The ball does stain

Published in El Comercio on June 13, 2015

The FIFA scandal revealed a structure of organized crime built upon

factors beyond sports. The current crisis puts all of these pillars
under pressure.

Before he became the cartoon of an officer uncapable of paying taxes,

Chuck Blazer was a soccer dad who saw money and opportunity in what
used to be an unpopular sport in the United States. For decades, Blazer
made a career for himself and millions of dollars in the administration of
U.S. Soccer and Concacaf, drawing attention only because of his
extravagances.

Like him, the most ruinous soccer politicians climbed up the ranks while
the rest of the world took sports as an unserious issue and unworthy of
public debate. Now that such a concept has been discarded, the
networks woven by the FIFA empire in its booming years lay exposed.
The game is no longer a game.

1. The social-historical factor

Before 1974, FIFA was led by a European oligarchy, while South America
fought its share thanks to its footballing power. In that years elections
against Englands Stanley Rous an apartheid apologist-, Joao Havelange
appealed to those countries in the middle of the decolonization process,
as a counterweight to the European elite. Thanks to the increasingly
abundant money, Havelange gained popularity and votes in a system of
paternalist clientelism that Sepp Blatter inherited in 1998. Lavishly
atended by FIFAs development programs and a load of unaccounted
money, the new elite todays majority- accuses the opposition of
Eurocentrism. The concept may not be that far from reality.

2. The game of geopolitics

The day of the arrests, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the
United States of imposing its laws at a global scale, and cast a protective
veil over his World Cup. Publicly discussed by European heads of state,
the G7 and U.S. President Barack Obama, the FIFA scandal has escalated
to diplomatic levels, in an intervention that generates distrust from the
rest of the affiliated countries. Europe has spent the last three decades
trying to regain control of the worlds game, but the United States?

Storming football can be a demonstration of soft power. However,

international analyst Carlos Novoa sees it as the fruit of a distance that
footballing nations like Brazil or Italy would never have, because of their
governments use of passion for their own purposes.
 3. The economic ties
During the last World Cup cycle (2011-2014), FIFA reported a total
revenue of US$ 5 billion, generated mostly by the big moneymaker: the
World Cup. Of that amount, US$ 358 million were distributed among the
participants and US$ 1.5 billion were used in "development
expenditures".

There is real bonanza in world soccer. Reliant on that money, the

national federation with ties to Blatter are happy enough, and those
opposing him have their hands tied. Even in UEFAs case, disaffiliation
would mean the complete cut of their luxuries.

Only U.S. soccer is behaving without fear. Home of half of FIFAs

sponsors, United States seems immune to such ghosts.

4. The commercial explosion

Barely solvent during the 70s, FIFA managed to expand the game and its
bank accounts, hand in hand with Adidas and Coca-Cola. Then they
found a fortune in TV rights. Corruption usually gives birth to
administrative inefficiency, as it has happened in FIFAs case, but
football has proved to be a very powerful product nonetheless.

Javier Tabata, partner of Apoyo Consultora, thinks that brands should

and will reconsider their alliances. But, at the end of the day, is the
consumer going to leave because FIFA is corrupt? he asks.

5. Fans indifference
The spiral of corruption and interests tied to soccer attract multiple
parts, except fans, who run away from such cognitive dissonance.

"Fans get close to soccer for the purely sporting and emotional aspects,"
notes journalist Jaime Pulgar Vidal.

As the ball rolls, bureaucratic hassles and legal processes become too
rational and fall into oblivion. The defendants take advantage of the
truce.

WHAT KIND OF GAME IS BLATTER PLAYING?

The FIFA president has not resigned, and his call for early elections
raises suspicions. Joseph Blatter has said that he will implement a reform
agenda and leave soon after, but it would not be the first time that he
breaks his word.
Fernando Tuesta, political analyst and former head of the National
Electoral Office, believes that Blatter has bought time to develo phis
own exit strategy, in a tactic subject to the course of the investigations.

It reminds me of the time when [Alberto] Fujimori won the elections, got
busted by the vladivideos and immediately called for early elections,
he recalls.

He wanted to lead the transition, but his accumulated power was

already gone.