🪓FIFA: The Fall of the Fraud.
[#2] Tale of Chaos: Two Sides, All Nights, A Billion Eyes, Fraud rise; Still no one fights!
F I F A.
Fédération Internationale de Football Association.
What comes to your mind when you hear FIFA?
Football?
Messi?
Ronaldo?
Neymar? MBappe?
…the whole world rejoicing together?
Countries’ love and loss?
Do you know what’s silenced 🤐 in these celebrations?
Corruption!
Conspiracy!
Bribery!
Fraud!
Money Laundering!
The brutal reality behind this is truly SHOCKING…
It would take more than 90 minutes to break down an organisation which is kicking the world in the shins with its trust, impact and fraud at this level.
Can the glory of the world be bruised for money, by money?
Can unanimous power make you ignore the important things?
Can a group of 14-15 people manipulate the world by selling unit aspirations?
These were the questions raised by fellow immigrants working to build a world-class stadium in a country that has neither qualified nor played football before.
Let’s deep dive and understand why the whole world gave FIFA, a 🟥 (RED) card:
TALE OF THE TAPE
*opening whistle*
*THE FIRST HALF OF THE BREAKDOWN GAME BEGINS…*
Trust is a funny word.
If it’s lived, people are destroyed.
If it’s broken, people are destroyed.
If it’s ignored, people are destroyed.
Many actions, same result.
That’s the whistle of FIFA.
The 2022 World cup is the worst, weird and waste of FIFA’s prestige.
“But what is the exact reason for this downfall?”
The answer lies in the “Fs” of their story…
FIFA is one of the biggest phenomena celebrated by everyone around the globe, regardless of creed, nationality, or culture;
Football is life.
FIFA was Football.
Exactly.
Was.
And that’s being recited by this quadra-ripple tournament which is a prestigious status to those who feel it is beyond just a sport.
It would be unfair to understand the essence of a business that’s 118 years old on the surface.
In 1928, FIFA soiled itself as one of the most beloved organisations in the world.
In 2022, FIFA has a reputation for being the most corrupt, criminal and scandalous organisation in the world.
Wait, what happened in this span of 100 yrs, where one couldn’t understand the underlying goal of this posing organisation?
That’s way too quick to jump to a conclusion in the future’s past.
Let’s get on the ground, stretch some legs, without any offsides — play on both sides and demystify this ball of chaos:
THE HISTORY OF FIFA.
THE FOUNDATION OF THE FRAUD
Before the idea of the World Cup took place, the football championship arranged as a part of the Summer Olympics was placed on the highest pedestal.
But in the 1920s, the game was facing a transition to professionalism that wasn't consistent with the Olympic spirit.
FIFA, consisting of the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, made plans to organize a World Cup.
The decision of arranging the first edition was officially declared on May 26, 1928.
The first-ever World Cup was held in Uruguay, not only because they had won the Olympic edition twice but also because they were willing to bear all the travel and accommodation costs of all the teams.
FIFA stretched past Europe with the provision of South Africa in 1908, Argentina and Chile in 1912, and Canada and the United States in 1913.
The First ever World Cup, in 1930, averaged 517 million live audience viewers.
Fast-forward to 2018, 1.1 billion viewers throughout the 90-minute contest when the superstar met the underdogs — France v/s Croatia aired for the world cup final.
But the excitement and anticipation of the first World Cup held in the Middle East have been overshadowed by complaints about its organization,
This is where the first embarkment of fraud is hinted…
Argentina hosted the World Cup in 1978.
This is the same timeline as when Argentina experienced a military coup.
This dictatorship had crushed protests and thousands of dissidents disappeared overnight and were tortured and murdered.
But all were buried in silence under the roars of the fans awaiting that year’s FIFA world cup; ‘cause it was the only way to perish the problems.
With all these foundations being settled and FIFA becoming a cult — this organization needed fuel to survive within the periodical hiatus of 4 years.
To run this kind of gigantic organization you need brains.
Not the average joe, but some brilliant marketers, extravagant leaders and businessman.
That’s when the real transformation started to take shape!
All the way back in 1974, the realisation of how to fuel a business with money laundering was taking a plight.
The man credited with the vision was joão Havelange, the Brazilian businessman and swimmer, who came to power and quickly hired a Swiss technical director Sepp Blatter, who had experience in public relations, with the intent to get sponsors on board because FIFA didn’t have any money until they did. This changed things, for better and worse.
When FIFA was created, it was as much of a gentleman’s club as an international association.
Just being on the list of nations which will be competing in the FIFA world cup is a symbol of international recognition.
Their problem entangled them with issues concerning the global world and human rights.
FIFA’s bribery and corruption germinates with their acts in South Africa near the end of the apartheid regime and contributed to the end of such a problematic system;
But when Nigeria was finally allowed into the league, it signalled a major breakthrough in condemning apartheid and promoting unity throughout the country.
In the past decade, a slew of news and reports have come out detailing the inner corruption of FIFA’s top executives, including, but not limited to bribes, vote rigging, ticket scandals and money laundering.
With such heavy accusations pointing fingers at them, one might think the organization is sweating under the glare of it all and yet FIFA has not appeared to address these issues in any sort of comprehensive manner over the years.
Not in a manner that would appease its audience.
With the run from 1974’s military masquerade to the 2000s era; everything was normal.
But the next decade of defining a serious carving as key players were popping up which had the whole world shaken to their greed.
The world’s most synonymous name “FIFA” is about to tumble…but why?
*whistle*
*END OF FIRST HALF*
*whistle*
*THE SECOND HALF OF THE BREAKDOWN GAME BEGINS…*
THE $220 BILLION DOLLAR FIFA TICKET
(THE WORLD’S MOST CONTROVERSIAL WORLD CUP IN FIFA’S HISTORY)
Since 1988, Joseph "Sepp" Blatter has been president of FIFA;
Under his leadership, football has increased in global popularity and become financially successful beyond imagination.
But while FIFA portrayed itself as a modest nonprofit doing humanitarian work to bring the sport to the world, he’s basically the head of a shadow nation-state that doesn’t "govern" world soccer so much as it plunders countries that want to host the World Cup.
Which backtracks us to 2022.
Qatar — the biggest sand-talk of the town.
Qatar’s bid and FIFA’s conglomerate voting are called to be a monopoly under Sepp’s watch!
Qatar has been in the eye of activists around the world for allegations of labour exploitation and an attack on freedom of expression.
But they aren’t mere allegations.
Qatar was announced to be the host state in the days of the 2010 FIFA world cup hosting.
Sepp’s FIFA was at a successful run with Africa being the host country at that time.
These events are in the line with how a non-profit organization is unambiguously choosing a host country with telling at face value that there has been a vote;
but it was quite visible what was actually happening when we saw a nation, which has never been qualified in FIFA.
EVER.
Was chosen to be the host nation for the 2022 FIFA world cup!
There were claims and reportage by the WIRED and NYT stating that Qatar favoured the organisation with their surplus pipelines of wealth and thus the most shocking Host country revelation.
The challenge and suspicion rose higher as Qatar didn’t have a football ground till now.
Now in 10 years, they had to build not one but four world cup levitating stadiums.
Qatar has depended on the work of 2 million people in the decade in which the World Cup venues have been built.
The death toll in this period amounts to 6,500 workers, according to a report from Human Rights Watch.
The lack of transparency about their deaths has attracted international attention.
Qatar isn’t the first place to use shady labour practices in a World Cup-building effort, but the continued deaths of the Nepalese who are working on the sites are certainly the freshest example of such abuses because Qatar has to build everything from scratch, at a breakneck speed and we all know what that means…
Even more astounding, ‘’ The International Trade Union Confederation states that around 4000 workers will perish by the time the project is ready’’ in 2022.
Despite such allegations, FIFA has refused to take any serious action.
If these inhumane labour practices are left unchecked,
2022 is forged to be deemed a ‘’blood-stained World Cup’’ in the history of FIFA.
This filthy adsorption is on the surface.
FIFA has also come under fire for some missed calls and referee troubles in the past few world cups, but instead of focusing on improving the refereeing or adding technology to the mix, they came up with another, more brilliant move: simply stop showing the reply.
Trying to prove the fact that ignorance is bliss.
The list is extensive, but one can vividly remember the demonstrations that rocked the main cities of Brazil before the 2013 Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup.
Demands for better wages and working conditions showed the world that only some things were a party before the event.
Despite the scandalous nature of the issues that occur in each event, authorities from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and in other cases from FIFA avoid commenting on the matter, for this reason, both bodies are often criticized because apparently, they do not give importance to relevant issues within of the securities they support.
Speaking of less-than-intelligent moves by the executive board, Sepp Blatter has to be mentioned for his wildly inappropriate comments in the public arena.
In response to a match-fixing scandal in Italy, he said “I could understand if it happened in Africa, but not in Italy” Outrageous, wait for it-in 2004, he made a public suggestion that women’s soccer would be more appealing if “they could, for example, wear tighter shorts” and “wear more feminine clothing” and consequently insulted the entire community of female soccer players.
Hope he is paying his PR team well. As the organisation’s President, his reign has been doused with an endless string of accusations of corruption and loose tongue.
These are some of the many places where FIFA slipped.
Unless one holds the Organization and its executive board responsible for their actions, there isn’t much hope for the Organization.
Because one cannot relate FIFA merely to just soccer, it exerts much more influence on the global world for it to be limited to just a few players and a ball.
FIFA struck as a global feeling where every grasp is felt by the world.
FIFA marked itself as the pioneer and also the problem.
FIFA was football.
Exactly.
Was.
MODEL MAVERICK
"A good business model is like a good recipe — it combines the right ingredients in the right proportions to create something that is greater than the sum of its parts.”
It all comes down to how FIFA is organized.
FIFA’s BUSINESS MODEL.
Each of the 209 Member States has one vote in the election of the Association's President and Executive Committee.
But FIFA is actually a multi-billion dollar company, and most of its revenue comes from the soccer World Cup, which is held every four years.
The business model is relatively simple. It is to make the host country bear the cost of hosting the World Cup.
Countries that want to win World Cup bids must grant FIFA tax exemptions. For example, when Germany hosted her 2006 event, it is estimated that tax authorities had to grant an exemption of around €250 million ($272 million).
The same thing happened four years later when South Africa hosted the tournament and during the event in Brazil last year.
These countries could have used their much-needed taxes for other productive purposes. Instead, duty-free zones will be set up around each World Cup venue, exempting FIFA partners from paying local income tax and sales tax.
Most of FIFA's revenue is generated by allocating very expensive television rights, and compliance is closely monitored.
Total revenue in 2014 was approximately $742 million. At the same time, the grant of marketing rights added an additional $465 million to FIFA's coffers.
According to his 2014 annual report for the Sports Federation, total revenue is about $1.9 billion and "net income" is about $141 million. This adds to FIFA's liquid reserve, which is currently $1.
FIFA gains a lot from this and other events by selling television rights, marketing rights, and licensing rights, as well as revenue from ticket sales.
FIFA makes money through the sale of television, marketing, and licensing rights for football events like the World Cup.
Infrastructure costs for World Cup events are left up to host countries, keeping FIFA's expenses low.
In 2018, which is when the last World Cup was held, FIFA generated more than $4.6 billion in revenue.
As a nonprofit organization, FIFA invests the majority of its earnings back into the development of the sport of football (soccer).
Besides that, FIFA's costs are minimal, helping to ensure that the organization has as much money as possible to put back into the development of the sport itself.
THE O2
WHAT MAKES FIFA TICK?
Ignorance.
What makes FIFA tick is blunt ignorance.
Fear takes the second spot.
FIFA is uniquely positioned for this kind of epic legal takedown because the Justice Department kind of gets off on this heavy-lifting display of authority even outside American borders over the past decade.
Also, it helps that Americans don't really care about soccer.
Sure, soccer has been riding a growing wave of popularity, and the World Cup is now a more visible event, but it still lags behind many other sports in mainstream popular consciousness.
Because of that, American culture just doesn’t revere soccer enough to consider FIFA sacrosanct.
But consider the basketball version of this: let's say FIBA, the world organization for basketball, decided to hold an international tournament in December which meant the NBA would have to suspend its season for a month.
American superstars wouldn’t show up, the best team in the world wouldn’t be properly represented, and the world's biggest TV market for the sport would be in open revolt against the event.
That’s that.
And that’s why…
FIFA’s story is…
Two Sides, All Nights, A Billion Eyes, Fraud rise; Still no one fights!
*FULL-TIME WHISTLE*
*Well Read? iKyu’s inKredible subsKriber*
*What’s the score…now?*