Sepp Blatter and Fifa have a mission to develop football in the Global South. That’s fair enough: the international organisation of which I am vice-president has a similar mission in its field of activity.
However, in some countries football faces particular challenges from criminal organisations. One such country is Colombia where the Fifa under-20 World Cup kicks off on July 29th. It is the biggest sporting event ever held in the country and 250,000 tickets have been sold.
Sepp Blatter and Fifa have a mission to develop football in the Global South. That’s fair enough: the international organisation of which I am vice-president has a similar mission in its field of activity.
However, in some countries football faces particular challenges from criminal organisations. One such country is Colombia where the Fifa under-20 World Cup kicks off on July 29th. It is the biggest sporting event ever held in the country and 250,000 tickets have been sold.
However, in the 1980s and early 1990s Colombia’s drug gangs were actively involved in sport. Pablo Escobar owned Atlético Nacional; Millionarios [perhaps appropriately named] belonged to José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, a rival drug gang boss; and the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers of the Cali drug cartel held shares in América de Cali. Offering big salaries, their teams were able to attract foreign stars like Argentina’s Julio César Falcioni. In 1991 attendances in the top league averaged 15,243 per game.
Since then Colombia’s government has broken up the drug cartels. Football clubs have, however, taken a hit. Average attendances fell to just over 8,000 last season. The old influx of easy cash encouraged clubs to spend freely. When the money dried up, they were left with huge debts.
Amémerica de Cali, which won five consecutive titles in the 1980s, has been on the US Treasury Department’s list of groups tied to drugs for 12 years, crippling it financially. It now owes its players ten months of back pay. Last month Coldeportes, the governemt’s sports regulatory agency, barred it from playing until it pays its wages. Deportes Quindio, whose players refused to travel to Bogotá last month over withheld pay, and the Once Caldas club also got into trouble with the regulator.
Moreover, the clubs’ ties to crime have been hard to shake off. Last year prosecutors alleged that the Norte del Valle crime syndicate, one of Colombia’s biggest remaining drug gangs, was using the Santa Fe team to launder money. In October police seized $161m cash that prosecutors claimed was going to be channelled through the club.
President Juan Manuel Santos, a Santa Fe fan, is trying to clean up the sport. Last month he signed a law creating incentives for clubs to become limited companies and attract new investors. They are also required to report to the finance ministry’s money-laundering unit. Shareholders must now show where the money they invest in teams comes from and clubs cannot play if their payrolls are more than fifty days in arrears.
Hooligans known as barras bravas have also been a problem. Their penchant for vandalism and violence has discouraged many fans from going to matches. They can be jailed up for up to 10 years for using explosives! As President Santos commented, ‘Either we change football or it will be over for us.’