"Fear God, and offend not the Prince nor his laws, and keep thyself out of the magistrate's claws."
– Thomas Tusser, 1557
By thouroughly, publically and, well, royally, screwing England out of contention for the 2018 World Cup, FIFA's indignant arrogance may have finally overtaken it's previous shrewdness. England is a proud nation, especially when it comes to football, and despite appearances is a powerful one. Yesterday may have gone beyond the pale, past the limits even of football's capacity to tolerate corruption.
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I say this as the shock of yesterday's decision to hand Russia the 2018 World Cup and Qatar the 2022 World Cup wears off in Zurich, London and around the world, and details of just what went wrong with England's bidf come out from infuriated members of its bid team. The main culprit in the who mess, of course, is CONCACAF's perennial bugbear Jack Warner. Warner had committed to England, it seems, even giving personal promises of support to England's great white hope, Prince William.
"Jack actually put his arm around William's shoulder and said 'You have my vote'," revealed one member of England's bid team, quoted in the
Daily Mail.As we now know, Jack and his bon vivant underling Chuck Blazer – who also issued his assurances to the Prince, the Prime Minster and Prettyboy (David Beckham, that is) – then scuttled off and made bad on their promises. It's duplicity at it's most stark and unabashed, and it's the kind of thing that only the most craven and arrogant of men think they can get away with.
But will they get away with it? The sad answer is "probably, yes." Jack Warner will never reap what he sowed in Zurich – he'll retire to his island fortress of T&T long before any reformer or anti-corruption element in FIFA can come to grips with him. Neither will Chuck Blazer likely face the fire, if only because he appears well overdue for a massive heart attack. But FIFA might, in the long run, pay the price for yesterday's actions.
And why? Well, it isn't because England lost – they might have lost anyway – but that England was intentionally humiliated. As we all know, the British media has recently been outing corruption, vote-rigging and vote-buying inside FIFA. Most notably, the BBC's Panorama documentary alleged – proved, you might say – that four of the men who voted yesterday were actively, irredeemably corrupt. None voted for England. Who was one of the stars of the show? Jack Warner, of course.
And FIFA's been fairly open about that the impact the documentary had on England's bid. "They are saying to us that our media killed us," says an understandably incensed England bid chief Andy Anson. According to Chuck Blazer "It didn't create a positive environment for the England bid but it's difficult to get into the minds of other people and know if it really was a factor."
England, who had perhaps the best bid, spoke out against FIFA. And England netted the worst result in the vote. It was a message, loud and clear.
But if FIFA punished England for having accused it of corruption, that punishment confirmed the accusation. And England doesn't seem keen to stand for it. Calls are ringing out across the home of football for reform to FIFA, sweeping out it's corruption, washing away it's greed. It may be sour grapes, of course, but you can't deny that the cries for change are valid. England had perhaps the best bid for 2018, but punishment was more important to FIFA than practicality, so England was publicly shamed.
What's more, England's government was publicly shamed. FIFA is powerful, sure, but the government of the U.K. is infinitely moreso. Jack Warner and his cronies may have created a situation where heads of state beg at their feet for votes, but Princes and Prime Ministers, I'll wager, don't take well to public humiliation.
But what does this matter? England isn't as important in world football as they think they are, clearly. What can they do? Well, it's worth mentioning that England is still home to the most popular, most profitable league on Earth. The FA controls a huge amount of soccer wealth - if wielded properly, they can cause FIFA all kinds of headaches.
What's more, England isn't alone in feeling hugely aggrieved after yesterday's "vote." FIFA may have shown petulance and arrogance in their handling of the 2018 cup, but they showed pure greed with the 2022 award to Qatar, a country with no credentials for the cup beyond vast sums of cash. Qatar may indeed put on a great show, but by giving the cup to a tiny country rate 113th in the world and boasting no football credentials whatsoever, FIFA alienated Australia and the United States. Each had far superior bids than Qatar, and each will be infuriated with how the votes fell. Count hopeful bidders Spain & Portugal (and perhaps Japan or Korea, but they weren't really serious contenders) into the ranks of the disaffected, and in one fell swoop FIFA publicly flipped off one of Asian football's heaviest hitters, the home countries of two of the world's three biggest leagues (EPL and La Liga) and the richest country on earth. And they did it all in such a way that the majority of the watching world can't help but line up against them.
And so, I think, international football has reached a watershed moment. Reform, so long overdue, is now inevitable. Voices calling for reform (including Declan Hill – click here for the excellent interview he did with Ben Rycroft over at It's Called Football) are only going to get louder until something gives. Abandoning FIFA for a rival federation? Slow but steady reform from within? Public pressure to oust the most guilty parties? I don't know how reform will come, but I wouldn't be surprised if this whole mess that began in a conference hall ends in a courtroom.
In the end, when Jack Warner looked England in the eye and lied, he may have brought about the end of corrupt FIFA. He offended the prince, and because of it FIFA could well feel the wrath of the magistrate's claws.
Sepp Blatter photo courtesy of AsianFC