This week's FIFA-related headlines could be ripped from an entirely different section of this newspaper. FIFA President Gianni Infantino helped force out a judge from the organization's ethics committee, as well as its chief prosecutor, even as the latter said there were "hundreds" of ethics committee cases still pending.
Another senior organization figure who was working with FIFA's governance structure also was fired, reportedly because of Russian unhappiness with some of his initiatives. And all of this was before Infantino bashed these stories and others by calling them "fake news" and "alternative facts."
The names in charge of FIFA have changed, after a U.S. investigation helped bring down a number of senior figures, but the organization as a whole still is broken. FIFA always will be broken as long as the World Cup makes money, and there is no changing that.
At its heart, FIFA exists solely to distribute the riches from the World Cup, its flagship tournament. Some of this means deciding which country gets to host the World Cup and reap benefits for itself. Some of it just means disbursing the untold millions of dollars that the organization itself earns. Is it any wonder that an organization with no oversight and ridiculous amounts of money became a hotbed for corruption?
Infantino, who was elected as FIFA's president on promises of reform, has been no different. He helped consolidate power by introducing a "FIFA Bureau" consisting solely of him and the leaders of the six regional confederations. He's pushing out people who disagree with him. Expecting him to be a major departure from the self-serving leaders who came before him, or the ones who will come after him, is and was simply foolish.
Sponsors, especially from nations outside Russia and Qatar — the locations of the next two World Cups — have been more hesitant to jump on board with an organization that is consistently in the headlines for the wrong reasons.
That said, huge companies such as VISA, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Anheuser-Busch all remain in the sponsorship fold. It's difficult to imagine that FIFA bigwigs are feeling that much pressure. There will be plenty of money to go around, even if the Russian tournament next summer proves slightly less popular than previous incarnations.
Without a major change in the popularity of the World Cup, there will be no changing FIFA. As long as the money rolls in, there will be no stopping whoever happens to be in power. Already the organization seems determined on bloating the tournament to 48 teams for the 2026 edition. That will lead to a far more boring tournament, but more matches, and thus more revenue. FIFA will continue squeeze and prod its golden goose, because that's exactly what the organization is set up to do.
