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Tristan Wall
Professor Campbell
UWRT-1103
11 April 2016
Money and Power: How FIFA and The NFL Are Failing Their Followers
Money laundering, bribes, abuse of power, cover-ups, and scandal; terms all found and
used when discussing or investigating governmental or political corruption and hardship.
(Maybe too many and and or However, more recently, these words and many others like
them have become synonymous with two multiBillion-dollar companies over the course of the

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past few years. The NFL and FIFA have been involved in a number of scandals and law suits
ranging from player safety, to domestic violence, to money laundering. While the two have not

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been directly involved in each others actions, their effects on the world and those how play the

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games have been irreversible. Because of the actions of current and in some cases past officials,

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The NFL and FIFA have been on a downward spiral for quite some time now.

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Starting with FIFA. Many people were not aware of the immense amount of corruption
charges that FIFA and its officials have been slapped with over the past year or so until it was
made public only recently. The entire report revealed that for years, FIFA had been giving out

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may be no getting out of.
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favors for money. The largest and most appalling being the awarding of South Africa the

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about its been going on for a while)

opportunity to host the World Cup, which according to FIFA yielded a little over 3 Billion

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made public recently.

viewers in 2014, in exchange for bribes. According to BBC, the deal to award South Africa the

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cup totaled to around $10 million. Chuck Blazer, a former United States soccer official is on the

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world cup.
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record stating, Beginning in or around 2004 and continuing through 2011, I and others on the
FIFA executive committee agreed to accept bribes in conjunction with the selection of South

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Africa as the host nation for the 2010 World Cup (qtd. In Assael, Forrest, and Chaudhary). Most
people read the articles that outline what has been happening and think nothing of it. So what if

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another corruption scandal comes in? The cops will come in and save the day, and theyll get
their jail time and itll all be over right? Wrong. The fact that 30 or so officials have been
indicted on corruption charges and that it has affected numerous countries on the globe is
nothing short of systematic corruption and abuse of power. This matters not only because of the
number of laws broken but because of the public image it casts.
According to topendsports.com, there are an estimated 3.5 billion soccer fans world wide,
making the most popular sport on the planet. Thats around 50 percent of the worlds population.

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This being said, when a governing body such as FIFA exists to coordinate and arbitrate the
cultivation and fair play of the sport world wide, they must hold themselves to the highest of
standards and regulations internally. This being said, the blatant disregard for decency and
legality within the management and hierarchy led by Sepp Blatter is as equally absurd as it is
hypocritical. You have no right to question my honor and integrity! (qtd. In Assael, Forrest,
and Chaudhary) were the words uttered by Blatter as he was questioned about a payoff. Due to
the fact that there was indeed every right to question Blatters motives is a prime example as to
why Blatter has failed the followers of the sport worldwide. Furthermore, another reason that this

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news is all so shocking to the general public is because no one had any idea that was going on or
for how long it had been going on for. Former FIFA General Secretary and Director of Finance,
Urs Linsi said,
We should always remember to let the media and the public know what we are doing.
There is huge public interest in FIFA, therefore we have to be as transparent as possible.

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We will try to communicate in a more open way concerning football matters so the world
can believe us and be proud of their federation (qtd. In Jennings)
Linsi was deliberately lying to the public and anyone who happened to come across his quote on
FIFAs website at the time. Most people tend to pin Blatter as the soul offender and write the
whole situation off when there is clear evidence that this problem of organized corruption runs
through out the entire corporation and has for some time now.

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