Are FIFA doing enough to combat the corruption in their ranks?

Former FIFA delegate and potential Presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hamman has been given a lifetime ban by football’s governing body after being found guilty of attempting to bribe fellow members. Though after this latest revelation are FIFA doing enough to combat the issue of corruption?

Since the emergence of this latest corruption scandal FIFA President Sepp Blatter has promised to ‘clean up’ the organisation and those found guilty of any wrong doing will face severe punishment. Blatter will be hoping that the example set by the Bin Hamman verdict will demonstrate he is delivering on his promises.

Allegations of corruption have never been far away from FIFA and first emerged in 2006 after British journalist Andrew Jennings book gave details of bribes to officials and evidence of vote rigging.

Mr. Bin Hamman’s fate was sealed after a fellow FIFA representative Chuck Blazer accused him and CONCACAF President Jack Warner of wrong doing during meetings that took place in May 2010.

Bin Hamman is alleged to have offered members of the Caribbean Football Union $40,000 each in order to influence their votes in the forthcoming Presidential election. As a result of his actions Bin Hamman was forced to withdraw from the election and Sepp Blatter was left to run unopposed and guaranteed re-election.

As well as his withdrawal both Warner and Bin Hamman were suspended pending further investigations from the FIFA ethics committee. Mr. Warner promptly resigned from his position and thus deflected the attention on to his colleague from Qatar.

So is enough being done or has Mohamed Bin Hamman simply been used as a scapegoat to paper over far deeper cracks? Or on the other hand now his guilt has been proven surely an investigation into the 2022 World Cup bidding process must commence as Bin Hamman was part of Qatar’s bid team.

This is certainly not the first case of voting being influenced by bribes, in November 2010 undercover reporters caught both Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Reynald Tamarii of Tahiti offering to sell their votes in order to influence the outcome of the World Cup bidding process. They received 3-year and 1-year bans respectively.

BBC’s Panorama controversially aired a documentary highlighting allegations of corruption just days before the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts were decided and many believe it ultimately cost England the chance to host the competition in 2018.

The programme suggested that between 1989 and 1999 three FIFA officials received payments from marketing company ISL in order to influence certain decisions during that time period.

The evidence provided from all the cases that have been mentioned is very damaging and demonstrates that corruption is very much an issue within footballs governing body. Though the question is where do we go from here?

Bin Hamman ran for election promising reform if he got the top job, obviously he was never able to deliver but now is surely the time for the whole organisation to reassess how the voting system works and how corruption can be prevented in the future.

In this case Blatter will feel he has emerged victorious and delivered what he promised though even the most cynical of us must be tempted to think that Mohamed Bin Hamman was used as an example to others and there a far more tails of corruption yet to emerge.

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