Examining the Governance and Integrity of International Soccer
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Global Media Sport: Flows, Forms and Futures
Rowe, David. "Tactical Manoeuvres, Public Relations Disasters and the Global Sport Scandal." Global Media Sport: Flows, Forms and Futures. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2011. 115–143. Globalizing Sport Studies. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 24 Sep. 2021. <http:// dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781849661577.ch-006>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 24 September 2021, 23:48 UTC. Copyright © David Rowe 2011. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 6 Tactical Manoeuvres, Public Relations Disasters and the Global Sport Scandal Publicity: the good, the bad and the spaces between Sport, from its inception in modernity, has been intimately connected to international relations and trade. It has been especially effective in this regard because, despite being suffused with politics and signifi cantly commodifi ed, sport somehow still manages to present itself and to be seen by many as somehow above and beyond the mundane world of political and economic conduct. Developing international relationships through sport – so-called sport diplomacy – is viewed as a reasonably safe, benign way of making friends and managing confl icts (Levermore and Budd 2004). There are several historical examples, ranging from the so-called ping-pong diplomacy that brought the United States and Communist China into contact in the early 1970s (Xu 2008) to the attempted use of the Olympics to improve relations between North and South Korea (Merkel 2008). When, for example, in 2006 Australia left the Oceania Football Confederation for the larger Asian Football Confederation, the non-sporting justifi cation was that of ‘football diplomacy’: Sport … provides a common point of conversation between societies. -
(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. -
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. -
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). -
A Football Leader with Rare Courage
Play-the-game-Magazine-2002.qxd 11-06-2003 11:41 Side 6 THE SOCCER DRAMA GOES ON The months after "Play the game" brought new important chap- ters to the drama about FIFA in which its president Sepp Blatter and the British reporter Andrew Jennings from the Daily Mail play important - though very different - roles. A football leader December The authorities in Zürich legal proceedings against Blatter due to lack of evidence. Blatter had been reported to the police in May by 11 of 24 members of the FIFA Executive Committee as with rare courage a reaction to a report on alleged irregularities written by the then secretary general, Michel Zen-Ruffinen. The prosecutor in Zürich says that the Executive Committee had approved of some of the actions that Blatter was accused of. He When a handful of international soccer leaders also states that some of the actions may have been considered irregular in other company types than FIFA. According to the suddenly pulled out, Jim Stjerne Hansen gave a crown witness Zen-Ruffinen, he himself was never questioned during the police investigation. last-minute accept to oppose the critics of FIFA January When questioned by Andrew Jennings about ballot rigging at By Steen Bille the FIFA presidential elections in 1998 and 2002, Sepp Blatter admits that "mistakes had been made and now I will take action." An internal investigation is set up against Jack Warner, ne of Play the game's most lively Jim Stjerne Hansen took Jennings and president of CONCACAF and a close ally of Blatter. -
The Planning and Hosting of Sports Mega-Events: Sources, Forms and the Prevention of Corruption
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 3.6 The planning and hosting of sports mega-events: sources, forms and the prevention of corruption John Horne1 Introduction Writing as the revelations about alleged corruption at the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the dramatic resignation speech of the organisation’s president, Sepp Blatter, are still being digested,2 it is all too easy to consider corruption as yet another form of bread and circuses entertainment provided by sport. Individuals – the ‘bad guys’ and the ‘good guys’ – are being identified, and in some cases mocked and vilified for alleged abuses of entrusted power for their own private gain (such as Blatter, Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer of, or once of, FIFA),3 or praised and celebrated for doggedly tracking them down (such as English investigative reporter Andrew Jennings).4 Individuals are easier to identify than complex systems, however. This can allow the structure that enables corruption to remain intact. The structure of the system is the ‘elephant in the room’; just as the ‘criminogenic environment of the financial system’5 was responsible for the economic crash of 2007–8, it is necessary to consider the crisis of international sport as part of a systemic crisis. This article sketches some of the ways in which corruption risks enter into the planning and hosting of sports mega- events. It recognises that the sources, forms and consequences of corruption are ‘embedded within political and economic systems. -
CAF) Senior Official Linked to Another Marketing Rights Scandal
Confederation of African Football (CAF) Senior Official linked to another marketing rights scandal ñ CAF President Isaa Hayatou and Secretary General Hicham el Amrani held accountable for breach of Egyptian Competition Law (ECL) ñ Criminal charges result from investigations by ECA and allegations from Egyptian company, Presentation Sports Cairo, 15th March 2017: The Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) continues to press forward with allegations against Confederation of African Football President Issa Hayatou and General Secretary Hicham El Amrani with claims of failing to open up the tender for the media rights of the main regional football competitions in Africa for the next 12 years up to 2028 – a deal reported to be worth $1 billion Hayatou and Al Amrani are facing a Criminal Trial referred by the Egyptian Prosecutor’s Office on 7th March, for engaging in anti-competitive practices, following criminal charges pressed by ECA. Court hearings started on Monday, March 13. The charges are bolstered by allegations of unethical conduct, made by Presentation Sports – An Egyptian company engaged in broadcasting sport events, particularly football games – against CAF for renewing their exclusive contract with French firm Lagardère Sports which expired in 2016, without conducting an open and transparent bid procedure with other prospective organizations. Cited as an abuse of dominant position by Presentation Sports, CAF sold the media rights to Lagardère Sports awarding them exclusive marketing and media rights for two consecutive terms up to 2028, with a priority right for further extension of exclusivity until the year 2036 – an act which can subject viewers to unjustified costs when watching CAF’s football competitions, and prevent potential competitors from entering designated markets. -
Statement of Andrew Jennings BBC Investigative Reporter Specialising in FIFA Corruption
1 Statement of Andrew Jennings BBC Investigative reporter specialising in FIFA corruption July 19, 2015 Chairman Moran, Senator Blumenthal and Members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Let's start by honouring America's soccer players and the gracious way they - and the other 23 teams – conducted themselves at the Women's World Cup. That contrasts, sadly, with the deficiencies of the US Soccer Federation, frightened to upset President Blatter 's corrupt FIFA - while enjoying the elite lifestyle he provides. We are here to discuss how American soccer relates to FIFA. I note the absence of your FIFA delegate Mr Sunil Gulati. I'm an investigative reporter. I write books and present documentaries for the BBC. I have worked with CBS Sixty Minutes and with Frank Deford at HBO's Real Sport. I have reported from war zones in Beirut, Chechnya and Central America. I am not a sports reporter; send me to the game and I may get the score wrong. I am proud of being the only reporter in the world banned by Blatter because of my disclosures of his corruption over the last 13 years. 2 Before stumbling upon the FIFA lowlifes I had experience of Organised Crime, filming nose to nose with the Mafia in Palermo. Blatter's FIFA ticks all the boxes defining an OC syndicate. Seizing and holding power; massive stealing; running rackets, compromising and outwitting the public authorities. Hiding their criminality behind the world's most popular game. After 7 years probing these sleazebags and putting up with their legal threats and attacks on my computers I was invited to meet FBI Special Agents in London. -
Reforming FIFA from the Inside Out
V ANDERBILT J OURNAL of T RANSNATIONAL L AW VOLUME 52 MARCH 2019 NUMBER 2 Reforming FIFA from the Inside Out Steven A. Bank* ABSTRACT In response to an unprecedented crisis that has been called “the World Cup of Fraud,” the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, or FIFA, has undertaken a series of reform measures in the last several years. Most of these reforms have focused on attempting to break the cycle of corruption among football insiders by bringing in more outsiders, including independent chairs of both the Ethics Committee and Audit and Compliance Committee, as well as individuals to serve in executive positions who had not previously been involved in the sport at any level. Such an outsider-focused reform strategy takes a page from the US corporate governance playbook, which has increasingly come to rely upon independent directors as a way to keep the interests of management insiders aligned with the interests of shareholders. This Article argues that, rather than focusing on bringing in more outsiders, FIFA should harness the power of insiders. The evidence is mixed as to whether independent directors are effective in public corporations, but it is even less clear in the case of nonprofit corporations where there are no stockholders to which the independent directors report. This model is particularly inappropriate in the case of FIFA, which does not even have the donors or government oversight that are present in US nonprofits. By contrast, FIFA insiders were instrumental in spurring the investigations that led to the US indictments in 2015 * Paul Hastings Professor of Business Law, UCLA School of Law. -
Magazin 2002
Play-the-game-Magazine-2002.qxd 11-06-2003 11:40 Side 1 DGI-byen, Copenhagen November 10th to 14th , 2002 Play the game Who’s got the power? Stories from the 3rd international conference for media professionals in a globalised sports world Aidan White · Alina Bernstein · Anders Levinsen · Anders Bülow · Andrew Jennings · Anita White · Anne-Marie Kappelgaard · Barrie Houlihan · Bente Klarlund Pedersen · Berit Skirstad · Bjarne Ibsen · Bo Berglund · Brian Mikkelsen · Christiane Ayotte · Claus Bøje · Colin Tatz · Craig Reedie · Declan Hill · Dirk Lund Christensen · Emma Stanford · Ezequiel F. Moores · Gary Wicks · Gerd von der Lippe · Gerhard Treutlein · Gertrud Pfister · Giselher Spitzer · Gunilla Lindberg · Gunnar Hermansson · Hans Bonde · Hans B. Skaset · Henning Eichberg · Henrik Larsen · Henrik H. Brandt · Herbert Hartmann · Ivan Waddington · Jean Paul Marthoz · Jens Weinreich · Jens Brinch · Jens Sejer Andersen · Jim Stjerne Hansen · Joe Hena · John Bale · John Hoberman · Jørn Møller · Kari Fasting · Lars Martin Kaupang · Lars Haue-Pedersen · Laura Robinson · Marcia Sage · Max Rasmussen · Michael Friedberg · Michael Nybrandt · Milan Petkovic · Nils Mulvad · Olukayode Thomas · Peter Schjerling · Petter Riiser · Prisca Massao · Rasmus Damsgaard · Richard H. McLaren · Robert Davies · Sandro Donati · Sigmund Loland · Sun Weijia · Søren Schultz Jørgensen · Søren-Mikael Hansen · Torben Ulrich · William Glenwright www.play-the-game.org Play-the-game-Magazine-2002.qxd 11-06-2003 11:40 Side 2 EDITORIAL By Jens Sejer Andersen, Director of Play the game If sport is to be freed from its maladies, the cure is“ at hand. Open and unrestricted dialogue, good and transparent governance and delegation of power ... to all stakeholders who care about human values in sport ” A home for the homeless questions efore the opening of the third internatio- legations of mismanagement against FIFA presi- transparent governance and delegation of power .. -
Pdf of All Accepted Abstracts
FIFA: How Havelange got it Abstract ID: PTG-2015-76 - (121) All authors: Anibal Chaim Date submitted: 2015-10-05 Date accepted: 2015-10-06 Type: Academic Keywords: Havelange; FIFA; Brazil; dictatorship; military Category: Governments vs. fixers: Will the rule of law beat the law of the jungle? Synopsis: This paper aims to elucidate the process through which Jean Havelange – FIFA’s president between 1974 and 1998 – got arrangements with national football directors from Africa and Asia, with the Brazilian military dictatorship and even with Pelé in order to get elected for the first time in 1974. We also aim to evidence that this man took Brazilian people’s money to run his campaign. Abstract: Results: This is a research based on investigation of Brazilian newspapers and secondary sources between the years 1968 and 1974. Discussion: In Brazil, this period is known as the one in which the highest levels of brutality and repression were imposed on the population. For those who are unfamiliar with the Brazilian political history, the greatest reference about Brazil for this period regards sports: it was in Mexico's 1970 World Cup that Brazil enchanted the world, became champion for the third time and got the Jules Rimet Cup. Few people know, however, that the investment done for winning the 1970's World Cup was set in a much broader political level by the Brazilian government, and that its achievement by the national team was a major mark not only for football in Brazil, but also for the military who were ruling at the time. -
Player and Referee Conflicting Interests and the 2010 FIFA World Cuptm
Player and referee Conflicting interests and the 2010 FIFA World CupTM Edited by Collette Schulz Herzenberg Monograph 169 April 2010 Contents Acknowledgements � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �iii About the authors � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � v Abbreviations � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � vii Chapter 1 Introduction � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 1 Collette Schulz Herzenberg Chapter 2 Soccer City: What it says about the murky world of government tenders 21 Rob Rose Chapter 3 Tendering irregularities in the Eastern Cape � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 51 Eddie Botha and Gcina Ntsaluba Chapter 4 How FIFA corruption empowers global capital � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 73 Andrew Jennings Chapter 5 FIFA’s ‘official’ suppliers: Shadowy tenders and conflicts of interest at Match � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 99 Rob Rose Chapter 6 Public loss, FIFA’s gain: How Cape Town got its ‘white elephant’ � � � � � � � 133 Karen Schoonbee and Stefaans Brümmer Monograph 169 i Chapter 7 Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium: Arch of hope or yoke of debt? � � � � �169 Sam Sole Chapter 8 Conclusions and recommendations