Brian Phillips writes for Grantland:
Which raises the question again: If FIFA corruption is simply a closed system, detached from reality, a mechanism for assigning World Cup sponsorship rights, and none of the actions it entails are illegal, then where’s the harm? Surely we aren’t expected to weep when one multibillion-dollar company loses an advertising opportunity because another multibillion-dollar company is better at cheating. So as long as the games are good, why does it matter if FIFA is corrupt?
That soccer’s biggest governing body is corrupt is nothing new. It is so beyond being an open and fair organization to be comical on occasion, as Phillips points out.
Phillips’ piece, though, not only serves as a good summary of FIFA’s sporteaucrats but also makes a great case for the real-world human costs of FIFA’s corruption. Must read.
