Welcome to the World Cup in Brazil, brought to you by Fifa, a corporate governance disaster that is also one of the most successful multinational enterprises on earth.
The contrast between the Fédération Internationale de Football Association’s cronyism, managerial entrenchment and corruption, and its achievement in spreading the British version of football around the world (leaving the US game in the dust), is striking. It demonstrates that Fifa has enormous strengths as well as egregious weaknesses.
The decision to award super-hot Qatar the 2022 World Cup has pushed Fifa’s contradictions to their limits. That choice is now disowned even by Sepp Blatter, its 78-year-old president, who covets a fifth term as “supreme leader” (Fifa’s ayatollah-like job description). If Fifa cannot reform, much will be lost.