FIFA Scandals and Ethical Dilemmas

The assignment examines the numerous ethical dilemmas facing FIFA stemming from past corruption scandals involving financial mismanagement and irregular bidding practices for tournaments like the World Cup. It delves into how these scandals eroded public trust, jeopardized sponsorships (including Coca-Cola, Adidas, and McDonald's), and ignited international scrutiny regarding migrant worker rights in Qatar. The paper also explores the clash between a country's right to procedural justice during bidding processes and FIFA's obligation for transparency through full publication of investigation reports.

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FIFA Scandal and Ethical Dilemma
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Introduction
FIFA is a body mandated to run the world football and world cup, which is the most watched
sporting event in the globe (Cornelissen 2010) .Recently accused of some corruption committed
by the executive members like awarding the 2022 World Cup tender to Qatar and
mismanagement of funds (Henderson 2014). The corruption led to arrest of some of the
executive officials and suspension of the FIFA president for some period of time. These events
led to the ethical dilemma, when the body was expected to be a transparent and non-business
body.
How was the dilemma resolved
The dilemma was resolved by through conduction of investigations by the United States and
Swiss Office of the Attorney General against the named members and convicted of the charges
(Sheu 2016). This led to arrest of two FIFA vice-presidents Alfredo Hawit and Juan Angel and
many others executive officials that were on suspicion of taking bribes of millions of dollars and
embezzlement of the funds (Youd 2014). Those that have faced full charge include Jack Warner,
Jeffrey Webb, Eduardo Li and many others. The executive committee has been meeting to cast
their votes on the reforms to regain the trust of the body. The investigation conducted among
other FIFA 27 members involving of selling lucrative media and marketing rights to
international soccer tournaments and matches and suspension of the FIFA’s president Seth
Blatter for 90 days places it on the verge of collapsing (Gwyther 2015).
The dilemma was not efficiently brought resolution because FIFA under the Sepp Blatter,
decided not to publish investigation by Garcia but instead, the body provided a summary that

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omitted and twisted the information and was less incriminating the suspected FIFA officials
(Youd 2014). Even though many countries protested for the full release of the report, FIFA
argued that the entire report would violate the continental law. The structural organization of
FIFA, which constitutes 209 members nations means that every gets single votes and same
federation decisions (Sheu 2016). Therefore, when it comes to an election a federation president
and executive committee members, there is less incentive for any nation member to vote for the
structural change. As a result, the voting process of reforms ensured the re-election of the Sepp
Blatter as the president after auditing done that found no linkage of the financial
mismanagement, has been the president for the last 16 years. The auditing would have been done
by an independent auditor to investigate on both the disbursement of funds and the 2022 bid.
The mismanagement of funds and corruption of the past 20 years have not seen any single
person being taken responsible after the investigations; this means that the unethical culture is
still within the body. The dilemma has placed the difference between the FIFA’s president and
the UEFA’ president, Michael Platini who asked Sepp Blatter to resign from the position to
clear his name of the allegations associated with his organizations. FIFA and UEFA are the
word’s football organizations that ought to be in harmony so as the football matches are well
organized and played. Russian and Qatar might be ripped off their rights to host the 2018 and
2022 respectively when the corrupted tender allegations are proven to have irregularities
(Saayaman & Saayman 2014). As a result, this may result in significant effects on the leagues
and tournaments such as Copa America.
The Australian ethical standards revolve around the justice, respect, informed consent,
competence, record keeping, professional responsibility, reputable behaviour. The scandal had
placed the Australian Football Federation into police investigation following the payment that

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AFF paid Jack Werner when Australian was pushing to host the 2022 World Cup (Stone & Rod
2016). The dilemma that faced FIFA saw the loss of trust among the sponsors such as the Coca-
cola, Adidas, McDonald and other countries threatening to withdraw their memberships’ if the
scandal investigation report confiscated from the public (Chisari 2015).
The implications have drawn the international scrutiny of the migrant’s workers that are
constructing the stadiums, thereby making the Amnesty international to issue a report putting the
Qatar government to improve the rights of the workers (Saayman & Saayaman 2014).The
dilemma has resulted into a clash between the World Cup biding countries’ negative right to
procedural justice and Blatter’s negative right to fully publish the report, therefore, making his
reputation for being in jeopardy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the dilemma in FIFA following the past scandals on funds mismanagement and
tender awards have withdrawn the trust that most nation members had for the future successful
running of the organization. Most probably, some countries and sponsor might revoke their
membership in case the investigation report is not entirely published and the criminals not fully
charged.

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List of References
Chisari, M 2015, 'Testing citizen identities: Australian migrants and the Australian values
debate', Social Identities, 21, 6, pp. 573-589, Academic Search Premier
Cornelissen, S 2010, 'Football's tsars: proprietorship, corporatism and politics in the 2010 FIFA
World Cup', Soccer & Society, 11, 1/2, pp. 131-143, Academic Search Premier. October 2017.
Gwyther, M 2015, 'LEADERSHIP IN CRISIS', London Business School Review, 26, 4, pp. 40-
43, Business Source Premier.
Henderson, JC 2014, 'Hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup: opportunities and challenges for
Qatar', Journal Of Sport & Tourism, 19, 3/4, pp. 281-298, Business Source Premier.
Saayman, M, & Saayman, A 2014, 'Appraisal Of Measuring Economic Impact Of Sport Events',
South African Journal For Research In Sport, Physical Education & Recreation (SAJR SPER),
36, 3, pp. 151-181, SPORT
Sheu, V 2016, 'Corrupt Passions: An Analysis of the FIFA Indictments', Texas Review Of
Entertainment & Sports Law, 18, 1, pp. 65-84, Academic Search Premier.
Stone, C, & Rod, M 2016, 'Unfair play in World Cup qualification? An analysis of the 1998–
2010 FIFA World Cup performances and the bias in the allocation of tournament berths', Soccer
& Society, 17, 1, pp. 40-57, Academic Search Premier.

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Youd, K 2014, 'The Winter's Tale of Corruption: The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the
Impending Shift to Winter, and Potential Legal Actions against FIFA', Northwestern Journal Of
International Law & Business, 35, 1, pp. 167-197, Business Source Premier.