efidex

POWER, MONEY AND CORRUPTION IN FOOTBALL

Dr. Manuel Vizuete Carrizosa. Phd. University Teacher

The flagship of professional sports, in recent times, has received a series of torpedoes in its waterline, which have shaken its structures, until now apparently solid and immovable, on which especially soccer football had been based and unwrapping A classic British view, alluding to the rules, the spirit of the game and the sporting phenomenon in general, maintains that football is a gentleman’s sport played by villains, while rugby is a villain’s sport played by gentlemen[1].

There are certainly too many unknowns and dark points in the framework of the so-called beautiful sport, and of others equally developed economically, and in what is considered a sporting spectacle. One of those unknowns would have to do with doping cases; The question is simple; If the number of professional athletes in football and other sports, equally developed economically and in the media, is infinitely higher in percentage terms than the athletes participating in the Olympic Games, how is it possible that this percentage difference is not also reflected? in doping cases that are accredited in these top-level sports? In a word, doping cases are either disguised or there are no rigorous verifiable controls.

In recent times, football in general and Spanish football in particular have been an exponent of actions that are not only undesirable, but, in almost all cases, should be punishable. Probably, the recent kiss scandal, carried out by a president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, would not have happened if the UEFA federation had immersed itself in the lyrics and spirit of this song performed by the female tuna of the Complutense University. What can we say, also, about the innocent millions of euros with which a certain club has been showering the arbitration team; By the way, a club that has proven tears and cries, with the refrain that they are unfairly treated; Of course, complaining is in the DNA of your place of residence, whose inhabitants suffer from a chronic disease of victimhood that has turned out to be a huge business. The truth is that the entire framework of professional sports entertainment is based on pillars that range from the dark to the undesirable and from which we could and should clear up a series of issues.

Following Simson & Jennings[2] The problems of high-competition sports suffer from a series of ramps and visas of convenience, of such magnitude that, on too many occasions, those responsible for the order of sport, power and justice, end up looking towards on the other hand, without daring to put a bit of values of equity and common sense into a phenomenon that goes beyond the educational, overwhelms the social, and ends up becoming an economic spiral that, like any other, is exposed to all the evils of politics. and from God money. There would be four references that must be considered to understand the phenomenon.

The first would be the Myth understood in a double dimension; on the one hand as a sublimation of the physical abilities that identify us and in which we project ourselves, in such a way that during the competition we become protagonists, and we live with our mythical character his successes and frustrations. The other dimension of the myth is part of cultural and economic marketing, which sells football as a great sports festival of global dimensions, and as an example of ethical and moral values, of decency in short, presided over by fair play.

The second is the analysis and recognition of the truth that in the case of football is represented by companies and institutions at different levels, including the multinational, that pay hundreds of billions of euros as sponsors, money that follows mysterious channels and serves different purposes. I have already raised before the problem of the obscurantism of doping in football, of which it is not known whether it comes or goes, and although energetic statements are made against this phenomenon, the enthusiasm remains in the force of words. Let’s imagine what would happen, if, as happened with the Tour de France, one morning the police showed up looking for doping substances.

The third is the complexity of the federative organizations, controlled by oligarchies that perpetuate themselves in office, and that travel around the world in private planes, as if they were kings, distributing venues and championships to cities or countries in need of public projection and politics, and that always revolve around large sums of money; A good example of this is the international and/or world championships held in countries of the Persian Gulf, and the three-way soccer World Cup being prepared by Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

The leaders would be the fourth dimension of the problem, federative, some with little relationship with football, they choose among themselves by co-option, or by dressing the electoral processes in a false legality, changing the rules and norms at will, so that nothing changes. , as in the Bosman case. And so history repeats itself without interruption from Havelange, who presided over FIFA from 74 to 98, to the present day.

---

[1] «Football is a gentleman’s game played by thugs and rugby is a game for thugs played by gentlemen». Henderson, Charlie. «When is a fight not a fight?» (en inglés). BBC, Reino Unido, 15 de junio de 2005. Consultado el 21-nov-2008

[2] SIMSON V. & JENNINGS: The Lords of the Rings. Power, Money & Drugs in the Modern Olympics. Simon & Schuster.  London. 1992