Broken Business

STEP 1 – UNDERSTAND THE CRISIS

Crisis? What is a crisis? Football is not in a crisis. We are not in a crisis, we are only in some difficulties and these difficulties will be solved – and they will be solved inside this family.

—Sepp Blatter, FIFA President, 1998–2015

These were the words of the former FIFA President at a press conference in May 2011, and they show that denial is a powerful thing. In the eyes of just about everyone else, FIFA was indeed in a crisis at that time. The organization was mired in investigations of bribery in connection with its presidential elections. Following the investigation, the president of the Asian Football Confederation, Mohammed bin Hammam – the only challenger to Blatter in the 2011 FIFA presidential race – was banned from football for life, raising questions about the integrity of FIFA's leadership as well as the bidding process for selecting host countries for the World Cup.

Four years later, in May 2015, authorities arrested several FIFA officials in a dawn raid at a five-star hotel in Zurich as part of a US-led investigation into alleged fraud, racketeering, and money laundering. The fallout was enormous; dozens of high-ranking football officials were indicted in the US for their involvement in illegal schemes (most ultimately pleaded guilty), while a number of separate criminal investigations were launched in other countries. Under mounting pressure from FIFA's corporate sponsors and facing a Swiss investigation into criminal mismanagement, ...