FIFA's Dirty Secrets

India is not the only home to scams and corruptions. But FIFA, the worlds' governing body of association football was also scanned and looked intoallegations by the investigative journalist Andrew Jennings, who had been scanning FIFA for an decade now.

Within the programme he beautifully alleged that three members of FIFA’s executive committee had been given bribes by International Sports and Leisure, a marketing partner of FIFA.

The three major figures who endowed tainted image to FIFA are – Nicolas Leoz, Issa Hayatou and Ricardo Teixeira – were reportedly involved with a sports marketing firm responsible for broadcasting rights and took money from them.

Jennings further alleged that a fourth current official has been involved in ticket touting. Both of these matters had not been properly investigated by Sepp Blatter, the President of FIFA. It also made a series of claims about the bidding process for hosting the FIFA World Cup.

The documentary was broadcast only three days before the result of the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups were announced. This led to fears from some people that it could ruin England’s chances of hosting the former tournament, with some accusing the BBC of being unpatriotic; however, the BBC defended these claims.

Russia ultimately won the right to host the FIFA World Cup in 2018, with Qatar emerging victorious for the 2022 tournament. The question of whether the documentary was a crucial factor in England losing the contest was brought up by a number of key figures after the result was announced.

Hayatou, who is the vice-president of FIFA, denied all accusations of involvement in the scheme and claimed money was in fact paid to the Confederation of African Football (CAF). He threatened to sue the BBC for the making of the documentary. The programme received 52 complaints from viewers.

Blessed Day

It was indeed a blessed day for me. I met 3 different people on my route to office. All I offered to them was little help and in return I was blessed. The day started in a normal routine. I left for office and bid good bye to mom but she didn’t respond to it like she does. At that moment I just ignored it, and plugged in earphones. I hired the rickshaw reached metro station, aboard it and started reading magazine.  While reading only, Mum’s facial expressions distracted my attention towards her. I could feel that something was troubling her. But, I couldn’t figure out the reason and had tears in my eyes. While I was wiping up tears, the kid in her mothers lap caught my attention. This cheerful kid was enjoying his time with mom. Immediately, a backlash of good & joyful times spent with mom was there. He engaged me so well that I didn’t realize that I had reached Kashmere Gate station. I headed towards the other platform, from where I take metro for Qutab Minar. I got into metro and luckily that kid was also there in the same metro , same coach. Before I could again start thinking about Mom, the kid engrossed me with him. I was busy chatting with him, playing with him, making him quite. By this time we were at AIIMS station and time for sweet kid to depart. Before leaving, his mother thanked me and blessed me. While the kid was leaving he waved his hand to me bidding me goodbye.

Second instance was with a Christian Lady. She was in the same metro with me heading towards Arjangarh. An announcement was made at Saket station for passengers to get down at Saket station, if they were willing to move ahead Qutab station and wait for next metro, as this metro was till Qutab Minar. Most of the passengers got down waiting for the next metro but I think the Christian lady didn’t understand the announcement. By the time I explained to her that the metro wouldn’t go beyond Qutab Minar, the doors were shut. She got confused but I told her need not worry as I’ll direct her to the right platform. She was chanting the rosary and thanked me. Listening to this, she blessed me for future and gave the affectionate touch of her wrinkled hand.  

Third instance was at the metro exit. Since I was in a hurry, I mistakenly collided with an uncle similar to my Dad’s age. And then very sweetly I just turned around to apologize with my hands on my ears. “Go head and bless you my Child” were the words that went to my ear.

“Bless you dear, my child, and girl” What else do you need for a day when you help someone in the need and they merrily bless you J