The impending downfall of Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini isn’t even the half of it.
More telling is that, having suspended the heads of Fifa and Uefa for 90 days each, the game’s govening body are are set to replace them with Issa Hayatou, who four years ago was censured by the International Olympic Committee over bribery claims, and Angel Maria Villar Llona, accused of refusal to co-operate with Fifa’s inquiry into the awarding of two World Cups.
Chuck Blazer, Jack Warner, Jerome Valcke, Mohammed bin Hammam… one by one the names familiar to those of us who monitor the ebb and flow of power in the game are disgraced. Thanks to the FBI and, belatedly, the Swiss authorities on whose territory the whole extravagant party is organised, the state of football no longer evokes mere shrugs of resignation.
The biggest heads, it seems, are rolling. So who will be left to run football? Whom can we trust? To whom should the FA, who must now regret backing Platini’s campaign to succeed Blatter when Fifa hold their presidential election early next year, switch their allegiance?
The likes of Hayatou and Villa Llona? Frankly, from what I’ve seen of their contributions to the game over the years, I’d rather stick with the devils we know.
No, my feeling is that no one connected with the existing regimes of either organisation can be relied upon to oversee the necessary root-and-branch reforms. We need a messiah with the energy to do the job. Goodness knows where he or she can be found.
The sad reflection is that Blatter and Platini were once such positive influences. In the early 1990s, they oversaw the improvements in refereeing that led to more goals (through the refinement of the offside law), less serious injury (the outlawing of dangerous tackles) and, eventually, the rise of the creativity most wonderfully embodied in Lionel Messi.
Power, though, corrupted and the game gradually became an afterthought. That’s why we need a new broom.
