FIFA : ETHICS RULE, OK ?

What a surprise ! FIFA, that organisation so wedded to open and honest behaviour, has determined that its former Vice President, Mohamed Bin-Hammam, is guilty of bribery and has banned him from football for life. Given that he is 62 years old, the ban is hardly likley to affect his playing career, though it may stop him from drawing on the vast wealth and patronage that is gained annually by officials of various national footballing bodies.

Bin-Hammam was involved in the controversial bid for the 2022 World Cup from his own minute state of Qatar. The findings of FIFA's Ethics Committe' must surely call into question the validity of both that bid and the voting that was associated with it. Separately, there is a report that the now ex-FIFA representative and Vice President, Jack Warner, handed a caseful of cash to various of his Caribbean colleagues in an effort to bribe them to vote in favour of the Qatari bid; whether or not this is true, coupled with the decision over Bin-Hammam, can the decision to hold the 2022 event in Qatar possibly stand ?

Knowing FIFA, anything is possible. It's more than likely that neither Warner nor Bin-Hammam is guilty of anything that would stand up in a properly consitituted court of law but, in the kangaroo environment of a FIFA court, they have both been covered in sufficient **** to ensure that FIFA emerges as the good guy while they are both condemned as villains. It's also more than possible that voting for the 2022 World Cup will be revisited as no one, other than Qatar, really wants it to be there; given the controversy, this would be a perfect cover for FIFA to look elsewhere without appearing to have been in the wrong, itself, in the first place.

What is most noticeable is the total absence of FIFA's President from the news in the last 3 or 4 weeks; might he be keeping a low profile and hoping that none of this **** sticks to him ? Overall, an entirely corrupt organisation has simply shown itself to be every bit as corrupt as everyone knows it to be, though no one of any power seems really prepared to say so.