#360view: FIFA's chance to make a statement

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  • FIFA is the most powerful and therefore influential sporting organisation in the world. Until there is a huge global shift in the sporting interests of the world’s population that is unlikely to change for several generations.

    Having assumed this position, it should, theoretically, set the standards when it comes to sporting governance. It should be the gold standard others look to mimic, follow and learn from as custodians of their own particular sport.

    In some ways, FIFA has achieved this with its aggressive commercialisation of the World Cup and how it has actively encouraged the globalisation of the game. In the latter respect it is very much a world leader and something, for his myriad faults and failures that Sepp Blatter deserves respect for.

    But for all the good there is plenty of the bad and there exists an overriding attitude that FIFA can be a standard-bearer when it wants to be, but in uncomfortable situations it cowers from sight.

    Qatar has bore the brunt of worldwide criticism following the infamous 2010 vote which granted hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

    Russia, on the other hand, with the exception of its potential for football-related violence has enjoyed something of a protected existence. Unlike Qatar, of course, it has an extensive football history, a transport and sporting infrastructure that we know can sustain a large-scale tournament and has hosted huge competitions.

    Yet, the elephant in the room came crashing through the walls on December 9 with the release of the second part of the McLaren report and its revelations into Russia’s state-sponsored doping programme.

    Vitaly Mutko up for FIFA Council re-election

    McLaren’s study covered the time period 2011-2015 when Vitaly Mutko, the head of the Russian Football Union, was also sports minister, and as former WADA present Dick Pound has said: “It was impossible for him not to be aware of it. And if he’s aware of it, he’s complicit in it.”

    Mutko has been on FIFA’s Executive Committee/Council since 2009 and also led their successful bid campaign in 2011. He is now standing for re-election on the Council next year; the belief is he’s probably going to be voted back in, unless he fails an eligibility check.

    That alone will now be a considerable guideline for us to see just how seriously FIFA view doping. Because, if they take McLaren seriously, Mutko shouldn’t be anywhere near an electoral process; suspicious samples in the Russian Under-17, Under-21 and Premier League being among those flagged, and that’s before you take into account his role as sports minister.

    Yet, FIFA President Gianni Infantino detailed this week to Der Spiegel that, “boycotts and bans” don’t work. Infantino did say FIFA are reviewing the evidence presented them to McLaren but only on matters “related to football”, so Mutko can breathe a little easier.

    The president’s diplomacy is admirable but also naive, especially when this month The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) saw fit to strip Sochi of hosting rights for next year’s world championships.

    That’s decisive and common sense action. FIFA, though, hide behind procedure and their self-imposed jurisdiction. Of course, removing 2018 from Russia would be an extreme measure at present, but Infantino’s comments were more than a little dismissive.

    He went on to detail that FIFA isn’t the “world doping police”. That’s true, but isn’t it something you should, at least, acknowledge it’s worthy of severe condemnation? After all, the doctors caught and subsequently punished in Spain, Russia and America haven’t ever been exclusive to one sport.

    WADA’s annual budget is around $30m; FIFA are sitting on cash reserves of $1.43bn. It’s unclear exactly what they’re for, but it’s a worthy cause, beneficial to all sport and therefore football.

    FIFA’s racism task force is no more, having been disbanded in September after fulfilling “its mission”; now racism has been cured, perhaps they could maybe divert more attention to curing other ills? When FIFA gets things right, they love nothing more than shouting it from the rooftops.

    McLaren and Mutko gives them a chance to make a big statement. Let’s hope they elect to not drop the ball.

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