Monday, June 01, 2015

FIFA is corrupt (just like everything else in sports)

Jon Stewart, as he often does, captured the moment brilliantly. When FIFA’s international officials were indicted in Brooklyn on a flurry of bribery charges, Stewart announced, “Soccer is getting its perp walk.”

But then he asked: “What if they were bankers?” Americans know what he meant. Prosecutors would explain that in banking there is crime without criminals. Yes, the leading banks were rigging the international financial market to reap gorgeous profits for themselves, but it was impossible to identify the culprits. High finance is simply too complex to pin blame on human beings.

Lawyers would then negotiate a very large fine, the big banks would pay it off and everyone could get on with business as usual. That is the way the world works now. Everything for sale, as Bob Kuttner titled his book years ago. Mere mortals cannot buy their way out of trouble, but the big boys can.

Only sports were supposed to be different. It felt like one of the few remaining venues where extraordinary talent can still compete in heroic contests and fans worldwide can invest faith and loyalty in the honest competition of human endeavors. But the rumors have been around for years, and investigators finally nailed down enough evidence to make the charges. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. FIFA crisis: South Africa 'admits $10m football payout'
  2. FIFA, Sepp Blatter and Qatar...
  3. The human toll of Fifa’s corruption...
  4. Some 300 Cambodian Nike workers fired after protests...
  5. Sports, the greatest hypnotic distraction?

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