The Football Association has decided that it cannot support either of the candidates for the presidency of Fifa, the current incumbent Sepp Blatter and his rival Mohamed Bin Hammam. Blatter has failed to tackle the serious governance problems at Fifa and there are doubts about whether the Qatari candidate would either.
The Football Association has decided that it cannot support either of the candidates for the presidency of Fifa, the current incumbent Sepp Blatter and his rival Mohamed Bin Hammam. Blatter has failed to tackle the serious governance problems at Fifa and there are doubts about whether the Qatari candidate would either.
There have been allegations that votes were bought in relation to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. These allegations may well turn out to be unproven, but the repeated nature of such allegations creates the impression of a miasma of corruption surrounding Fifa.
Against this background the liberal weekly newspaper The Economist has suggested that the rights to stage the World Cup should be auctioned on eBay. The suggestion is a humorous one, but the serious point that they are making is that there needs to be much more transparency surrounding the bidding process.
The objection that it would be unfair to poorer countries would be dealt with by rotating the competition between continents. As for the charge that it would be undignified, The Economist points out that football lost its dignity long ago.