So let's review the FIFA reform points of action: - Congress to vote on future WC hosts. If I understood correctly FIFA will also no longer award more than one WC at a time. - Congress to elect the members of the ethics committee, a supposedly independent body of the FIFA administration. - A “solution Commission” to investigate any charge against FIFA and if necessary may convene an extraordinary congress. Apparently Blatter is planning a one-day extraordinary congress to tackle the corruption issues raised presently. If they don't look at Qatar none of this is going away.
Re: Fifa bribery inquiry into Bin Hammam & Warner Blatter: Kissinger to help FIFA tackle problems http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=ap-fifa-kissinger
Re: Fifa bribery inquiry into Bin Hammam & Warner Holy shit, I can't believe it!!! FIFA keeps one upping itself with comedy!!! Kissinger was one of the slimiest men of the 20th century. Jesus Christ, Sepp, I guess Pol Pot wasn't available?
Re: Fifa bribery inquiry into Bin Hammam & Warner Just gets better and better...Kissinger is almost 90....
Re: Fifa bribery inquiry into Bin Hammam & Warner ... and is apparently Blatter's buddy. I can't help think of the mafia when Blatter & Co drone on about "keeping it in the football family".
Re: Fifa bribery inquiry into Bin Hammam & Warner And his countless references to the "FIFA pyramid" makes me think of this...
Re: Fifa bribery inquiry into Bin Hammam & Warner Just loved Blatters rant about "steadying ships shaped like pyramids" or somesuch..
Up next should be a term limit for the President (the IOC has 12 years) and an age limit for the Executive Committe. No more senile old men spouting nonsense...
A good summary and analysis of Blatter's three propoals to restore Fifa’s credibility: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...ter-of-criticism-and-bribery-allegations.html
What reform? The proposal to have every member of FIFA vote on WC hosting decision does nothing to address the corruption issue...it just increases the number of countries in play for potential bribery. Those of us from bigger countries who care primarily about the WC have to remember that most member nations of FIFA couldn't care less where the WC is held since they have virtually no chance at qualifying (only 52 different countries out of FIFA's 207 members have qualified for any of the past three World Cups, i.e. about 25% of its membership). Getting funds from FIFA to help develop the game in their countries and/or to line their own pockets is much more important to them than who gets to host the WC, which means that there will be even more bribery and vote-buying taking place, not less.
The question is what is the alternative? People complain about the equality of voting rights between England and Fiji, but I've yet to see a good alternative (and I for question if a voting categorization is desirable in the long run.) Bicameral is all good and fine but who takes the ultimate decision? And where do you differentiate? Population? Tradition?
Why not both? This is really just a creative exercise because it'll never happen. But you could easily give each fed a certain number of votes simply for existing. You could then have a certain number of categories based on population, just like the Pot system for draws. Each fed would get a certain number of votes based on which pot they were in. You could do the same thing for their achievements in past world cups or rankings or however you wish. You could even do one for longevity, how long they've been members. In that way you could have each fed with a number of votes from say 5 to 50 or whatever they would decide. The small feds with short FIFA histories would still have some power, while the larger older ones would have more. It would be a delicate balance to arrange. And it still wouldn't eliminate corruption. And, like I said, it doesn't really matter because it will never happen.
Agree. There is no easy answer here. And there is no way to eradicate corruption completely no matter what the procedure. The way you tackle it imo is a strong code of ethics (especially re giving a bribe or taking one), a personal code of conduct, a completely independent and professional ethics committee (lawyers&judges), stiff punishments, and protection for whistle-blowers. And stiff punishment for anyone who knows about a bribe and doesn't report it (Acts of Ommission). Only way to minimize it. Will never be able to eradicate it.
So practically, FIFA voting for the WC hosting rights should not be a democratic process as many critics has asked for, but a "rich men club" selection? Funny how when democracy doesn't seem to work in some people's favor, they dismiss it as a bigger chance of corruption.
I think the moment you start telling member associations that some will be "better" henceforth (i.e. more influential) you open a giant can of worms. The right way to go about this is the following: PS: It seems Johan Cruyff will also be part of the Solutions Committee
How is giving an association with 18,000 people the same voting power as an association with 1.3 billion democratic?
Yes, exactly. They're a private organization, not a country. My point is people have been clamoring for them to go that route like the IOC (allow all members to vote rather than a select few). Now they will be criticized for going that route, because obviously Fiji/Andorra and England/Spain voting powers are equal and obviously that is not in the interests of the powers of football. Yet that is the right thing to do in a totally neutral and fair sense. Will that eliminate possible corruption? Not at all, just like going that route didn't eliminate corruption in the IOC contrary to what has been said lately.
Agreem City Dave. I'm really tired of stupid posts like Makandal gives. It's like he doesn't even know what "democracy" means. But the thing is, he DOES know what democracy means. He's just regurgitating something he read somewhere without thinking. And that's really old now.
That's your opinion and not a statement of fact. One could say that it's simply an arbitrary awarding of votes to areas that by accidents of history divided themselves into separate entities as opposed to uniting to form larger governments. I admit that I gave pretty much the most extreme example but I just crunched the numbers and a resident of Turks and Caicos has over 70,000 times the representation in FIFA as does someone from the Peoples Republic of China. That's absurd.
Forget about how votes are taken for the moment. The best way to push reform through FIFA is to make FIFA answerable to some independent body who could take real action against FIFA, such as removing FIFA officials from their positions. If this were done, and this independent body were run by ethical people, FIFA would change very quickly.
The problem with this, is once you establish the independent body, you`ll need another independent body with independence from the former one in order to take actions against those in the independent body that controls FIFA, if someone in it also gets corrupted. Story made short, it would require a "never ending story" of independent bodies controlling each other and at the end, as it would still depend on private entities, we would still be seeing corrupt activity within world football, as it has always existed, when money distribution and personal self interest gets into this equation.
Well, hold on, lets forget about ending corruption, because it's never going to happen. As long as corruptible people seek power, there will always be corruption. The thing is, that doesn't mean the end result has to be bad. For example, look at the USA federal government. Clearly, there have been and are corrupt officials everywhere, but that doesn't mean the government is a mockery like FIFA is. Quite to the contrary, it just seems to ... work. This is because the Founding Fathers of the USA knew that to rely on ethical people to always be in positions of power was very wishful thinking. So they created a system that uses the selfish aims of ambitious and/or corrupt officials and channel it in a way that actually means the whole works ... well, not great, but just works. If we could do the same with FIFA, that would solve a lot of problems then and there.