In FIFA’s one hundred and eleven years of existence,
the world football governing body only had eight presidents and all have been
Europeans except Joao Havelange a Brazilian who held the position for 24years,
1974-1998, As an African, nothing will bring me more harbinger of joy than to
see an African as the president of the most widely accepted sport in the world.
Issa Hayatou, African football leader has
recently been appointed as FIFA acting president after Sepp Blatter, Michel
Platini, Jack warner and other football powerful individuals were suspended
from all football activities pending a corruption investigation but it’s an
Open Secret that his presidency could be cut short.
The 69-year-old Cameroonian is a former athlete,
he has been at the helm of African football affairs since 1988, long-standing
senior FIFA vice-president, which makes him part and parcel of the old generation
FIFA presently under investigation though yet to be indicted.
Fingers have been pointed at FIFA for being
corrupt, guile and run like mafia by a certain caucus in the past. British investigative
award-winning reporter, Andrew Jennings in 2006 published a book Foul!
The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging and Ticket Scandals, caused
controversy within the beautiful round leather game fans across the globe as it
gave an explosive account of scandals of top officials that run football’s
world governing body.
Recently, in
May 2015 just days before Sepp Blatter was re-elected as FIFA president, top FIFA officials and marketing executives
were indicted by the United States Department of Justice for fraud, conspiracy and corruption . The impact
of that scandal played a decisive role in Blatter’s decision to step down as
president only four days after winning the election.
His resignation sends a clear message, FIFA
officials have been on the wrong side of progress and have disservice the
integrity of the wonderful sport, and the Open Secretes became official!
Swiss authorities also opened a separate criminal
investigation into FIFA's operations pertaining to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup
bids.
Since then, the authority has remained vigilant
as the list of suspended officials from football continue to grow weeks after
weeks and some were banned for lifetime.
Charges come after a three-year FBI investigation
into allegations concerning the misuse of at least $100m. Former FIFA exco
member Chuck Blazer amassed $11 million in unreported income, according to
Richard Weber, director of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division. Former
CONCACAF president Jack Warner also sought by US authorities; he was handed a
life time ban from all football related activities.
According to a FIFA
statement, “Warner was found to have committed "many and various acts of
misconduct continuously and repeatedly during his time as an official in
different high-ranking and influential positions at FIFA and CONCACAF"
In 2010 Andrew Jennings of BBC alleged that
Hayatou had taken bribes in the early 90’s regarding the awarding of contracts
for the sale of television rights, an allegation backed by the panorama who claimed
he obtained a document from a company called ISL which showed that the CAF
president was paid 100,000 French Francs by the company, the company did
eventually won the rights but allegations were denied by the Cameroonian who
claimed the money was for CAF.
Months after that, The Sunday Times also had a
publication that Issa Hayatou with Jacques Anouma a fellow member of the
Executive Committee took $1.5million bribes from Qatar in order to secure bid
for 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini and Jerome Valcke are
powerful football governing trio currently under investigation and banned for
90 days, Former Vice president of FIFA, Chung Mong-joon, the South Korean was a
potential candidate to succeed Blatter but has been banned for six years and
fined £67,924 and the latest is the Thai FA president Worawi Makudi who joins
his colleagues on the side line for 90 days.
Blatter is accused of signing a contract deemed
unfavorable to FIFA and also making a payment considered "disloyal’’ to Michel
Platini, who head Europe’s football governing body UEFA, could all this have happened without Hayatou
being involved, only time will tell as the FIFA latest scandal keeps unfolding.
Though it is rude to say the Acting FIFA President
is involved in the ongoing scandal but it will be forethoughtful not to look
his way. If he is involved, it will be impregnable for Issa Hayatou to keep the
Open Secrete from been unveiled by the FIFA ethics committee, especially when
emerging as the acting President of FIFA has put him in more spotlights…
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