The purpose of this paper is to analyze the issues presented in the FIFA case and present advice on how they could be addressed. This memo will provide a concise summary of the ongoing FBI investigation and recommend some internal changes to remedy the situation. It will also attempt to predict any other challenges that FIFA might encounter in the future and mention potential measures that could be taken to mitigate the damage.
FIFA is an exceptional institution with an uncontested monopoly on football. Despite being a non-profit organization, it has earned $5.7 billion of gross income in the four-year period of the world cup from 2011 to 2014. This international governing body of soccer was founded on May 21, 1904, and has grown to include 209 members in 2015. The original purpose of FIFA was to simplify international matches by introducing and enforcing a uniform set of rules and regulations in all associate countries. Nowadays, however, the area of FIFA’s influence has extended past the rules of the game, as it controls almost every variable in professional football.
With such great power comes great responsibility, and, unfortunately, there are rumors that FIFA executives abused this power for monetary gain with no regard to the initial objective of the organization. It is well known that some level of corruption is imminent in any high-profile organization, but the scale of this phenomenon in FIFA is unprecedented. Decisions such as the location of the games, and what companies would organize and televise the events are heavily affected by bribes.
Some rumors go as far as to compare FIFA to the mafia, and even the FBI uses language usually found in official depictions of large-scale organized crime to describe the practices present at FIFA. What is more, 14 high ranking officials involved in various shadowy activities have been arrested by the Swiss authorities. With the FBI pledging to rid the organization of such malfeasance, it is clear that changes are inevitable.
Whoever will be elected president of FIFA at this difficult time must pay close attention to the FBI investigation. Handling the situation properly is crucial to the future of the organization as a whole. It is strongly recommended that the president does everything in their power to assist the FBI and any other authorities in reviewing the conduct of FIFA’s executives.
Once FIFA is purged of most of its undesired employees, some changes will need to be made to its structure. To prevent such issues from arising in the future, the organization will most likely have to increase the transparency of its decision-making process. FIFA has always stated that compliance and anti-corruption are among their highest priorities, but despite that, the situation has only gotten worse throughout the last decade. It would be logical to conclude that such a discrepancy between the official policy and reality was caused by incompetent management, and it needs to be changed.
After the FBI investigation finishes, all those directly involved in bribery and other illegal actions will likely be fired, but that will not be enough to save FIFA. While these people are the active perpetrators, there are also those who were supposed to prevent such misconduct, but failed to do so. These enablers might have simply not noticed the shadowy deals taking place in their organization, or they could have been too scared to stop them. Regardless of what the reason was, these people need to be replaced with someone more passionate about keeping FIFA thriving and corruption-free.
For an organization that works with such extraordinary amounts of money as FIFA does, finding honest personnel is crucial, but also highly challenging. Even people who would not usually abuse their position for monetary gain can be tempted by the power available to them in FIFA. To be as confident as possible in their candidates, FIFA’s human resources department can use various tests. Firstly, the applicant would be required to have sufficient experience working in highly influential organizations; this would serve as the basis for determining their trustworthiness. Secondly, a meticulous background check must be carried out regarding their conduct in that company. If no evident cases of malfeasance are discovered, the applicant can move to the second stage where the testing will become more practical.
The second stage will be a sort of internship that would test the candidate’s trustworthiness in addition to their job performance. The person will be appointed to a position of high responsibility with little to no apparent oversight. It would be most effective if the intern is told that his work is being monitored, but can clearly see that their supervisor is far from vigilant. When the intern becomes comfortable with minor negligence, specially trained people will come to them with certain offers.
They will ask them for a relatively small favor and tell a touching story about why they need it so much. This will be a seemingly innocent request, and in addition, they will suggest to give the intern something as compensation. If the candidate declines the request, they will be approached again with a different offer, perhaps something more serious and with a much greater reward. If they still refuse to disobey the rules, they will be approached for the final time.
The last proposition will be the hardest to resist, as it will be coming from a higher ranking employee of their own organization. Their direct superior or possibly someone from an entirely different department will explicitly ask them to partake in their scheme. The intern will need to do something that clearly violates the core principles of FIFA and keep it secret. They will be offered a substantial reward for doing so, but there will be very little time to make their decision. This situation is the ultimate test of trust, as the intern would have to risk everything for the sake of honesty. If they report their nefarious co-worker despite not being supervised and sustaining immense pressure and temptation, they can be trusted.
While the proposed system is very strict, it is still not perfectly reliable as it depends on people acting precisely according to plan. There is also a risk that an employee leaks the scheme of this process by accident or intentionally. If that were to happen, the whole system would be compromised and become almost entirely useless. Any candidate that researches the company they apply to would be able to pass ass the challenges with utter ease. Measures must be taken to alleviate the adverse effects of such unwanted exposures. Firstly, FIFA could develop a few artificial information packages that would be released in case of a leak to lower its trustworthiness. Secondly, there must undoubtedly be an alternative testing system that can be implemented quickly if the main one is jeopardized. Ultimately, these measures may well never be used as the mass hiring of new staff will only happen once.
As for issues that FIFA will have to face in the next few years, there are two major ones that a closely related to each other: sponsorship and reputation. After a decade of unfavorable rumors that finished with the resignation of the newly elected president, one could say with confidence that FIFA’s reputation is at its lowest. The recent arrests and the ongoing FBI investigation do not help the situation either. While FIFA still maintains its influence over the sport, it needs to regain the trust of the football community to maintain its current position. The changes mentioned above would need to be made quickly and publicly. In addition to that, the processes within the company must become simpler and more transparent.
The sponsorship issue is more severe, and FIFA might not be able to mitigate the damages entirely. Due to all the negative media attention directed at FIFA, its eight official partners might feel that they are not benefiting from being associated with it. It is apparent from the sponsors’ press releases that concerns are high for the organization’s future. All of the partner companies have two options in this situation, and both could have powerful consequences.
On the one hand, they could stay with FIFA and accept the reputation damage. This would leave them with the advantage of having access to a highly developed advertising platform at the upfront cost of dealing with a public scandal. On the other hand, the companies could abandon FIFA, taking the moral high ground but sacrificing the possibility for future cooperation. Each organization’s choice will then likely depend on the evaluation of their evaluation of whether the long term benefits would outweigh the immediate adversities.
Consequently, it should be FIFA’s highest priority to ensure that all the sponsors’ concerns are addressed. Because the scandal has become too large to simply ignore it, the best way to handle the situation would be through a genuine public apology. The new president needs to persuade the fans that he or she is passionate about the future of football. To do this, they must do what is best for the sport and enforce this policy throughout the organization. They may even oversee the essential operations personally to be confident that everything is proceeding according to plan. It would also be logical to certain aspects of FIFA’s work public. For example, instead of deciding on the venue for the next world cup behind closed doors, they could do it openly and transparently.
Despite the measures mentioned above, some sponsors might still decide to leave FIFA, and the organization needs to be ready for that. Having minimal overhead costs, it should be able to adapt quickly to reduced funding, but it is still a good idea to consider reducing expenses. Most of the organization’s budget is spent on paying its extensive staff. Having so many employees also introduces more possibilities for corruption, so FIFA could address two problems at once by simplifying its internal structure.
In conclusion, FIFA’s future is uncertain, and at this point, it is not entirely under the organization’s control. The new president needs to deal with current problems quickly, to minimize the damage to FIFA’s public image. The immediate issues related to the FBI investigation can be solved by introducing a strict anti-corruption policy, but whether that would be enough to convince the sponsors to stay is unclear.