The FBI has been investing heavily into the world football governing body, FIFA, over allegations of corruption primarily relating to the award of the World Cups. Since Sepp Blatter took charge of FIFA in 1998, the World Cup has been held in Europe only once – in 2006.
During this period, the World Cup has been the likes of South Korea, South Africa, and most recently, Brazil. There are allegations that several FIFA officials received bribes in order to hold the world cups in these parts of the world. The 2010 World Cup has become the most controversial after South Africa admitted to offering ‘other payments’ to the tune of $10 million.
Even though FIFA has made a lot of money from such undertakings, the host nations usually have come on the worse side. Massive stadiums were built at which costs to the taxpayer whereas the public infrastructure like roads and transport did not see an equal amount of spending.
Further, it has been costing a lot of money in order to keep the huge stadiums, which have little local potential since the end of the World Cup. Even though the World Cup 2010 went smoothly, the 2014 World Cup saw several protests from the home supporters due to the exorbitant spending of their money.
What happens next will be interesting – whilst some of the website online think that the World Cups 2018 and 2022 will be taken away from Russia and Qatar, plenty of others (and most fans) have already shrugged their shoulders and expect very little to be done.
“Reports say US investigators believe FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke authorized the transfer. But Valcke, who was effectively Blatter`s right-hand man, insists he had nothing to do with it,” said Jack Warner, who was one of the former officials at FIFA.
He is part of the corruption scandal which is thought to have involved more than $ 150 million over the last 10 years. There are 14 different officials, connected to FIFA, who have been charged by the FBI. “This level of corruption was only possible with the complicity of the global banking system,” said Jubilee executive director Eric LeCompte.