The underbelly of world football
Andrew Jennings talks to Sally Evans about his damning exposé of Sepp Blatter &
Fifa May 20, 2010 10:01 PM | By Sally Evans
The Big Interview:With only 20 days to go before we host the world's biggest
sporting event, there's no turning back.
Current Font Size:
FIFA FO FUM: Andrew Jennings, top, has been banned from Fifa media briefings.
His book 'Foul!' is published by Harper Sport
'South Africa bent over and let Fifa have their way'
But when the final whistle has blown, the dust settled and all our guests from
hither and thon have returned thither and yon, discarding their vuvuzelas on
the way to the airport, will we find that it has all been worth it?
In the past year, there have been hundreds of reports of people falling foul of
the rules and regulations governing the soccer World Cup - a brand fiercely and
brutally protected by Fifa, which, since it was founded exactly 106 years ago
today, has become one of the world's most secretive and perhaps most powerful
organisations.
Fifa's glory is on the field, under the bright lights of our amazing new
stadiums, but its shame lurks in the shadows, and there's no one who knows the
darker side of Fifa better than British investigative sports reporter Andrew
Jennings.
Jennings has spent three decades exposing the corruption and greed that has
come to define some of the world's biggest sporting organisations.
Consequently, he has the rare privilege of being the only reporter in the world
banned from Fifa media briefings.
Speaking from his home in Manchester, in the UK, Jennings said his first
encounter with sports investigations was by chance: he "stumbled into the
International Olympic Committee".
"I discovered that the IOC's president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, was a fascist
under [long-time Spanish dictator Gen Francisco] Franco - and that the only
exercise he had ever done was raising his right arm. It was then that I started
delving into the IOC's national executive committee, and I learnt a lot. I
wrote three books on the buggers!"
Jennings caused such a ruckus with his exposé on the Olympic body's
"blue-shirted" leader that he was jailed for five days in Lausanne,
Switzerland. It was this that catapulted him into the world of Fifa.
"The IOC and Fifa had a common link: International Sport and Leisure. The
company was Fifa's former marketing partner but went insolvent amid allegations
that it was bribing Fifa officials to secure lucrative contracts for marketing
and television rights. The kickbacks for Fifa were fantastic. I didn't want to
investigate Fifa, but I knew something was there."
On the subject of Fifa's president, Sepp Blatter, Jennings does not hold back.
"Herr Blatter!" he jokes, adding: "He doesn't like it when you call him that ."
Since South Africa won the bid in 2004 to host the 2010 Fifa World Cup, we have
become accustomed to Blatter's face on our televisions: kowtowing to former
president Nelson Mandela, cutting ribbons at new sports facilities in poor
townships and, of course, assuring us that "we are on schedule".
In his acclaimed book Foul! Jennings gets straight to the point on our
successful bid.
"One candidate for 2010 had something Jack Warner - a Fifa executive from
Trinidad and Tobago, notorious for allegedly defrauding that country's soccer
team of millions of pounds in 2006 - wanted more than anything else: Nelson
Mandela. And if they wanted his vote, Jack had to have his pound of Mandela's
flesh [access to Madiba]."
Jennings has devoted much of his time to investigating Warner's alleged
corruption and nepotism.
"He is a horrible, horrible thief."
Jennings explains that 13 players from the national Trinidad side, the Soca
Warriors, which qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, are still owed
money by Warner, the head of their national soccer federation.
The players were each paid about 500 Trinidad pounds, but it came out later
that the Trinidad and Tobago soccer federation had made 15million pounds.
In May 2008, a UK court ruled against Warner and ordered that the players be
compensated - but this has yet to happen.
But that's Warner. How is Blatter, the man who will be moving in for a month to
run our country, perceived internationally?
Jennings says: "Well, it's not for nothing that he has been booed at the last
two World Cups. Your country is being exploited. The profits of the World Cup
won't trickle down - they won't go to anyone except Fifa.
"Have Fifa's soccer grants been properly applied?" Jennings asks. "No. Blatter
looks for officials who can be corrupted. He is a very good politician."
One of the main bones of contention in the hosting of this World Cup has been
the price of transport and accommodation.
"When the lights went out at Lehman Brothers, everyone took a big hit. Because
of the financial crisis, corporate and ordinary fans didn't have the resources
to pay silly money for hospitality packages."
The problem, Jennings says, is that the exclusive holder of the official
hospitality programme, Match Hospitality, "has milked the fans".
Blatter's nephew, Philippe, is a partner in the company.
"Paying $755 for a return domestic flight is not going to happen this time. It
is too late, people decided last year that they weren't coming. Transport and
hospitality got the shaft; these come before violence as a deterring factor.
People just can't afford it.
"Not even the American wholesaler could sell the overpriced hospitality
packages. For Match it's just greed, greed, greed.
"What matters is the percentage of the commissions they make. So they push the
prices higher to make a bigger commission. But the corporates won't spend money
in this economic climate."
But aren't Fifa and the local organising committee constantly assuring us that
there are hardly any tickets left?
"Well, your municipalities are buying tickets. They tell you there are no empty
seats because we have to believe there is a scarcity value; there has been a
political move to cover up the scandal. Blatter is dishing out tickets to the
unemployed - you are going to get screwed."
Jennings insists, in no uncertain terms, that Fifa, Match and the local
organising committee have "screwed" us and that any profit made from the event
"stays in Zurich", where Fifa has its headquarters.
"South Africa bent over and let Fifa have their way. Officials and the
government have sold South Africa down the river: 'Bye Africa, bye suckers!'"
For visitors from the northern hemisphere, he adds: "Trading one winter for
another is not all that appealing."
According to Jennings, after the final whistle blows, South Africans have
nothing to look forward to but a mountain of scandal, debt and - in our shiny
new, expensive stadiums - some rather large white elephants.
Other Articles in 'Opinion'
Nell a treasure
Your Views
COPE should spare us the squabbling and close up shop
Thankful for small mercies
Is Jansen being inconsistent?
How will state hospitals cope?
ANC copies Zanu-PF terror tactics
Fifa concert a hollow victory for local artists
Apple's on top of the world
We are xenophobic monsters
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service.
https://signup.live.com/signup.aspx?id=60969
--
You are subscribed. This footer can help you.
Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this
message.
You can visit the group WEB SITE at
http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options,
pages, files and membership.
To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You
don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put
anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this
address (repeat): [email protected] .
