FIFA Forming Anti-Corruption Committee
In the most obvious move of the century, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said his organization is putting together an anti-corruption committee to investigate the allegations of bribery and vote-rigging from the World Cup summit in December. The FIFA executive committee awarded Russia as host of the 2018 World Cup and Qatar as the 2022 host.
Two members (Reynald Temaril and Amos Adamu) of the 24-person committee were excluded from the decision because of corruption allegations. The two members were banned even further from participating in any activities related to the sport. Four other FIFA officials were later banned as well. It made everyone question the entire selection process for the world’s most popular and profitable sporting event. Nations claimed Qatar conspired with Spain and Portugal to receive the winning number of votes.
Blatter said the anti-corruption committee will give FIFA more credibility, and that he will personally oversee the committee. The committee will reportedly be composed of up to nine people, and Blatter will not be included. As for the corrupted FIFA officials, they are getting their just desserts.
Adamu of Nigeria became the first FIFA member to be suspended by the organization’s ethics committee. He was suspended from FIFA for three years and fined 10,000 Swiss francs for bribery. He was found guilty of trying to trade his World Cup vote for money in an undercover sting set up by the Sunday Times newspaper in Britain. He plans on appealing the decision.
Temaril of Tahiti was fined 5,000 francs and banned for a year for breaking FIFA confidentiality and loyalty rules. The other four officials received fines of 10,000 francs each. One from Botswana was suspended for four years, one from Tonga and Mali were suspended three years each, and another from Tunisia received two years suspension.
BBC’s Panorama tarnished FIFA’s image with accusations of corruption and bribery before the vote was even cast. Many speculate this is why England wasn’t awarded the 2018 World Cup.