After reading - Whatever It Takes: The Inside Story of the FIFA Way - you feel dirty. It is like bathing in a pool of scummy water for hours, but is nonetheless a fascinating story from a former insider of the FIFA world. Bonita Mersiades was a senior executive in the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) and one of the point people in their doomed bid to win the 2022 FIFA World Cup. From 2008 - 2010, she had an intimate...
The FIFA Corruption trial in Brooklyn is over now comes the question who really broke the story of high-level bribery and corruption in international soccer? Clue – it was not the sport journalists. “The ladies and gentlemen of the press came a great deal cheaper than an Olympic Committee member. If their potential accreditation to World Cup 98 did not fully concentrate their collective minds, there were always the freebies. The one thousand one hundred and eight-one (sic) journalists milled...
Stephen Frears film The Program about Lance Armstrong’s doping to win the Tour de France has just opened to near unanimous negative reviews and public neglect. This is too bad. It is a superb film and should be watched by anyone with an interest in sports. Some points: 1. Ben Foster’s performance of Lance Armstrong is Oscar-worthy. His acting range is extraordinary. Foster is stunning in showing all the different aspects of Armstrong from a cocky young man to a victim...
Now that Sepp Blatter has been driven off into the sunset from FIFA, it is time to reflect on the long-sorry, scandal ridden years of his reign. Seven things then that we have learned: 1) The Watergate of Sports Stories: It was not ESPN, nor any of the other big sports channels or well-established sports journalists who broke the FIFA story. The real heroes are a small collection of journalists who are largely outsiders. As the big sports media empires frantically...
To my American colleagues who went to the seminar on ‘sports integrity’ at the National Press Club on June 24th, You saw a presentation by a man with little credibility in sports integrity and two other men who have failed. You attended a presentation sponsored by the Qatari sports establishment. This is a group that is suspected by sports fans around the world of corruption in securing the rights to the World Cup tournament of 2022. This is a group that...
Finally. Finally. Finally. This must be the end to Sepp Blatter. This must be the end to the reign of corruption at FIFA. Never has the sports world seen such a spectacle. Officials being carted off for arrest as they arrive for an international conference. Can FIFA ever regain its credibility? A couple of thoughts. 1) Full kudos to Jens Weinreich and Andrew Jennings. They have been saying this for years. They said it and wrote about it when few would listen. 2) Why did it...
The links between organized crime bike gangs and the IOC/FIFA Okay, everyone calm down. This blog is not about Thomas Bach’s previously unknown (and utterly fictional) history as a Hells Angels member or Sepp Blatter’s non-role as a Bandido drug enforcer. Rather it is about the reason why those nine motorcycle gang members were murdered in Waco, Texas and how it is linked to a key issue around international sports organizations. Brand protection. The superficial reason for the killings last weekend was...
To start with the important point: it is a good idea. This is the proposal that came out of a meeting of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) sports integrity forum last weekend. The IOC’s reputation has suffered so much damage over the years that the words – ‘meeting, ‘sports integrity’ and ‘IOC’ - immediately plant in many people’s heads the image of a conclave of mobsters chatting with Monty Burns from The Simpsons. The truth is more prosaic. The committee meetings of the...
