The rules for international soccer fill 140 pages and prescribe, among other things, that the color of artificial playing fields must be green.
If FIFA had brought such specificity to its governing practices the governing body of the world’s most popular sport might have avoided the alleged infractions that have led to corruption probes by prosecutors in the US, the UK, and Switzerland.
The failures of governance at FIFA became clearer this weekend with publication by the Financial Times of an interview with Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, FIFA’s longtime president, whom the organization’s independent ethics committee suspended in October amid allegations that he misappropriated funds.
At some point in their existence, organizations decide on the rules and practices by which they’re directed so as to ensure their long-term success. Or they don’t, in which case they expose themselves to excess financial or business risk.
Such basic practices as term limits for executives, a mandatory retirement age, or transparent processes for setting executive compensation and electing directors all seem to have been missing from FIFA’s boardroom throughout Blatter’s tenure.
Blatter told the FT he remained president of FIFA for so long—he was elected in 1998—because of a push by a majority of the organization’s board to counter a move by UEFA, the governing body for European soccer and the most influential of soccer’s six confederations, to dismantle FIFA.
As for a payment by FIFA in 2011 of roughly $2 million to Michel Platini, the UEFA president, that Blatter has said was owed Platini pursuant to an employment agreement when Platini served as Blatter’s adviser between 1998 and 2002, Blatter reiterated to the FT what he has said previously: that there was no agreement in writing to document the outlay because Swiss law allows for oral agreements.
When Malcolm Moore, the reporter, followed up by noting that’s now how large companies act, Blatter distinguished FIFA as “a club” but refused to address why there’s no record of the payment to Platini.
Blatter’s suspension may relieve pressure on FIFA from its biggest sponsors. About a week before Blatter’s suspension, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Budweiser, and Visa all called on the embattled executive to step down.