Badfellas: Fifa Family at War

by John Sugden, Alan Tomlinson

World football's governing body FIFA has claimed credit for the success of one of the world's greatest and most lucrative sporting spectacles, the football World Cup, and the expansion of the world game more generally. Yet, as Asia stages its first World Cup, behind the scenes the administration of the world game is in shambles. Though the President of FIFA, Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, secured a second term at a heated FIFA Congress on the eve of Japan/Korea 2002, internecine rivalries persist at the heart of the Organization, and FIFA finances continue to be veiled in secrecy. In "Badfellas", the tale of FIFA's expanding fortunes, recurrent crises and internal rivalries is told, from the growth of the World Cup from its politically driven origins in Uruguay in 1930 to its status as one of the world's most lucrative media spectacles. It details how the interests of small third-world countries have been betrayed as the "FIFA family" expanded and reveals how an organization founded by seven European nations has come to control the future of the game in more than 200 countries in the post-colonial world.

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2003

About the author

An independent scholar and a former associate editor of Oxford University Press's American National Biography project, John Sugden holds degrees from the Universities of Leeds, Lancaster and Sheffield.