Last week at FIFA

The FIFA Congress in São Paulo was incredible. The pampered pomp of FIFActors was matched by the pantomime and platitudes of the delegations. This was high theatre played out with the military precision of a clown show and a Potemkinite dedication to reality.

I came away from the FIFA congress knowing that there is almost no chance for reform of FIFA from the inside or outside. Here´s why:

The roll call of every FIFA affiliate took half an hour. Everyone was present. As shifting crosshairs zipped across the jumbo high definition screen zipped crosshairs to each of the 209 delgations, I was reminded of the global reach of football and the instrumental politics of FIFA conjured up by João Havelange. Blatter learnt from the master and has managed to keep control of global football through his political performance as a doddering grandfather. He is a man that inspires underestimation and continues to use this to his advantage.

Following roll call, the voting machines were tested but did not work. Delegates were instructed to use cards to would be held up for voting: green, white, red. A group of eight “scrutineers” which included footballing powerhouses Guinea, Vanuatu, Honuras and Jamaica was instructed to head to a corner of the conference hall. When votes happened they leapt to their feet to scrutinize the votes. As it turned out, being a scrutineer is akin to being a buccaneer.

FIFA is fantastically rich. It has 350 staff members and cash reserves of more than 1.4 billion. 2013 was the most lucrative year ever. It will bring in 4.5 billion from the World Cup of which 1.5 is profit. Every year, FIFA hands a check for 250,000 dollars to its member associations. This goes a long way in St. Kitts and Nevis, but not so far in Japan. These two countries have the same voting power in FIFA. Because there is so much money and FIFA is a non-profit of some kind, the money has to be re-invested. In a stroke of pre-lunch genius, the financial officer (of Julio Grondona´s financial committee) announced that each federation would now receive 750,000 a year and that the confederations would receive 4.5 million each per year. Time for lunch!

After lunch Blatter put a vote to the congress. Should there be an age limit for FIFA officers? Claro que não. Scrutineers? Claro que não.

Second vote. Should there be term limits for FIFA officer? Claro que não. Scrutineers? Claro que não.

Thus a pre-lunch delivery of money to federations and confederations paved the way for Blatter to run for a fifteenth term as president even though the most powerful confederation, UEFA, is calling for him to resign. Following these “votes” the honorable members from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Togo(?) took to the floor to sing Blatter´s name to the heavens. Blatter is a hero to the small guys, reviled by some of the big powers but that doesn´t matter. In Blatter´s democracy the kletptocrats and small tyrants rule the world.

Looking back, thinking forward

We have known since the turn of the century that Brazil would be the World Cup hosts in 2014. This is because FIFA, after the opaque process of selecting the 2006 World Cup hosts (awarded to Germany in 2000 after a last minute abstention by New Zealand´s voting member), decided to employ a continental rotation system: Asia, 2002, Europe, 2006, Africa, 2010, South America 2014, Oceania (read: Australia) 2018. The plan was abandoned in 2007, one day before Brazil was saddled with the 2014 tournament. 

Blatter apparently wanted to guarantee that he could bring the Cup to Africa. This was not a bad idea in and of itself, but it positioned FIFA in the role of an international development agency. That is, in order to justify the outrageously high costs to the hosts, a thousand little development projects had to be created to massage the impact of the transfer of wealth scheme. Back in 2000, the shadow of João Havelange was still creeping along the halls in Zurich, his ex-son in law Teixeira was on the executive committee and lord and master of Brazilian football. It might not have been explicit, but it was highly probable that Brazil, with its emerging consumer market and football history would be the choice for the 2014 World Cup as it rotated through South America. That was 13 years ago. We are still answering questions about Brazil´s “readiness” to host the 2014 Cup. It´s high time that football fans start questioning the urban and social impacts associated with hosting 64 football matches.

Not too early to start thinking about it.

In a recent interview with Gerardo Lissardy of the BBC regarding the joint candidature of Argentina and Uruguay for the 2030 World Cup, I argued that if those two countries were to host the Cup again, 2030 is an excellent time frame. 2030 would mark a century since the first Cup was held in Uruguay and Montevideo´s Estadio Centenario would be an amazing place for a final. Thinking about the Cup now, there is an adequate time frame to start planning stadiums, infrastructure and financing so that host cities could grow into and out of the event. That means that World Cup 2030 host cities should be chosen in 2015 and the World Cup should be incorporated into the long term urban plans of the cities. Of course, this has to happen with the widest possible network of urban stakeholders, with the common goal of minimizing impacts and costs and maximizing benefits. With an eye to sustainability, by 2030 most of the octogenarian old guard of South American football could help grow the grass of the stadia.

A forward thinking urban development model is clearly not what we have seen in the 21^st century editions of the World Cup and European Championships (not to mention the Olympics). Korea / Japan 2002 scattered 20 stadiums across the hosts, most of which are unused. Portuguese politicians are looking for ways to destroy stadia built for Euro 2004. Germany was Germany in 2006, and appears to be even more German now. South Africa paid out billions, dislocated tens of thousands from their homes, excluded even more from formal participation in the economy, has rotting carcasses of white elephants strewn about and did not advance football in the country even a little. The Bafana Bafana failed to qualify for 2014. In 2012, Poland and Ukraine paid dearly for the Euro and will likely see their buildings collapse into a quicksand of debt servicing. Brazil, as readers of HWE know, is a 20 billion dollar comedy of errors. The promised urban improvements won’t be ready, the militarization of urban space is ever more profound, and once-loved (though decaying) stadiums have been turned into antiseptic nodes of casual entertainment, social exclusion and rapacious accumulation. There are indications that FIFA has recognized that their business model needs to change, that they are perceived as parasites on the hosts and that their “For the Game. For the World.” motto could be interpreted as a quest for global domination of the people´s game.