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Saturday 6 June 2015

The FIFA fumble

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The FIFA debacle is interesting isn’t it? We’ve all known about the corruption forever, yet the money involved seems to be dwarfed by, for example, the supposedly legal antics of bankers.

Fifa is a non-profit organisation - which does however maintain a large cash reserve which amounted to more than $1.5bn (£1bn) in 2014 - and has its headquarters in Switzerland, where it is tax-exempt.

The organisation's total revenue of $5.7bn (£3.7bn) from 2011 to 2014 is not large compared to that of giant corporations - for example Coca-Cola, a Fifa sponsor,had a turnover of $46bn in 2014. It is however larger, averaged out over the four-year cycle, than the GDP of several of Fifa's member nations, including the Seychelles and Guinea-Bissau.

One can’t help feeling that what FIFA lacks is political protection. It isn’t part of the UN or any other bunch of sheltered shysters.

In 2006, the then United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan wrote that "the World Cup makes us at the UN green with envy" for its appeal around the world.

3 comments:

Demetrius said...

If Alan Hardacre had played his cards right FIFA could have been based at Lytham St. Anne's and made the English FA junior to him rather than senior. Once I had a lunch with him and Princess Anne and a few others at Wembley. Sadly, the cigars were second rate.

A K Haart said...

Demetrius - second rate cigars? Didn't Princess Anne complain?

Demetrius said...

No, she was on a very strong dark baccy in her Churchwarden. Joke, honest, she did not smoke but did a lot of coughing.