Critics question soccer reforms

ELEANOR HALL: Despite weeks of infighting and persistent corruption allegations soccer's world governing body last night opted to keep its controversial leader.

Sepp Blatter is promising to reform FIFA but his many critics say it's time for action and not just more talk.

Simon Santow has our report.

SIMON SANTOW: Before the vote Sepp Blatter may have questioned whether FIFA was an organisation in crisis.

But after triumphing in a one horse race he was doing his best to hold out an olive branch to his critics inside and outside FIFA.

SEPP BLATTER: There is no bad feeling of any of the associations that were not voting for me because I'm the president of FIFA and with 186 votes I'm proud, I am proud. And then those that were against they are also the members of FIFA and we take them all together.

SIMON SANTOW: Seventeen nations abstained from the vote but the impact of their campaign for reform was felt by the self proclaimed patriarch of the FIFA family.

Sepp Blatter has promised to make future contests to host the World Cup a vote of all members rather than restricting them to the now tainted 24 member executive committee.

He's also vowed to undertake "radical and necessary" reform rather than cosmetic changes.

Australia's Sports Minister Mark Arbib has put the FIFA boss on notice.

MARK ARBIB: He has said that he will take on reform in the organisation and he now must do that. President Blatter has a great deal of work to do. He and his organisation have to get on with it.

SIMON SANTOW: Mr Arbib has likened the task ahead of football to the job in reforming the International Olympic Committee a decade ago.

Ben Buckley is the chief executive of the Football Federation Australia. He pledged support for Sepp Blatter

BEN BUCKLEY: The language coming from the president and the rest of the FIFA executive today was positive in that it would look to reform the decision making process, particularly around the World Cup. And we've been on the record before as saying that that process is somewhat flawed and needs to be looked at. In that context we're very pleased.

SIMON SANTOW: But his caution and diplomacy has angered many soccer supporters and former officials. They worry that the old regime is incapable of meaningful change.

The Australian Government was embarrassed when $45 million of taxpayer money produced a single vote for the nation's bid to host the World Cup in 2022.

BEN BUCKLEY: What is important is in any future bidding process that technical capability and logistical and operational capability is very much at the forefront of the way the decision is made.

SIMON SANTOW: Allegations have been flying in recent weeks that Qatar's win was sealed by corrupt payments to key FIFA officials.

Australian football commentator Les Murray sits on the 13 member Ethics Committee charged with getting to the bottom of it all.

LES MURRAY: There's never any, even the slightest sign of an attempt to interfere with or to influence the committee in any shape or form.

SIMON SANTOW: Now there's been insults flying every which way, including ones involving the newly re-elected president Sepp Blatter.

Did you have enough time to investigate the various allegations that have been made?

LES MURRAY: Well we did yes. I mean I was there for two days and we finished on the first day although it was an all day meeting.

But the function of this particular meeting was to, was not to find the accused innocent or guilty but to establish or otherwise if there was a prima facie case to warrant further investigation.

SIMON SANTOW: What do you say to critics who say, look Sepp Blatter has had more than a decade in charge there, that he is not the right person to be leading reform at the organisation?

LES MURRAY: Well I mean what I say to that is that he is the one that's there. I mean I don't want to be seen to be a defender of Sepp Blatter here but he is there because nobody else has run against him.

This will be I gather Blatter's last presidency and therefore this is a great opportunity for him now without needing any further political support for any future election he might have to take a leadership role on cleaning up the organisation.

SIMON SANTOW: And you have confidence that he will do that or is this more part motivation that you're trying to get him to do that?

LES MURRAY: I honestly don't know whether he will do it. He's made noises certainly at the congress in his introductory remarks and also in his speech, in his acceptance speech that steps have to be taken to clean up the organisation.

You know he said the other day that there was no, at a press conference, that there was no crisis. But I honestly don't think he believes that. I think he knows there is a crisis and he's got to fix it and fix it real quick.

ELEANOR HALL: That's SBS commentator and member of the FIFA Ethics Committee Les Murray ending Simon Santow's report.

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Critics demand FIFA reform

PETER CAVE: The high farce that is the battle for the top job in world soccer is getting higher and according to some, smellier. If he's re-elected it will be the 75-year-old Swiss national's fourth four-year term.

Simon Santow spoke to one of the loudest and, some say, the most informed critics, British investigative journalist Andrew Jennings.

ANDREW JENNINGS: I've never noticed any fair play at the leadership if FIFA. It has been a dirty little cabal for years. I have been investigating it for enough years, come out with enough evidence, but you have a power play now. What has actually happened is that Jack Warner is a continual embarrassment to FIFA because if nobody has ever heard of anybody at FIFA, they have heard of Jack Warner because he is so dirty with his industrial scale ticket rackets.

They want Warner out because he makes noise and journalists see what he is doing. Chuck Blazer from New York is keen to get Jack out so he can get control of CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football). Mohamed bin Hammam we all knew how he was going to fight the election and a few people warned him to be more careful but he got caught.

SIMON SANTOW: Well, what about FIFA's standing and the reputation of the sport's governing body? I mean how does it emerge from all of this?

ANDREW JENNINGS: I did a lot of work on the International Olympic Committee years ago and when I was looking at them during the Samaranch era, heavily institutionalised corruption at the IOC and it took pressure from the sponsors and the sports ministers of the world back in 1999 to force the IOC to reform and by and large they have done.

Then I moved to FIFA and I was shocked because the corruption is, and I realise now why people talk of them as the mafia because if you've ever looked at the boxes you have to tick to be a crime family, they tick it all. Powerful leader devoted to making money and greasing, lubricating the system all the way down, in their case with untested grants, unaudited grants and World Cup tickets.

The whole thing from the top all the way down is pretty corrupt and even in countries like Australia where I don't think your FFA (Football Federation Australia) is corrupt is any sense at all, or in New Zealand, there is still this got to support Sepp Blatter. They are welded into this family of football and they pay most service to the people who love the game.

SIMON SANTOW: Well, now as it seems that Sepp Blatter is going to be elected unopposed and he gets another four years in charge. Do you think that his grip on FIFA is as strong as ever or even indeed stronger?

ANDREW JENNINGS: Well, no. I mean lame duck presidents and prime ministers, and we've all encountered them, running towards the end of their term, if they run out of power, the young Turks come out to play. So he is going to be weakened but there is more to it.

Much bigger in a way than the noise that has been made over the last few days at FIFA about Warner and bin Hammam is, those of you who had a chance to see it, will have seen the last BBC Panorama I did Monday last week where we then went back into the detail of $US 100 million that went in bribes to FIFA's leaders and we named Blatter, his predecessor Havelange and Havelange's son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira in charge of the next World Cup.

SIMON SANTOW: Many Australians are still smarting from losing the battle to host the 2022 World Cup. Is there any chance do you think that out of all of this those contests, including the 2018, one will be reopened?

ANDREW JENNINGS: There is a possibility but the only possibility is going to come from outside interference. Mark Arbib has got to be advised to just reach out, say the moral things for the sake of sport and that may bring a re-run. He shouldn't do it as the price of Australia's commitment to morality, but you're not that kind of people. You say you put morality first, call for kicking Blatter out, inter-governmental sports ministers conference, talk about a new constitution, talk about new forms of electing, and then when they have done that job, they come back out and leave it to a new generation of sports officials.

PETER CAVE: British investigative journalist and FIFA critic, Andrew Jennings, speaking to Simon Santow.

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