FIFA and The Controversial Interference Rule

There are a lot of things about FIFA that are shady and controversial and one of them is the third party interference rule. It has been a source of hammer from the world football ruling body, which they've to used overtime to good or bad effect (depending on who you ask). The rule stipulates that it's member associations should operate as an independent entity, devoid of legal and political interference.

This implies that every FIFA member association are free to manage its activities and their funds in anyway they see fit without being questioned by the country's government or being dragged before any judicial system.

I first came to the knowledge of this rule in 2010, immediately after the world cup in South Africa when the Nigerian government decided to suspend its football association body along with all football activities in the country. The suspension was as a result of widespread corruption in the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), which culminated in the super eagles' abysmal showing in South Africa.

It was believed that the NFF squandered six million dollars world cup funds. This included spending $250,000 to charter a faulty aircraft to fly the national team from London to South Africa and paying $800,000 in allowances to 220 delegates to the World Cup when only 49 were approved. They also allegedly incurred a $125,000 fine over a failed hotel deal in South Africa.

There were also rumours of the players being owed match bonuses. These monies were monies allocated to them by the federal government for the world cup and they were allegedly squandered without any concrete explanations or accountability for how it was spent.

In 2018, the attorney General of Ghana petitioned the Ghana Football Association (GFA), to have the association liquidated, in the wake of a leaked film alleging corruption in the system. The alleged film showed GFA president Kwesi Nyantakyi, filmed by an investigative journalist in a hotel room appearing to collect a $65,000 bribe in cash from a supposed businessman seeking to sponsor the Ghana Football league.

As usual, FIFA waded into the matter and threatened to ban Ghana from all football activities if the court case was not withdrawn, promising to work with the government to eradicate corruption in the system by setting up a "normalization committee". Nyantakyi eventually resigned from his position and was also banned for 90 days by FIFA, though he still denies wrongdoing. Talk about getting off lightly.

The latest to feel FIFA's hammer is the All India Football Federation who were banned on Monday for undue government interference. This was because the Supreme Court in India decided to disband the football association after its president Praful Patel (who's also a member of the FIFA council), refused to conduct fresh elections into the association even after his tenure expired in December 2020. Patel has been in charge of the association for ten years, exhausting his constitutional 3 terms and was not eligible for another term, but has held onto power for 2 extra years.

The FIFA statement states that the ban will only be lifted when the committee set up by the government to oversee the affairs of the association are repealed and the AIFF are reinstated to handle its daily affairs.

Similar actions have also been taken against the likes of Benin Republic and Iran. Last year the Pakistan football federation were also banned under the same rule, with the ban lifted last month (July 2022).

This calls into question what FIFA really stands for. The rule implies that the football associations are free to operate with reckless abandon without a laid out procedure or platform to monitor and act as a watchdog for its operations. This gives too much room for corruption to thrive in the system.

There's a popular saying that "he who pays the piper dictates the tune", so I don't see why the federal governments of these associations should bankroll their operations without asking for accountability.

Perhaps if FIFA wants these associations to operate according to its own statutes alone, then they should take up the responsibility of sponsoring their daily operations. If not then there should be a mechanism where these football bigwigs are held accountable for their actions instead of just waiting for a little slap on the wrist from the world body.

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