PrintAustralian Broadcasting CorporationBroadcast: 02/06/2011Reporter: Kerri RitchieWorld football's governing body has been thrown into chaos by the latest series of corruption allegations.
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Soccer's world governing body, FIFA, has been plagued by scandal and corruption allegations. The re-election of its president isn't helping repair its image. Despite renewed promises of a major overhaul, the executive's ability to address its own problems remains in doubt.Kerri Ritchie reports.
BONITA MERSIADES, FMR FFHA HEAD, CORPORATE AFFAIRS: I think crisis is a pretty good word.
NICK XENOPHON, INDEPENDENT SENATOR: FIFA's an organisation that has a stench to it that goes to its very core.
LES MURRAY, FIFA ETHICS COMMITTEE: Here I am I'm trying to tell everybody that this is the beautiful game, and there are obviously some very ugly things happening at the heart of that.
KERRI RITCHIE, REPORTER: Despite a chorus of condemnation around the world, Sepp Blatter is back, re-elected as president of FIFA. The 75-year-old has ridden out a storm over accusations of bribery involving top members of soccer's governing body, to score another four years at the top.
FIFA has been beset by corruption allegations against members of its executive committee. There are 24 on the executive; two are now suspended: Mohammed bin Hammam and Jack Warner, following allegations they offered bribes up to $40,000.
Bonita Mersiades is a former Socceroos team manager and was the head of corporate affairs at Football Federation Australia.
BONITA MERSIADES: On the one hand you have beautiful football like we did on the weekend with Manchester United and Barcelona, but you also have the world governing body of the sport imploding and turning on each other and dealing with allegations which are not really new; they've been around for years, and something needs to be done to address it.
KERRI RITCHIE: Sepp Blatter's held powerful positions at the governing body for 35 years and Bonita Mersiades says he's not shown the leadership to tackle corruption.
BONITA MERSIADES: He's a person, I think as with anyone who's been in a position, a powerful position for as long as he has, you get to the point where there's almost a grey area of how you do things appropriately and how not to do things appropriately.
LES MURRAY: He has a great opportunity to clean the organisation out if he wants to do it.
NICK XENOPHON: Sepp Blatter's election to the presidency of FIFA has about as much legitimacy as Kim Jong Il being President of North Korea. The fact is we have a situation where Sepp Blatter is a bit like Monty Python's Black Knight. His arms and legs have been chopped off, there's blood spurting everywhere and he just thinks it's a flesh wound.
KERRI RITCHIE: Like many, independent senator Nick Xenophon is very disappointed with Football Federation Australia's hands-off approach to the controversy dogging FIFA. Its boss Frank Lowy didn't go to Zurich. Instead he sent his chief executive Ben Buckley.
NICK XENOPHON: The fact is Australia has a tremendous opportunity to actually play a leadership role to clean up FIFA. If Australia speaks loudly, I think a number of other countries would listen. And here's an opportunity that's been lost.
KERRI RITCHIE: After failing to get the vote postponed, England and 16 other member associations abstained from voting.
Football writer Jesse Fink wants to know why Australia supported Sepp Blatter and why Frank Lowy has gone to ground.
JESSE FINK, FOOTBALL WRITER: I question why we're having Lowy as chairman. Why send Ben Buckley? What's the point of having Lowy if he's not gonna go to important events like the FIFA congress?
KERRI RITCHIE: Frank Lowy declined to be interviewed by 7.30. Football Federation Australia instead issued a statement saying it has expressed concern about the World Cup bid process being flawed, and that while major reform of FIFA is overdue, it didn't see much merit in making an empty gesture alongside a small minority at the congress.
JESSE FINK: People say, "Oh, Australia has no voice." Well that's rubbish. Australia does have a voice. We're a very important member of the FIFA family.
BONITA MERSIADES: Very few of the football associations around the world have really stood up and said this isn't good enough. And that's why there are many calls around the world for governments to intervene, just as they had to with the IOC back in 1999 and the IOC came out stronger from that.
KERRI RITCHIE: Les Murray presents World Game on SBS and is also one of 13 members of the FIFA ethics committee. He was one of those responsible for suspending the two FIFA executive members, including Sepp Blatter's only rival in the presidential race, Mohammed bin Hammam. Les Murray says it was just lucky timing force Sepp Blatter.
LES MURRAY: The ethics committee, which is totally independent, I can tell that to you very - very categorically and honestly. It is not interfered with by anybody.
JESSE FINK: I think it's a disgrace really that they went and provisionally suspended bin Hammam before he'd been proven guilty.
KERRI RITCHIE: Bonita Mersiades says FIFA must not be left to manage its own reform.
BONITA MERSIADES: It's a very important sport around the world. It's played by 300 million people, it's enjoyed or watched by billions. And even in Australia, there are one million players who get enjoyment out of the game. It is something which belongs to the community, not to a coterie of people who are in charge in Zurich.
No comments:
Post a Comment