Why we wink at corruption in sports
To those who follow soccer, the news that nine high-ranking members of FIFA — the sport's world governing body — were accused of wrongdoing was akin to are port that the sun will continue to rise in the east.
Why is corruption rampant throughout the soccer world? Because it can be. All one has to do is look at the career of FIFA President/dictator Sepp Blatter, who was re-elected Friday to a fifth term even in the wake of the arrests. Blatter, who is always quick to claim credit for the extraordinary worldwide popularity of“football” — as virtually all non-Americans call it — stood before FIFA'sCongress on Thursday and, with a straight face, asked, for all intents and purposes: How was I supposed to know?
He was supposed to know because he's in charge he's the boss he's the guy reportedly being paid $6 million a year. It isn't as if Blatter just took over he's been running FIFA since 1998. But Blatter's no Harry Truman. He told the FIFA Congress that “a few” people had badly damaged the organization's reputation.Sure, and Watergate was a third-rate burglary.
On Tuesday,Blatter said he’d leave office within months, and called for a fresh electionto appoint a successor.
Actually,the arrests did little to change FIFA's reputation they simply shone aninternational spotlight on it. Even as U.S. authorities were indicting 14people — the nine FIFA officials and five sports marketing ｅxecutives — onnumerous charges involving bribery, kickbacks and money laundering, Swissauthorities announced they were opening a separate investigation intowidespread reports that bribes and kickbacks were involved in the awarding ofthe 2018 World Cup to Russia and the inexplicable awarding of the 2022 WorldCup to Qatar.
No one whoknows anything about FIFA doubts that the Swiss will find plenty of evidencethat money changed hands, especially in the Qatar bid. Perhaps the evidencewill be so overwhelming that Qatar will lose the bid and the runner-up — theUnited States — will end up as host.
But don'tbet on it.
If we havelearned anything in recent years about corruption in sports, it's that few carewhat governments or governing bodies do. People care only about what time thegame starts and whether their team wins.
TheOlympics, also run by a Swiss-based organization (the International OlympicCommittee) with a shady past, were held in Sochi in 2014 even while RussianPresident Vladimir Putin was being pilloried for human rights violations bymost of the world. Putin more or less laughed off the protests and was trulyupset only when his men's hockey team failed to reach the medal round. That wasimportant.
The plightof the poor in Brazil, which hosted last year's World Cup and will host nextyear's Summer Olympics, has been chronicled ｃountless times by journalists,their cameras focusing on people living in squalor a stone's throw frommultimillion-dollar soccer stadiums under construction.
The WorldCup generated $2.6 billion in profits last year — all of which went to FIFA —not a dime to the host ｃountry. TV ratings worldwide were mammoth, evenin the non-soccer-mad United States.
Here in theUnited States, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell became a laughing stock lastsummer when he somehow thought that suspending Baltimore Ravens running backRay Rice for two games after he was arrested for beating up his then-fiancee ina casino elevator was a punishment that fit the crime.
After beingpublicly savaged for the decision — and his weak attempts to defend it —Goodell stumbled through an embarrassing news conference trying to explainthat, if he'd only seen the full tape of Rice pummeling his fiancee inthat elevator, the punishment would have been different. There were calls forGoodell to resign from his $44 million-a-year job, and there were more mistakesmade in the case of another star running back, Adrian Peterson, who took aswitch to his 4-year-old son.
The 32 NFLowners backed Goodell. Why? Because he's made them even richer than they werebefore he took over in 2006. How did the public react? The league's TV ratingswere as high as they've ever been. “Sunday Night Football” on NBC continued tobe the highest-rated prime-time TV show of the fall — not sports TV show, TVshow.
Oh yes, thevideo TMZ acquired that showed Ray Rice throwing haymakers at Janay Ricewas horrifying. The pictures of Peterson's son after his beating werefrightening. Goodell certainly handled it all poorly.
Source: http://ｕnion-bulletin.com/news/2015/jun/07/why-we-wink-corruption-sports/
Image: http://d.christiantoday.com/en/full/20766/fifa-15.jpg
VOCABULARY:
1.akin - similar, likened
2.indicting - a formal charge oraccusation of a serious crime.
3.mammoth - huge
4.pummeling - beat repeatedly
5.haymakers - a forceful blow
DISCUSSION:
1. How manybig sporting leagues do you have in your ｃountry?
2. How important is the sports culture in yourｃountry?
3. What isthe most popular sport in Korea?
4. What isthe ultimate goal of sprts?
5. In whatways can corruption in sports affect its ultimate goal?
6. How can athletes be a crucial model for the youth?
