017 6:26 PM Where Should They Go? Why the United States Should Have Jurisdiction over Those Being Charged in the FIFA Corruption Scandal MIKE LEARY* I. INTRODUCTION On May 27, 2015, Swiss authorities arrested seven Fédération Internationale de Football Association (“FIFA”) officials at the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich on the eve of an important organizational meeting the next day.1 The Swiss authorities arrested the individuals at the behest of the United States government,
    [Show full text]
  • A Player's Perspective on the Need for Reform to Enhance Transparency and Integrity in Sports
    This content is drawn from Transparency International’s forthcoming Global Corruption Report: Sport. For more information on our Corruption in Sport Initiative, visit: www.transparency.org/sportintegrity 6.6 A player’s perspective on the need for reform to enhance transparency and integrity in sports Louis Saha1 As demonstrated by the arrests of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) executives in late May 2015 and the subsequent resignation of FIFA’s president, Sepp Blatter, a lack of transparency can mean nasty surprises with all sorts of skeletons coming out of the closet. This can potentially involve offshore dealings, bribery, electoral fraud and agents and managers taking cuts from transfers. All too commonly, however, it is not until a major incident happens that people start talking about transparency and why the sports industry urgently needs to address the lack thereof. The scope of the problem of corruption in sports The scandal over the awarding of the 2022 men’s World Cup to Qatar and FIFA’s refusal to publish the full report prepared by Michael Garcia,2 who was commissioned to look into the bidding and awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, raised even more concerns that corruption was taking place within the organisation, yet the most severe allegations of corruption died off fairly quickly in the minds of many in the global football community. Unethical agents and intermediaries are also a concern when discussing corruption and sport. These powerful individuals often benefit from payoffs that come about as a result of doing business in a ‘hidden’ and complex environment.
    [Show full text]
  • The Fifa Scandal: Lessons for the Corporate World
    THE FIFA SCANDAL: LESSONS FOR THE CORPORATE WORLD The recent arrests of numerous FIFA officials for racketeering, fraud, and money laundering and the subsequent resignation of FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, sent shockwaves throughout the soccer world. British Prime Minister, David Cameron, stated that this scandal provides an “opportunity to learn a broader lesson about tackling corruption.” This session covers what happened in FIFA and how the corporate world can learn from this to mitigate the risk of corruption when conducting business. JARROD BAKER, ACA Senior Managing Director – Forensic Accounting & Advisory Services FTI Consulting Singapore Jarrod Baker provides specialist forensic support to clients who face high-stakes litigation, complex investigations, and regulatory scrutiny. He is experienced in helping corporates with their investigative response to high-profile corruption scandals, and he previously worked in an in-house anti-corruption compliance role for a Fortune 100 company. A Chartered Accountant, Jarrod is also a Non-Executive Director of the Australian affiliate of Transparency International. DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this paper is of a general nature and is not intended to address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. It does not constitute advice, legal or otherwise, and should not be relied on as such. Professional advice should be sought prior to actions being taken on any of the information. “Association of Certified Fraud Examiners,” “Certified Fraud Examiner,” “CFE,” “ACFE,” and the ACFE Logo are trademarks owned by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Inc. The contents of this paper may not be transmitted, re-published, modified, reproduced, distributed, copied, or sold without the prior consent of the author.
    [Show full text]
  • (2016) 33 Windsor Y B Access Just 199 GLOBAL GOVERNANCE IN
    GLOBAL GOVERNANCE IN ALL ITS DISCRETE FORMS: THE GAME, FIFA, AND THE THIRD WORLD Basil Ugochukwu* This paper uses the governance praxis of the Federation of International Football1 Associations [FIFA] to illustrate the impact of several intensive, discrete, and rarely- studied global governance actors whose internal processes and procedures mirror the core concerns of Third World Approaches to International Law [TWAIL] scholars regarding the legitimation of a hegemonic category and the marginalization of Third World and subaltern interests. It is argued that FIFA has become an important international organization and global governance actor whose transnational rule-making characteristics should be studied in light of the incipient migration from “international 2 law” to “global governance”. 2016 CanLIIDocs 195 It will be shown that not only are FIFA’s rules impinging on sovereign imagination but that the tendencies of inequality, unfairness and domination afflicting the practices of traditional or state-centric international organizations are as prevalent in the procedures of such less-studied global governance actors regardless that their rule-making activities exert significant impact on governments, especially those in Africa and other parts of the Third World. More significantly, the essay looks at possible domestic political and socio- legal implications of discrete globalization of the kind exemplified by FIFA on Africa and the Third World and how important it is to integrate this concern into TWAIL scholarship going forward. Dans cet article, l’auteur cite les activités de gouvernance de la Fédération Internationale de Football Association [FIFA] pour illustrer l’impact de plusieurs acteurs de la gouvernance mondiale très actifs, discrets et faisant rarement l’objet * Post-Doctoral Fellow (International Law), Centre for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo, Canada.
    [Show full text]
  • Sociology of a Scandal
    Soccer & Society, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2016.1228591 Sociology of a scandal: the emergence of ‘FIFAgate’ Emmanuel Baylea* and Hervé Raynerb aInstitut of Sport Sciences (ISSUL), University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; bResearch Centre for Political Action (CRAPUL), University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland This article examines the social forces underlying FIFAgate. Why do corrupt practices, which are often highly consolidated or even institutionalized, suddenly become scandalous? What is a scandal? Why did FIFA fall into crisis in 2015 and not before? To answer these questions, it is necessary to look at the sequence of thrusts and parries between all the parties involved. Our analysis embraces the notion that social processes are based on relationships in order to provide insights into why and how denunciations can lead to long-tolerated corrupt practices sud- denly becoming compromising enough to force an organization’s leaders to implement measures that would have previously been unimaginable. We use mul- tiple sources to examine the emergence of FIFAgate and the way FIFA overcame previous critical situations, describing how FIFA neutralized earlier allegations and developed a remarkable ‘resilience’ to scandal. Finally, we analyse the suc- cessive mobilizations whose domino effect led to the emergence of FIFAgate and the measures FIFA took to contain the scandal. Our research enabled us to draw up a new theoretical model for analysing corruption scandals. Introduction Christian Favre, journalist, radio news presenter: ‘To conclude, does Sepp Blatter, as we are often told, does he run his FIFA honestly or not?’ Joël Robert, journalist, head of the sports desk: ‘Well, you know, he runs it honestly because, logically and legally, there have been legal proceedings, but Blatter and FIFA have never been caught out.
    [Show full text]
  • The Corruption of Global Football
    The Corruption of Global Football Dylan Curry 2 December 2015 The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) acts at the international governing body of association football, futsal, and beach football. From a once humble start in 1904, the organization now governs the sport between 208 member countries (BBC, 2015). This includes the countries under the continental football bodies of CONMEBOL (South America) and CONCACAF (Caribbean, Central, and North America), who oversee major tournaments such as the Gold Cup and Copa America. FIFA is also responsible for the most- watched sporting event in the world, the World Cup, which generates billions of dollars in revenue between corporate sponsors, broadcasting rights, and merchandising (BBC, 2015). Over the past decade, investigative journalists and whistleblowers have linked FIFA leadership with corruption, bribery, and alleged vote rigging. These allegations have not only made them question the ethical corporate culture that FIFA has housed, but has led to an ongoing enquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States and the indictment of fourteen people in connection with serious criminal charges, such as racketeering. In 2006, British Investigative journalist Andrew Jennings published his book, Foul! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging, and Ticket Scandals, which led to the production of two television exposes about the corruption inside the organization (Jennings, 2006). Nearly a decade later, in the wake of proposed anti-corruption reforms following continued allegations, FIFA president Sepp Blatter hired U.S. attorney Micheal J. Garcia as an ethics investigator. Garcia then spent eighteen months and six million pounds to produce the three- hundred-and-fifty page Garcia Report in September 2014, which was never fully made public (Sinnott, 2015).
    [Show full text]
  • FIFA Model United Nations 2020
    Fédération Internationale de Football Association London International Model United Nations 21st Session | 2020 1 London International FIFA Model United Nations 2020 Table of Contents Introduction to the Committee 6 Topic A: Dealing with Corruption in FIFA 8 Introduction 8 Key Definitions 9 Timeline of Events/ Discussion of Topic 11 Bloc Position 20 Conclusion 21 Further Reading 22 Topic B: 2021 FIFA Club World Cup, Bidding Process 28 Introduction 29 Definitions 30 Timeline of Events 31 Discussion 35 Bloc Positions 36 Conclusion 38 Further Reading 39 Bibliography 40 2 London International FIFA Model United Nations 2020 INTRODUCTION LETTER Distinguished delegates of the FIFA Committee, We would like to welcome you to LIMUN 2020. We are more than proud to have you in our committee and we do hope that you will have a fruitful time while debating upon crucial issues within the FIFA sessions. Your devotion, hard work and responsibility are required not only during the conference but also before your arrival in the magical city of London. You will have to conduct detailed research to k´ow your country’s policy and be able to think of innovative solutions for our topics. That consists a prerequisite so that you can have a unique experience. We firmly believe that this study guide will become food for thought to you who are accepting the challenge of writing an excellent resolution at the end of LIMUN. Apart from that, we do hope that all of you will leave the conference with a better understanding of how the UN works. We look forward to hearing your ideas this February; simultaneously we promise that we will do our best so that these days will become an unforgettable MUN story.
    [Show full text]
  • • UNCAC Open-Ended Inter-Governmental Working Group
    UNCAC Open-ended Inter-governmental Working Group on Prevention of • Corruption (22-24 August, 2016, Vienna) The use of information and communication technologies for the implementation ofthe UNCAC Information and communications technologies (leT) have been hailed as the answer to practical problems of increasing transparency and public accountability in public administration. leT can make it easier for citizens to scrutinize government activity and to voice concerns and opinions about its performance. The use of leT in public administration also presents two types of corruption prevention challenges. The first is that fraudulent activity in public administration, as elsewhere, can be made easier and more damaging by using leT. Secondly corruption risks can arise from the increasing depe-ndence of public sector agencies on leT to run their operations. Both the purchase and maintenance of leT systems requires technical expertise that may be lost as public administration prioritizes core functions over administrative support. Buying in this expertise without due diligence exposes public authorities to the challenges of a contractor workforce mentioned earlier but with the potential for greater damage than in many other administrative support functions. The core challenge is in maintaining costly expertise. leT plays a role in preventing corruption not only in accountability and transparency but also by supporting the quality of an organization's operational efficiency and robust internal ~!overnance. Inside public sector agencies, electronic records management systems can improve the quality, reliability - and even the existence - of public records and administrative performance generally. Electronic data can also facilitate more efficient auditing and ex post investigation of processes and analysis of corruption risks that can be used as strategic intelligence to improve systems.
    [Show full text]
  • European Parliament Resolution of 11 June 2015 on Recent Revelations on High-Level Corruption Cases in FIFA (2015/2730(RSP)) (2016/C 407/12)
    4.11.2016 EN Official Journal of the European Union C 407/81 Thursday 11 June 2015 P8_TA(2015)0233 Recent revelations of high-level corruption cases in FIFA European Parliament resolution of 11 June 2015 on recent revelations on high-level corruption cases in FIFA (2015/2730(RSP)) (2016/C 407/12) The European Parliament, — having regard to the Commission’s EU Anti-Corruption Report of 3 February 2014 (COM(2014)0038), — having regard to the Commission communication of 6 June 2011 entitled ‘Fighting Corruption in the EU’ (COM(2011) 0308), — having regard to Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2015 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing (1), — having regard to the Commission communication of 18 January 2011 entitled ‘Developing the European Dimension in Sport’ (COM(2011)0012), — having regard to its resolution of 2 February 2012 on the European dimension in sport (2), — having regard to the Commission White Paper on Sport of 11 July 2007 (COM(2007)0391), — having regard to the resolution of the Council and of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States meeting within the Council of 21 May 2014 on the European Union Work Plan for Sport 2014-2017, — having regard to its resolution of 14 March 2013 on match-fixing and corruption in sport (3), — having regard to the Resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe of 23 April 2015 on the reform of football governance, — having regard to the new
    [Show full text]
  • FIFA Corruption Issue Has Been Covered from Media All Over the World, and This Issue May Harm FIFA’S Reputation, Especially Among Partners and Stakeholders
    Public Relations Journal Vol. 11 Issue 2 (October 2017) © 2017 Institute for Public Relations Managing the Reputation of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA): The case of the corruption crisis Labiba Abdel Naby. Ibrahim Lecturer, Mass Communication Department, Faculty of Arts, Helwan University (HU), Egypt Abstract Reputation management is essential to associations, particularly after a crisis. As an example, a corruption crisis happened after Swiss authorities arrested some Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) officials and issued criminal charges regarding bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup. There is considerable scrutiny of how profit and nonprofit corporations manage their reputations after crises, with less attention focused on international associations. This case study examines how FIFA used the media and communication strategies to protect its reputation after the corruption scandal of May 2015. We analyze FIFA news releases, examine press conferences, and investigate its website, including how this crisis affected relationships with stakeholders (largely sponsors and partners).It is understood that reputation management and open communication channels help rebuild trust. This study shows that FIFA depended on a “Deny strategy” to avoid responsibility, as there was no benefit in using the mass media. They organized a press conference to make a few statements via their official website, with little media use. Keywords: FIFA's reputation, reputation management, crisis communication, FIFA, crisis management. Introduction Sport is a multi-billion-dollar, worldwide industry. Most countries compete against each other for the right to hold sporting events including the Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, America's Cup and other such events principally for financial development purposes (Ben Sulaymen et al., 2013, p 20).
    [Show full text]
  • Bulletin TAS CAS Bulletin
    Bulletin TAS CAS Bulletin 2017/1 TRIBUNAL ARBITRAL DU SPORT/COURT OF ARBITRATION FOR SPORT __________________________________________________________________ Bulletin TAS CAS Bulletin 2017/1 Lausanne 2017 Table des matières/Table of Contents Editorial ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 Articles et commentaires / Articles and Commentaries ................................................................ 5 ISGGO: A Proposal for Sport Governance Oversight Namrata Chatterjee, Chiheb Kaibi, Ivan Kraljević, and Adrienne Lerner .................................... 6 Jurisprudence majeure / Leading Cases ...................................................................................... 34 CAS 2015/A/4262 Pape Malickou Diakhaté v. Granada CF, Bursaspor Kulübü, Kayseri Erciyesspor & FIFA CAS 2015/A/4264 Granada CF v. Pape Malickou Diakhaté, Bursaspor Kulübü, Kayseri Erciyesspor & FIFA 4 October 2016 .................................................................................................................................... 35 CAS 2016/A/4416 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) v. Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol & Brian Fernández 7 November 2016 (operative part 8 July 2016) ............................................................................... 41 CAS 2016/A/4462 Hellas Verona FC v. FK Donji Srem 11 October 2016 .................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • FIFA and the Absence of Accountability in Switzerland Bruce W
    Maryland Journal of International Law Volume 32 | Issue 1 Article 5 The eP rfect Crime? FIFA and the Absence of Accountability in Switzerland Bruce W. Bean Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mjil Recommended Citation Bruce W. Bean, The Perfect Crime? FIFA and the Absence of Accountability in Switzerland, 32 Md. J. Int'l L. 68 (2017). Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mjil/vol32/iss1/5 This Symposium: Articles and Essays is brought to you for free and open access by the Academic Journals at DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maryland Journal of International Law by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 5_FINAL_BEAN_ (DO NOT DELETE) 11/6/2017 2:12 PM The Perfect Crime? FIFA and the Absence of Accountability in Switzerland PROFESSOR BRUCE W. BEAN† The true test of a man’s character is what he will do when no one is watching. John Wooden1 INTRODUCTION In 1904 the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, universally known as FIFA, was established to organize, govern and promote “football,” the sport North Americans and Australians call “soccer.” Football has hundreds of millions of participants everywhere on Earth. Four-year old girls and boys and multi-millionaire superstars play this game, unquestionably the world’s most popular sport. In May and December 2015 the United States Department of Justice released two indictments charging more than forty FIFA-affiliated persons and entities with bribery and other corrupt transactions extending over twenty-four years.
    [Show full text]