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The Fall of the House of FIFA: The Multimillion-Dollar Corruption at the Heart of Global Soccer
When Sepp Blatter joined FIFA in 1975 it had just twelve employees. Forty years later, the FBI have accused 14 executives of 47 counts of money laundering, racketeering and tax evasion linked to kickbacks totalling more than $150m. There's a fascinating story to be told here: how football got big, how FIFA got corrupt and what this means for soccer fans around the world. David Conn, who covered the scandal for The Guardian is the man for the job, putting the recent uproar in the context of FIFA's history and showing how far the organization has strayed from its humble beginnings. The narrative will cover the story up to now, covering everything that happened since the scandal broke - the FBI's investigation, what happened to Blatter and Platini, enquiries into the 2022 World Cup, the comedy of errors surrounding who should take over the presidency and so on. Conn's previous book was called Searching for the Soul of Football--he sees this book as an expansion of that book: an inquiry into the soul of soccer on the global scale, as we take stock of this shocking scandal and try to return the original spirit to the beautiful game.
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First published June 21, 2018
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August 12, 2017
A dense, meticulous narrative of the corruption and subversion of the beautiful game.
David Conn poignantly begins in relating his very first World Cup experiences as a child. My first nostalgic memories was the 1990 World Cup which I watched with my father, a proud German who jumped the Wall and immigrated to South Africa. Naturally, I supported West Germany and I can still recall our elation when they won the Final. While that match is often described as "one of the most cynical and ugliest World Cup Finals", for us it was a magical experience. My father has since passed away, but this remains one of my fondest memories of the time we spent together.
What truly raised my ire is the part where our ailing, eighty-five year old Nelson Mandela was persuaded to take an arduous journey to the Caribbean "to abase himself this much, towards the end of his hard and exemplary life, before corrupt thieves like Blazer and Warner, to have Fifa locate its World Cup in South Africa, is repugnant now".
Overall, The Fall of the House of FIFA just didn't grip me from cover to cover. There was also repetition of certain events. For instance, the incident of "brown envelopes" of cash in Trinidad was mentioned on twelve separate occasions.
It was tedious at times wading through all of the exhaustive details of the corruption, especially without getting more of the motivations of the role-players and the emotional upheaval as the scandal unfolded.
The book is written by a very talented journalist with extensive knowledge of the subject matter, but it felt like the narrative was being mostly relayed in the form of a long newspaper article - replete with facts and details, but short on the underlying human element.
David Conn poignantly begins in relating his very first World Cup experiences as a child. My first nostalgic memories was the 1990 World Cup which I watched with my father, a proud German who jumped the Wall and immigrated to South Africa. Naturally, I supported West Germany and I can still recall our elation when they won the Final. While that match is often described as "one of the most cynical and ugliest World Cup Finals", for us it was a magical experience. My father has since passed away, but this remains one of my fondest memories of the time we spent together.
What truly raised my ire is the part where our ailing, eighty-five year old Nelson Mandela was persuaded to take an arduous journey to the Caribbean "to abase himself this much, towards the end of his hard and exemplary life, before corrupt thieves like Blazer and Warner, to have Fifa locate its World Cup in South Africa, is repugnant now".
Overall, The Fall of the House of FIFA just didn't grip me from cover to cover. There was also repetition of certain events. For instance, the incident of "brown envelopes" of cash in Trinidad was mentioned on twelve separate occasions.
It was tedious at times wading through all of the exhaustive details of the corruption, especially without getting more of the motivations of the role-players and the emotional upheaval as the scandal unfolded.
The book is written by a very talented journalist with extensive knowledge of the subject matter, but it felt like the narrative was being mostly relayed in the form of a long newspaper article - replete with facts and details, but short on the underlying human element.
March 15, 2018
Some years ago, I read David Conn's book The Beautiful Game. It was alright, perhaps a bit romantic about an entertainment industry that happens to be a sport. So when this popped up on my library's 'new books' shelf at a time when I was feeling some interest in association football, I thought I'd give it a go.
Conn is a good read in the newspaper, but I found this book a struggle. I persevered to the end, albeit skipping over some passages where he quotes at length from indictments or interviews or some report of an inquiry. The trouble is the book is written like a really long newspaper article. So there is a statement about something, followed by a quotation from a source, and then a summary of the situation. When one reads 800-words about a football match or some transfer speculation, that's all well enough. But that method destroys the narrative drive required to sustain a book.
This book should have made use of academic style footnotes. It would have made it a lot shorter, but the story of a mixture of corruption and willful blindness would have been more absorbing.
Conn is a good read in the newspaper, but I found this book a struggle. I persevered to the end, albeit skipping over some passages where he quotes at length from indictments or interviews or some report of an inquiry. The trouble is the book is written like a really long newspaper article. So there is a statement about something, followed by a quotation from a source, and then a summary of the situation. When one reads 800-words about a football match or some transfer speculation, that's all well enough. But that method destroys the narrative drive required to sustain a book.
This book should have made use of academic style footnotes. It would have made it a lot shorter, but the story of a mixture of corruption and willful blindness would have been more absorbing.
December 25, 2022
I should start by saying that I found this book fascinating - more so than a 3star review would imply. The narrative of corruption at FIFA, and the staggering numbers involved was truly breathtaking, and it was an interesting and informative read.
That said, overall I found the book repetitive, and littered with hard to understand legal speak. Many of the key incidents are unnecessarily trawled through multiple times, so that by the end of the book you are hearing about incidents for the third or fourth time.
This all made it a very difficult book to read, but still interesting, and so I’m glad I persevered.
That said, overall I found the book repetitive, and littered with hard to understand legal speak. Many of the key incidents are unnecessarily trawled through multiple times, so that by the end of the book you are hearing about incidents for the third or fourth time.
This all made it a very difficult book to read, but still interesting, and so I’m glad I persevered.
November 9, 2025
This was nowhere close to as thrilling as it could have been!!! I think I’ve been spoiled by some incredible nonfiction reads this year, everything from Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton to The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro. Like I’ve read multiple Patrick Radden Keefe books in the last 12 months—the bar is IN THE SKY.
To be fair, David Conn has the unenviable task of summarizing a very recent history. Jonathan Mahler did this very well in The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990; but outside of that, I can’t really think of a book that achieves this—and Mahler’s timeline is actually further out that Conn’s, it just feels closer because of how time works. I think it reminds me of how I feel when someone my age writes a memoir—like it’s just not time for that yet!! I wonder if more distance from these issues would’ve resulted in a more memorable story.
In general, I learned from Conn’s book that soccer is just way more of a recent sport than I thought!! It’s very clear how the sport and its governing bodies were shaped in this time where the idea of being an amateur and doing things “for the love of the game” were still prioritized. Conn makes the great point that the professionalism that many of these early athletic boosters criticized might have been FIFA’s saving grace years later. For instance, if the major actors were fairly compensated for their work, the rampant bribery might have been less appealing to them.
Daily flow of corruption
Let’s talk about that bribery!! If nothing else, I think Conn does a really good job of normalizing the oft-sensationalized culture of FIFA. All corrupt institutions are comprised of individual people who are choosing to maintain the existing status quo they’ve found, rather than do anything different. It becomes difficult to “stand for righteousness” when you’re handed a suitcase with 40K in it, and everyone you know has already accepted their cut of the money!! Conn has a penchant for drama, and clearly tries to isolate Blatter, bin-Hamam, and Blazer as unique villains while upholding others as distinct heroes. However, his broader work to paint the picture of the organization allows us to see the true nuance of the many actors below these big names.
I also appreciated Conn’s notes of the double standards in rooting out corruption. For instance, while many people decried the bribery that awarded Qatar the 2022 World Cup, very few people mentioned the similarities between their bid and Russia’s for the 2018 World Cup. At the very same time, we saw very different responses even from the “watchdogs” about where to focus their scrutiny. And then of course, despite many people’s concerns about the corruption AND LOSS OF HUMAN LIFE associated with the 2022 World Cup, very few people were conscientious objectors to that event—on a player or spectator level. As Conn notes, everyone from AECOM to British design companies wanted a piece of the Qatar stadium building money, and that profit motive and entertainment urge is exactly how these terrible realities continue to persist in the “world of football.”
The people’s game?!? Not quite…
Once again, this is a book where the treatment of the subject matter is limited by the author’s own blindspots! Conn begins well, noticing how FIFA leaders used the needs of poor countries and patron saint figures like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu as moral shields. YES, these people deserved to have more access to soccer, and YES, these leaders were supportive of South Africa’s bid for the World Cup. But those things actually had NOTHING to do with Chuck Blazer and Jack Warner’s moneygrabs, so it’s really unfortunate to see them positioned as defenses in these ways!!!
Unfortunately, we stop here with the argument that COULD actually go further. For instance, Conn has nothing to say about the grievous human rights abuses associated with even the “less corrupt” world sporting events. Even in World Cups where the hosts didn’t bribe their way into selection, city officials will still displace unhoused people out of their tent cities to make way for tourists, construction companies will still overwork and underpay their staff to build new stadiums, and our planet will still suffer the environmental decay associated with massive airplane travel to these mega-events. With the exception of some brief references to the abuses and murders of migrant workers in Qatar, Conn has precious little to say about THESE moral problems. It seems that to him, the game can go on with all its corruption at the lower levels, as long as the most blatant/high-level sort of corruption is resolved.
But genuinely, I don’t know why I was expecting this level of interrogation from an author who spends half the book making EGREGIOUS statements of fatphobia and ableism when talking about Chuck Blazer.
Final thoughts and recommendations
Overall, if you’re super into FIFA and organizational politics, check this out! Otherwise, I wouldn’t bother—Conn mentions some topics that are better discussed elsewhere. For instance, if you want to read about sportswashing and anti-Communism and pro-apartheid stances, definitely read The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports by Michael Waters. If your interest was piqued by Conn’s mentions of sportswashing in the 1978 Argentina World Cup, Haley Cohen Gilliland tells another part of that story in A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children.
Finally, this book has left me curious about how sovereign wealth funds from Gulf states are beginning to acquire Premier League teams. Conn’s discussion of these buy-outs, and how the new owners started treating the teams as financial investments, seemed very similar to the private equity scourge currently impacting my country. If anyone has read anything good about this issue, I will definitely appreciate your recommendations!
To be fair, David Conn has the unenviable task of summarizing a very recent history. Jonathan Mahler did this very well in The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990; but outside of that, I can’t really think of a book that achieves this—and Mahler’s timeline is actually further out that Conn’s, it just feels closer because of how time works. I think it reminds me of how I feel when someone my age writes a memoir—like it’s just not time for that yet!! I wonder if more distance from these issues would’ve resulted in a more memorable story.
In general, I learned from Conn’s book that soccer is just way more of a recent sport than I thought!! It’s very clear how the sport and its governing bodies were shaped in this time where the idea of being an amateur and doing things “for the love of the game” were still prioritized. Conn makes the great point that the professionalism that many of these early athletic boosters criticized might have been FIFA’s saving grace years later. For instance, if the major actors were fairly compensated for their work, the rampant bribery might have been less appealing to them.
Daily flow of corruption
Let’s talk about that bribery!! If nothing else, I think Conn does a really good job of normalizing the oft-sensationalized culture of FIFA. All corrupt institutions are comprised of individual people who are choosing to maintain the existing status quo they’ve found, rather than do anything different. It becomes difficult to “stand for righteousness” when you’re handed a suitcase with 40K in it, and everyone you know has already accepted their cut of the money!! Conn has a penchant for drama, and clearly tries to isolate Blatter, bin-Hamam, and Blazer as unique villains while upholding others as distinct heroes. However, his broader work to paint the picture of the organization allows us to see the true nuance of the many actors below these big names.
I also appreciated Conn’s notes of the double standards in rooting out corruption. For instance, while many people decried the bribery that awarded Qatar the 2022 World Cup, very few people mentioned the similarities between their bid and Russia’s for the 2018 World Cup. At the very same time, we saw very different responses even from the “watchdogs” about where to focus their scrutiny. And then of course, despite many people’s concerns about the corruption AND LOSS OF HUMAN LIFE associated with the 2022 World Cup, very few people were conscientious objectors to that event—on a player or spectator level. As Conn notes, everyone from AECOM to British design companies wanted a piece of the Qatar stadium building money, and that profit motive and entertainment urge is exactly how these terrible realities continue to persist in the “world of football.”
The people’s game?!? Not quite…
Once again, this is a book where the treatment of the subject matter is limited by the author’s own blindspots! Conn begins well, noticing how FIFA leaders used the needs of poor countries and patron saint figures like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu as moral shields. YES, these people deserved to have more access to soccer, and YES, these leaders were supportive of South Africa’s bid for the World Cup. But those things actually had NOTHING to do with Chuck Blazer and Jack Warner’s moneygrabs, so it’s really unfortunate to see them positioned as defenses in these ways!!!
Unfortunately, we stop here with the argument that COULD actually go further. For instance, Conn has nothing to say about the grievous human rights abuses associated with even the “less corrupt” world sporting events. Even in World Cups where the hosts didn’t bribe their way into selection, city officials will still displace unhoused people out of their tent cities to make way for tourists, construction companies will still overwork and underpay their staff to build new stadiums, and our planet will still suffer the environmental decay associated with massive airplane travel to these mega-events. With the exception of some brief references to the abuses and murders of migrant workers in Qatar, Conn has precious little to say about THESE moral problems. It seems that to him, the game can go on with all its corruption at the lower levels, as long as the most blatant/high-level sort of corruption is resolved.
But genuinely, I don’t know why I was expecting this level of interrogation from an author who spends half the book making EGREGIOUS statements of fatphobia and ableism when talking about Chuck Blazer.
Final thoughts and recommendations
Overall, if you’re super into FIFA and organizational politics, check this out! Otherwise, I wouldn’t bother—Conn mentions some topics that are better discussed elsewhere. For instance, if you want to read about sportswashing and anti-Communism and pro-apartheid stances, definitely read The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports by Michael Waters. If your interest was piqued by Conn’s mentions of sportswashing in the 1978 Argentina World Cup, Haley Cohen Gilliland tells another part of that story in A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children.
Finally, this book has left me curious about how sovereign wealth funds from Gulf states are beginning to acquire Premier League teams. Conn’s discussion of these buy-outs, and how the new owners started treating the teams as financial investments, seemed very similar to the private equity scourge currently impacting my country. If anyone has read anything good about this issue, I will definitely appreciate your recommendations!
January 31, 2023
In my spare time, I read wikipedia pages on FIFA.
Is how I felt after finishing this book.
Football and the World Cup has been close to my heart ever since I was a little boy. I remember playing a cracked version of FIFA 99 on my computer and slide-tackling the goalkeeper for fun, just because you didn't get red-carded back then. I remember watching Fat Ronaldo and the ever-smiling Ronaldinho dance his way through defenders at the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
Little did I know about the corruption that was ingrained in world football. It was a fascinating listen, learning about the millions of dollars that went into these bids, that ultimately lined the pockets of greedy greedy men. But, while you chop off the head of the snake, another grows in its place. The unbelievable culture of corruption that has been entrenched in the sport is inconceivable. While the content was interesting, I couldn't help but feel as if I was listening to a page of Wikipedia being read to me. There is a lot of repetition and the timelines go back and forth. Without a preliminary understanding of some of these characters, you would find it difficult to follow. This book might have been better as a documentary.
I've been to both the Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 World Cups, and they truly are a spectacle. It is so heartening to see the world come together for one single sport. The host nations, so proud and so welcoming of these foreigners to their countries. In the midst of a pandemic too.
Then you remember the millions of corrupt dollars, thousands of lives lost and inevitable millions of dollars in losses accrued after stadiums are no longer used.
You shake it off and try to ignore it as you hope it was not true.
You hope that the ultimate goodness in people find a way.
A way to make the world game an honest game.
Is how I felt after finishing this book.
Football and the World Cup has been close to my heart ever since I was a little boy. I remember playing a cracked version of FIFA 99 on my computer and slide-tackling the goalkeeper for fun, just because you didn't get red-carded back then. I remember watching Fat Ronaldo and the ever-smiling Ronaldinho dance his way through defenders at the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
Little did I know about the corruption that was ingrained in world football. It was a fascinating listen, learning about the millions of dollars that went into these bids, that ultimately lined the pockets of greedy greedy men. But, while you chop off the head of the snake, another grows in its place. The unbelievable culture of corruption that has been entrenched in the sport is inconceivable. While the content was interesting, I couldn't help but feel as if I was listening to a page of Wikipedia being read to me. There is a lot of repetition and the timelines go back and forth. Without a preliminary understanding of some of these characters, you would find it difficult to follow. This book might have been better as a documentary.
I've been to both the Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 World Cups, and they truly are a spectacle. It is so heartening to see the world come together for one single sport. The host nations, so proud and so welcoming of these foreigners to their countries. In the midst of a pandemic too.
Then you remember the millions of corrupt dollars, thousands of lives lost and inevitable millions of dollars in losses accrued after stadiums are no longer used.
You shake it off and try to ignore it as you hope it was not true.
You hope that the ultimate goodness in people find a way.
A way to make the world game an honest game.
June 20, 2024
This book provides a wealth of evidence, but it was served up in a meandering, often unfocused narrative.
It starts with Conn’s childhood memories, and seems to be setting up a theme of an innocence lost. This theme goes nowhere, however. What is more important is that the author fell in love with football with FIFA’s 1974 World Cup.
That was also the year that Joao Havelange became FIFA’s first modern president. Havelange partnered with Horst Dassler of Adidas. Dassler and his sports marketing firm arranged all kinds of payments to ensure it secured deals with FIFA. Havelange himself apparently benefited. The organization had no internal controls until decades later.
Meanwhile Sepp Blatter moved up the ranks and eventually took over as head of FIFA. At one point, Blatter became aware of a payment intended for Havelange erroneously going to FIFA. Instead of asking Havelange tough questions, Blatter—in the manner of a Swiss banker—duly corrected the error and kept quiet.
This illustrates what may have been a pattern of Blatter ignoring the problem. While Blatter has yet to be accused of taking money himself, his organization stands accountable for three main governance flaws under his rein.
First, money was paid out to the football confederations for development programs, but money was siphoned off for personal use. This was most noteworthy in the case of CONCACAF, which was headed by Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer.
Jack Warner is implicated in all kinds of financial crimes, too many to summarize here, but he is alleged to have frequently siphoned money from development programs for his own benefit. He had a center for football excellence built with FIFA money in his home country of Trinidad and Tobago; apparently, he owns the land it is on, not the confederation for which the money and building was intended.
Ironically, Blazer is the lone American in this FIFA story. He apparently never played soccer, even as a boy, but he rose to become a member of the FIFA executive committee and was guilty of numerous crimes, as he pleaded in court. Blazer was flipped by the US Feds, and evidence provided by his secret recordings apparently led to numerous indictments.
The second problem with FIFA is that payments were made to buy World Cup votes. Basically, FIFA has 24 members of its executive committee who, at the time, voted on World Cup bids. Jack Warner is noteworthy in this regard, as South Africa paid him $10 million (ostensibly for development programs related to the African diaspora), but a good chunk of that ended up in his own accounts, it seems.
There are several other examples; some of the exact details are murky and Conn is not a crime or business reporter so it’s hard to glean the exact truth from his account at times. He relies on FIFA’s own audit reports, which are not always conclusive. Figures like Chuck Blazer and Jack Warner never went to trial, so the public never got a full airing of their schemes. Instead, Conn seems to rely on indictments, news reports, audit reports, and the like.
The third problem is that votes for the FIFA presidency could be bought or influenced. Essentially, FIFA ran on a patronage system, in which votes were exchanged for financial favors. In one notable example, a wealthy candidate convened a meeting of Caribbean football association heads and handed out envelopes filled with $40,000 in cash. Ostensibly, again, these were intended for “development,” but nobody would know how it got spent. Fortunately, there were some honest people at this meeting.
Blatter himself never was accused of doing this routinely, despite having been elected FIFA president several times. However, a payment was made to Michel Platini of UEFA for back pay, which also seemed too close to an upcoming election. Both were dismissed, and both denied it was anything improper.
Through it all, Conn does not follow this all up with any strong conclusions. Despite having interviewed Blatter, among others, Conn also does not leave readers with any clear impressions of the type of men—and they were all men—who get into these positions and engaged in these behaviors.
Conn also does not give us any clear sense for the future of FIFA. There are some attempts for organizational change, but it seems that Gianni Infantino, the current FIFA head, may be headed down the same road as his predecessors: the head of the Switzerland-based FIFA has a residence in Qatar. For all FIFA has been through, the leadership continues to be oblivious of appearances and the outside world. It’s Infantino who—soon after being elected to replace Blatter—a bit too excitedly said to the entire FIFA membership, “The money of FIFA is your money!”
In the end, we are left with the impression that the culture of FIFA allowed this to happen, and without apparent cultural change, it may happen again. It’s worth asking if the FIFA system itself is corrupt, or if it allows corruption to flourish when it gives money to the confederations that it does not audit or directly manage.
It seemed worth looking into this because the World Cup in Qatar just finished, and it was this World Cup choice that prompted so many allegations of corruption. Interestingly, little to nothing in connection with Qatar comes up in Conn’s telling; a whistleblower said there were bribes, but she recanted, and then seems to have recanted her recant.
Instead, other countries are implicated—for example, Australia’s World Cup bid team apparently paid a lot for its one and only vote from Franz Beckenbauer. What this book suggests, albeit indirectly, is that this was an accepted part of doing business in the FIFA world.
What no one gives Qatar credit for is that they were better at playing the game. Platini—as Blatter likes to remind every journalist whenever the Qatar bid comes up—changed his intended vote to support Qatar after having had lunch with Nicholas Sarkozy (himself later convicted of corruption) and the crown prince of Qatar. Airline deals were discussed, and while Platini was never directly asked to support Qatar’s bid, he got the message.
Qatar later bought the planes—and PSG—and got Platini’s vote. It’s hard to point at Qatar when a Western president and confederation chief were at the same table. Indeed, so many countries are implicated in these schemes that Qatar may be right when they say that criticism toward them is not only unfounded but also hypocritical.
Yet, Blatter doesn’t see this as vote buying, but rather “political” influence. He maintains that individuals in FIFA are corrupt, but that FIFA itself is not—while also insisting that FIFA can’t be held accountable when the vast sums of money that it doles out for development are embezzled by the confederations and country associations.
It’s clear that something is wrong with FIFA and global organized football. How to fix it, and whether people of character can do so without being corrupted along the way, remains an unanswered and unexplored question.
This book does not analyze any of these systemic issues, and yet they may remain. They need to be addressed and the system improved. The game, and those who love it, deserve better stewardship.
It starts with Conn’s childhood memories, and seems to be setting up a theme of an innocence lost. This theme goes nowhere, however. What is more important is that the author fell in love with football with FIFA’s 1974 World Cup.
That was also the year that Joao Havelange became FIFA’s first modern president. Havelange partnered with Horst Dassler of Adidas. Dassler and his sports marketing firm arranged all kinds of payments to ensure it secured deals with FIFA. Havelange himself apparently benefited. The organization had no internal controls until decades later.
Meanwhile Sepp Blatter moved up the ranks and eventually took over as head of FIFA. At one point, Blatter became aware of a payment intended for Havelange erroneously going to FIFA. Instead of asking Havelange tough questions, Blatter—in the manner of a Swiss banker—duly corrected the error and kept quiet.
This illustrates what may have been a pattern of Blatter ignoring the problem. While Blatter has yet to be accused of taking money himself, his organization stands accountable for three main governance flaws under his rein.
First, money was paid out to the football confederations for development programs, but money was siphoned off for personal use. This was most noteworthy in the case of CONCACAF, which was headed by Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer.
Jack Warner is implicated in all kinds of financial crimes, too many to summarize here, but he is alleged to have frequently siphoned money from development programs for his own benefit. He had a center for football excellence built with FIFA money in his home country of Trinidad and Tobago; apparently, he owns the land it is on, not the confederation for which the money and building was intended.
Ironically, Blazer is the lone American in this FIFA story. He apparently never played soccer, even as a boy, but he rose to become a member of the FIFA executive committee and was guilty of numerous crimes, as he pleaded in court. Blazer was flipped by the US Feds, and evidence provided by his secret recordings apparently led to numerous indictments.
The second problem with FIFA is that payments were made to buy World Cup votes. Basically, FIFA has 24 members of its executive committee who, at the time, voted on World Cup bids. Jack Warner is noteworthy in this regard, as South Africa paid him $10 million (ostensibly for development programs related to the African diaspora), but a good chunk of that ended up in his own accounts, it seems.
There are several other examples; some of the exact details are murky and Conn is not a crime or business reporter so it’s hard to glean the exact truth from his account at times. He relies on FIFA’s own audit reports, which are not always conclusive. Figures like Chuck Blazer and Jack Warner never went to trial, so the public never got a full airing of their schemes. Instead, Conn seems to rely on indictments, news reports, audit reports, and the like.
The third problem is that votes for the FIFA presidency could be bought or influenced. Essentially, FIFA ran on a patronage system, in which votes were exchanged for financial favors. In one notable example, a wealthy candidate convened a meeting of Caribbean football association heads and handed out envelopes filled with $40,000 in cash. Ostensibly, again, these were intended for “development,” but nobody would know how it got spent. Fortunately, there were some honest people at this meeting.
Blatter himself never was accused of doing this routinely, despite having been elected FIFA president several times. However, a payment was made to Michel Platini of UEFA for back pay, which also seemed too close to an upcoming election. Both were dismissed, and both denied it was anything improper.
Through it all, Conn does not follow this all up with any strong conclusions. Despite having interviewed Blatter, among others, Conn also does not leave readers with any clear impressions of the type of men—and they were all men—who get into these positions and engaged in these behaviors.
Conn also does not give us any clear sense for the future of FIFA. There are some attempts for organizational change, but it seems that Gianni Infantino, the current FIFA head, may be headed down the same road as his predecessors: the head of the Switzerland-based FIFA has a residence in Qatar. For all FIFA has been through, the leadership continues to be oblivious of appearances and the outside world. It’s Infantino who—soon after being elected to replace Blatter—a bit too excitedly said to the entire FIFA membership, “The money of FIFA is your money!”
In the end, we are left with the impression that the culture of FIFA allowed this to happen, and without apparent cultural change, it may happen again. It’s worth asking if the FIFA system itself is corrupt, or if it allows corruption to flourish when it gives money to the confederations that it does not audit or directly manage.
It seemed worth looking into this because the World Cup in Qatar just finished, and it was this World Cup choice that prompted so many allegations of corruption. Interestingly, little to nothing in connection with Qatar comes up in Conn’s telling; a whistleblower said there were bribes, but she recanted, and then seems to have recanted her recant.
Instead, other countries are implicated—for example, Australia’s World Cup bid team apparently paid a lot for its one and only vote from Franz Beckenbauer. What this book suggests, albeit indirectly, is that this was an accepted part of doing business in the FIFA world.
What no one gives Qatar credit for is that they were better at playing the game. Platini—as Blatter likes to remind every journalist whenever the Qatar bid comes up—changed his intended vote to support Qatar after having had lunch with Nicholas Sarkozy (himself later convicted of corruption) and the crown prince of Qatar. Airline deals were discussed, and while Platini was never directly asked to support Qatar’s bid, he got the message.
Qatar later bought the planes—and PSG—and got Platini’s vote. It’s hard to point at Qatar when a Western president and confederation chief were at the same table. Indeed, so many countries are implicated in these schemes that Qatar may be right when they say that criticism toward them is not only unfounded but also hypocritical.
Yet, Blatter doesn’t see this as vote buying, but rather “political” influence. He maintains that individuals in FIFA are corrupt, but that FIFA itself is not—while also insisting that FIFA can’t be held accountable when the vast sums of money that it doles out for development are embezzled by the confederations and country associations.
It’s clear that something is wrong with FIFA and global organized football. How to fix it, and whether people of character can do so without being corrupted along the way, remains an unanswered and unexplored question.
This book does not analyze any of these systemic issues, and yet they may remain. They need to be addressed and the system improved. The game, and those who love it, deserve better stewardship.
September 29, 2021
DNF I could not get past the author writing himself into the story when he felt like it, and not at other times. I don't care about how you feel looking at some archival papers...come on.
The excruciating amount of hatred for fat people was what led me to give up on this book, despite being interested in the story. The descriptions of Chuck Blazer are too disgusting to quote here. He mentions his mobility scooter over and over...come on, if a real human being DID something unethical or illegal, can we hear about what was done? Do we have to first hate them for being fat? This book will not age well and should not be the "definitive" book about the scandal.
The excruciating amount of hatred for fat people was what led me to give up on this book, despite being interested in the story. The descriptions of Chuck Blazer are too disgusting to quote here. He mentions his mobility scooter over and over...come on, if a real human being DID something unethical or illegal, can we hear about what was done? Do we have to first hate them for being fat? This book will not age well and should not be the "definitive" book about the scandal.
January 14, 2018
Football is the most popular sport in the world. It is played everywhere on the planet from deserts to marshes, from icy cold Siberia to the sweltering dry grounds of Atacama. People who love football keep afresh the memory of the first World Cup they had watched on TV or at the stadium. As for me, it was the 1986 Mexico championship in which Maradona played out his magic that glued me to the sport. Since the game is known for its ubiquity, it is essential to religiously administer all aspects of the game such as its format, rules and tournaments so as to maintain uniformity. FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) does the job of governing the sport. Football associations in each country are clubbed together into continental confederations and all of them are affiliated to FIFA. It is surprising that the organization keeps itself intact given its huge size and responds with one voice on matters related to the game. A veil of secrecy covers its administration and the wider world was blissfully unaware of how decisions are made and the flow of money inside it. With the era of globalization, financial value of TV rights skyrocketed and FIFA became flush with cash. Under the façade of professional efficiency, a corrosive torrent of corruption was eating away at the internals of the organization. Though rumours and isolated exposures had begun right from 2002, it was the large scale arrest of a third of the body’s executive committee members in 2015 that shattered its image. Joseph Blatter, the president who was in power from 1998 onwards had to make an ignominious exit soon after. David Conn examines the history of FIFA in detail from 1974 and exposes the shady deals as well as the perpetrators. Himself a football fan, his indignation at the audacious mismanagement by a clutch of venal politicians comes out loud in insightful analysis and exposition. The author is a British sports journalist and writes for ‘The Guardian’ and has three books to his credit.
A brief history of football adds interest to the first chapters as most fans are ignorant of the origins of the game they love. Football came into being in England. The ball, its proportions, layout of the pitch and rules of engagement were finalized at meetings of the FA (Football Association of England) at the Freemason’s Tavern in London’s Lincoln Inn in 1863. FIFA itself was formed in Paris in 1904 when office bearers from seven European nations assembled to create an international organization for the development and propagation of football. The FA joined it a few years later. Perhaps this explains the French name of the association. With the introduction of World Cup competitions from 1930, football began its onward march to the pinnacle among the world’s popular sports, but the financial position of FIFA was not secure. Cash began to flow literally when FIFA sold transmission rights of the championships to television networks in the 1990s.
People who headed FIFA in those days were mostly amateurs who worked dedicatedly to the good of the game. The author surmises that FIFA’s downturn in moral terms began with the ascent of Joao Havelange. He was a Brazilian businessman and sports administrator. He defeated Stanley Rous to become the President in an election in which the African associations wholeheartedly lined up behind him. Havelange ensured their support by paying their pending dues and offering money for development of football in their countries. Joseph Blatter was his secretary-general and he stepped into his shoes in 1998 when Havelange retired. Much more trouble awaited FIFA in Blatter’s election.
A major portion of the book is left aside to reveal the corrupt officials of FIFA and their underhand deals. The first scandal came out in 2002 and then it grew into a steady stream in the years ahead. Aspiring presidents had to grease the palms of the heads of national football bodies that make a collegium to elect the president. Havelange is discredited for his bribing in 1974 and Blatter in 1998. Allegations surfaced in 2015 and FIFA instituted action against Blatter and Michel Platini, the French football legend and UEFA president, over 2 million Swiss francs paid by Blatter to Platini supposedly to ensure his support for the latter in the presidential elections of 2011. Both men claimed that it was back pay for the period when Platini worked as a FIFA consultant. The strange part of the deal was that this claim was substantiated by nothing more than an oral agreement between the two made in 1998! Both failed to convince an ethics committee set up to investigate and they were thrown out of the organization for many years. In 2011, the Qatar official Mohammed bin Hammam announced that he was contesting against Blatter, but withdrew just four days prior to voting when news emerged that he had handed out cash bribes to officials of the American confederations at a Trinidad hotel. The Concacaf is the confederation steeped in corruption when it was revealed that the Dr. Joao Havelange Centre for Excellence at Trinidad for promoting training and development of promising youth, and built with $25 million of FIFA money was in fact personally owned by Jack Warner, the confederation’s president. Both Michel Platini and Franz Beckenbauer, who were legends when they played, were disgraced by their work in football’s administrative bodies.
Another area of malpractice is the allocation of TV rights for which the companies regularly pay kickbacks to officials. Even Havelange is implicated in this. Havelange himself and his son-in-law and President of the CBF Ricardo Teixeira took 41 million Swiss francs in bribes from ISL Company in return for selling TV rights for the World Cups in 2002 and 2006. FIFA settled this issue out of court by paying back the sums taken by the accused. It is shocking for the fans to learn that bribes were paid to the associations even to field star players in tournaments. Allocation of venues for World Cup is another cash cow for the corrupt. . South Africa paid $10 million for hosting the 2010 World Cup to buy votes of the Caribbean officials under the cover of a development program for African diaspora in America. Football world was amazed in 2010 when FIFA voted to hoist the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 event in Qatar which was nothing more than a city state. The US was a contestant for the 2022 Cup, and the casual way in which its bid was overlooked by the money power of the Gulf state infuriated its law enforcement agencies. In May 2015, a third of the members of FIFA executive committee were arrested just before voting began for Blatter’s fifth term in office and were charged under US law
The book is a fine piece of investigative journalism and is an attempt to cleanse FIFA of its endemic corruption. It is, however, a bit tiring in the latter half as the author develops the plot of payments to corrupt officials which is already hinted at in the earlier part. Even though not directly related to the topic of corruption, a few photographs would’ve added much visual appeal. The book is provided with a good index.
The book is highly recommended.
A brief history of football adds interest to the first chapters as most fans are ignorant of the origins of the game they love. Football came into being in England. The ball, its proportions, layout of the pitch and rules of engagement were finalized at meetings of the FA (Football Association of England) at the Freemason’s Tavern in London’s Lincoln Inn in 1863. FIFA itself was formed in Paris in 1904 when office bearers from seven European nations assembled to create an international organization for the development and propagation of football. The FA joined it a few years later. Perhaps this explains the French name of the association. With the introduction of World Cup competitions from 1930, football began its onward march to the pinnacle among the world’s popular sports, but the financial position of FIFA was not secure. Cash began to flow literally when FIFA sold transmission rights of the championships to television networks in the 1990s.
People who headed FIFA in those days were mostly amateurs who worked dedicatedly to the good of the game. The author surmises that FIFA’s downturn in moral terms began with the ascent of Joao Havelange. He was a Brazilian businessman and sports administrator. He defeated Stanley Rous to become the President in an election in which the African associations wholeheartedly lined up behind him. Havelange ensured their support by paying their pending dues and offering money for development of football in their countries. Joseph Blatter was his secretary-general and he stepped into his shoes in 1998 when Havelange retired. Much more trouble awaited FIFA in Blatter’s election.
A major portion of the book is left aside to reveal the corrupt officials of FIFA and their underhand deals. The first scandal came out in 2002 and then it grew into a steady stream in the years ahead. Aspiring presidents had to grease the palms of the heads of national football bodies that make a collegium to elect the president. Havelange is discredited for his bribing in 1974 and Blatter in 1998. Allegations surfaced in 2015 and FIFA instituted action against Blatter and Michel Platini, the French football legend and UEFA president, over 2 million Swiss francs paid by Blatter to Platini supposedly to ensure his support for the latter in the presidential elections of 2011. Both men claimed that it was back pay for the period when Platini worked as a FIFA consultant. The strange part of the deal was that this claim was substantiated by nothing more than an oral agreement between the two made in 1998! Both failed to convince an ethics committee set up to investigate and they were thrown out of the organization for many years. In 2011, the Qatar official Mohammed bin Hammam announced that he was contesting against Blatter, but withdrew just four days prior to voting when news emerged that he had handed out cash bribes to officials of the American confederations at a Trinidad hotel. The Concacaf is the confederation steeped in corruption when it was revealed that the Dr. Joao Havelange Centre for Excellence at Trinidad for promoting training and development of promising youth, and built with $25 million of FIFA money was in fact personally owned by Jack Warner, the confederation’s president. Both Michel Platini and Franz Beckenbauer, who were legends when they played, were disgraced by their work in football’s administrative bodies.
Another area of malpractice is the allocation of TV rights for which the companies regularly pay kickbacks to officials. Even Havelange is implicated in this. Havelange himself and his son-in-law and President of the CBF Ricardo Teixeira took 41 million Swiss francs in bribes from ISL Company in return for selling TV rights for the World Cups in 2002 and 2006. FIFA settled this issue out of court by paying back the sums taken by the accused. It is shocking for the fans to learn that bribes were paid to the associations even to field star players in tournaments. Allocation of venues for World Cup is another cash cow for the corrupt. . South Africa paid $10 million for hosting the 2010 World Cup to buy votes of the Caribbean officials under the cover of a development program for African diaspora in America. Football world was amazed in 2010 when FIFA voted to hoist the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 event in Qatar which was nothing more than a city state. The US was a contestant for the 2022 Cup, and the casual way in which its bid was overlooked by the money power of the Gulf state infuriated its law enforcement agencies. In May 2015, a third of the members of FIFA executive committee were arrested just before voting began for Blatter’s fifth term in office and were charged under US law
The book is a fine piece of investigative journalism and is an attempt to cleanse FIFA of its endemic corruption. It is, however, a bit tiring in the latter half as the author develops the plot of payments to corrupt officials which is already hinted at in the earlier part. Even though not directly related to the topic of corruption, a few photographs would’ve added much visual appeal. The book is provided with a good index.
The book is highly recommended.
March 3, 2020
Interessante para perceber os escândalos de corrupção que afectam a Fifa e as personagens envolvidas
January 28, 2022
Not much new information but it's still a very good and interesting story.
September 7, 2020
A great study of corruption. Sir Stanley Rous must be turning in his grave.
August 15, 2024
ليتني لم اقرأ هذا الكتاب
لقد أفسد علي جماليات كرة القدم ومتعتها عندي
لقد أفسد علي جماليات كرة القدم ومتعتها عندي
January 13, 2023
ehhh. informative, but repetitive and very concerned with the authors emotions about everything, which is fine for his book but not what I was hoping for. especially not impressed with the constant anti fat bias/ableism directed at blazer and used as a "metaphor" for his behavior.
January 10, 2018
Beautifully written, well-researched, and deeply disturbing, this is a guilty pleasure of a read.
Documenting the rise of FIFA as an amateur organisation to the global powerhouse it is today, the author sets out credible and (sadly) believable evidence of the corruption that took root and slowly yet steadily sapped the organisation of funds that should have gone back into football and not into individuals’ pockets. A culture of bribery for self-enrichment and power, this is a harsh indictment on the governing body of world football.
Despite dealing with a non-fiction topic, the pace and poetic feel to the writing draws you in like the best of thrillers. And, in a way, this is exactly what this book is: a thriller tale of corruption, fraud, and bribery conducted by men charged with the governance of the wonderful sport that so many (including myself) love – and of how they proceeded to bleed it dry. It is a story that nobody wants to be true, but is profoundly convincing. It is, in short, a brilliant, compulsive yet deeply depressing read.
Documenting the rise of FIFA as an amateur organisation to the global powerhouse it is today, the author sets out credible and (sadly) believable evidence of the corruption that took root and slowly yet steadily sapped the organisation of funds that should have gone back into football and not into individuals’ pockets. A culture of bribery for self-enrichment and power, this is a harsh indictment on the governing body of world football.
Despite dealing with a non-fiction topic, the pace and poetic feel to the writing draws you in like the best of thrillers. And, in a way, this is exactly what this book is: a thriller tale of corruption, fraud, and bribery conducted by men charged with the governance of the wonderful sport that so many (including myself) love – and of how they proceeded to bleed it dry. It is a story that nobody wants to be true, but is profoundly convincing. It is, in short, a brilliant, compulsive yet deeply depressing read.
February 23, 2023
I watched the Netflix documentary "FIFA Uncovered" around the time of the Qatar World Cup given all of the news coverage and was *super* fascinated by the entire thing. As a relatively new release, I thought this book might provide me with insight into the stuff they couldn't fit into the documentary, as is often the case with books on similar topics. Was I correct? ...technically. However, the writing was a bit brain-splitting. Conn clearly loves the sport, but the book is a winding ramble that goes back and forth in history in ways that can be deeply confusing. Some of it rambles, and then parts of it also repeat itself in ways that feel unnecessary. I'm hardly ever one to tell you to watch the movie instead of reading the book, but in this case, the Netflix documentary provides a far more streamlined, cohesive narrative than this book. You have to really love the sport and want to know the gritty details to stick with this to learn about the smaller, related scandals that don't make it in.
June 4, 2017
David Conn begins his exhaustive chronicle of FIFA's recent sordid affairs on an uncharacteristically bright note, spending the first chapter describing how he was enraptured by the 1974 World Cup as a 9 year-old. Every four years the World Cup comes around and mesmerizes and brings joy to fans across the globe and reaffirms that soccer is at its core a game designed to offer pleasure to players and spectators. 1974 marked a transitional year for the sport's global governing body, FIFA, as Brazilian business Joao Havelange won the presidency over Englishman Stanley Rous, who embraced a purer, less commercial approach to soccer. In The Fall in the House of FIFA, Conn gives an exhaustive account of FIFA's indiscretions over the last 40 years and describes how the organization strayed from its humble beginnings. Conn reported on much of FIFA's recent misdeeds, including corrupt bidding processes for the World Cups in Qatar and South Africa, misappropriations of development funds for domestic Football Associations, rigged presidential elections, and the like, for The Guardian and serves as an able guide through FIFA's bad behavior. Conn's book is an authoritative tome on FIFA corruption, though it occasionally gets a bit dry. I would put it front and center of the syllabus of any college course on the dark sides of Swiss-based international sporting organizations worth its salt, but it can become a grind for the more casual reader.
Given the massive sponsorships and television audiences attracted by global soccer today, it is remarkable how modest FIFA's origins were. Formed in 1904 in the backroom of the Union Francaise de Sports Athletiques building in Paris, FIFA started with only 7 members (with snooty England sitting out) and was designed for the express purpose of facilitating games between nations. Somewhat ironically, FIFA ruled that "no person should be allowed to arrange matches for personal profit." Over the years, FIFA would morph into a sporting and economic juggernaut, consisting of over 200 nations (as anyone who has ever been exposed to one iota of FIFA's self-congratulatory behavior already knows, the organization features more members than the United Nations). Conn tracks the evolution of the organization and the figures who shaped its trajectory. While Conn peppers in a few on-field accounts of various World Cups, much of the action in his book takes place in backrooms, hotel rooms, and offices, and he focuses mostly on off-field affairs.
The meat of Fall in the House of FIFA understandably centers around the organization's nadir that had its roots in its initial forays into mega-sponsorships with a deal with Coca Cola in the early 70s and eventually culminated in Sepp Blatter, Jack Warner, Chuck Blazer, and other FIFA officials' downfalls over the last few years. Blatter took over from Havelange in 1998 running against a more reform-minded candidate, and winning the election under rumors of vote-buying. While Qatar's successful World Cup bid was the last straw for Blatter and is probably the misdeed most familiar to Americans likely still sore over losing hosting rights, Blatter's term was marred by a plethora of other problems, including funneling/bribing local FAs with humongous sums of money for grassroots soccer. Blatter did not act alone and there are substantial chapters devoted to other major players such as CONCACAF executives Chuck Blazer and Jack Warner and UEFA President Michel Platini. Conn is evenhanded with his writing, acknowledging the good that these officials did to promote the sport in their regions in spite of their less-magnanimous activities that earn the most of his attention. The book reads like an extended investigative newspaper article, meticulously researched with ample detail, though it can begin to feel like a slog if you are less interested in reading about political corruption. I wish there was more analysis into the psyches of these executives and what compelled them to take bribes and otherwise behave poorly, but in Conn's defense the vast majority of his subjects have clammed up and aren't willing to divulge much at all, basically leaving him stuck detailing the "what" over the "why." Conn does offer some analysis on what mechanisms helped facilitate FIFA's corruption, including the odd voting policies that often granted nations such as Montserrat (population 4,900) just as much voting clout as Germany.
The book ends on an especially strong note with an extended interview with Sepp Blatter. While Blatter was evasive and guarded when Conn reached out to the former FIFA head earlier in the book, he is far more open to the author in his later interview, reflecting on his tenure and final days as president. He's not the most regretful person in the world and still makes some effort to protect his character (though it's safe to say he's probably ruled out ever winning the Nobel Prize by now) but it's still a good read and was the highlight of the book for me.
Overall, your enjoyment of The Fall in the House of FIFA is going to depend on how interesting you are in the subject. If you are looking for a one-stop book that outlines the history of FIFA and an encyclopedic account of its recent corruption and the fall of Sepp Blatter, you'll probably love the book. If you are interested in soccer as a sport as well as an economic and sociological phenomenon but you aren't that keen on reading about FBI investigations and accounts of executives behaving badly, then I'd advise you to stay away. Having said that, The Fall in the House of FIFA deftly accomplishes what it set out to do and is an authoritative and informative account of FIFA's recent activity.
7 / 10
Given the massive sponsorships and television audiences attracted by global soccer today, it is remarkable how modest FIFA's origins were. Formed in 1904 in the backroom of the Union Francaise de Sports Athletiques building in Paris, FIFA started with only 7 members (with snooty England sitting out) and was designed for the express purpose of facilitating games between nations. Somewhat ironically, FIFA ruled that "no person should be allowed to arrange matches for personal profit." Over the years, FIFA would morph into a sporting and economic juggernaut, consisting of over 200 nations (as anyone who has ever been exposed to one iota of FIFA's self-congratulatory behavior already knows, the organization features more members than the United Nations). Conn tracks the evolution of the organization and the figures who shaped its trajectory. While Conn peppers in a few on-field accounts of various World Cups, much of the action in his book takes place in backrooms, hotel rooms, and offices, and he focuses mostly on off-field affairs.
The meat of Fall in the House of FIFA understandably centers around the organization's nadir that had its roots in its initial forays into mega-sponsorships with a deal with Coca Cola in the early 70s and eventually culminated in Sepp Blatter, Jack Warner, Chuck Blazer, and other FIFA officials' downfalls over the last few years. Blatter took over from Havelange in 1998 running against a more reform-minded candidate, and winning the election under rumors of vote-buying. While Qatar's successful World Cup bid was the last straw for Blatter and is probably the misdeed most familiar to Americans likely still sore over losing hosting rights, Blatter's term was marred by a plethora of other problems, including funneling/bribing local FAs with humongous sums of money for grassroots soccer. Blatter did not act alone and there are substantial chapters devoted to other major players such as CONCACAF executives Chuck Blazer and Jack Warner and UEFA President Michel Platini. Conn is evenhanded with his writing, acknowledging the good that these officials did to promote the sport in their regions in spite of their less-magnanimous activities that earn the most of his attention. The book reads like an extended investigative newspaper article, meticulously researched with ample detail, though it can begin to feel like a slog if you are less interested in reading about political corruption. I wish there was more analysis into the psyches of these executives and what compelled them to take bribes and otherwise behave poorly, but in Conn's defense the vast majority of his subjects have clammed up and aren't willing to divulge much at all, basically leaving him stuck detailing the "what" over the "why." Conn does offer some analysis on what mechanisms helped facilitate FIFA's corruption, including the odd voting policies that often granted nations such as Montserrat (population 4,900) just as much voting clout as Germany.
The book ends on an especially strong note with an extended interview with Sepp Blatter. While Blatter was evasive and guarded when Conn reached out to the former FIFA head earlier in the book, he is far more open to the author in his later interview, reflecting on his tenure and final days as president. He's not the most regretful person in the world and still makes some effort to protect his character (though it's safe to say he's probably ruled out ever winning the Nobel Prize by now) but it's still a good read and was the highlight of the book for me.
Overall, your enjoyment of The Fall in the House of FIFA is going to depend on how interesting you are in the subject. If you are looking for a one-stop book that outlines the history of FIFA and an encyclopedic account of its recent corruption and the fall of Sepp Blatter, you'll probably love the book. If you are interested in soccer as a sport as well as an economic and sociological phenomenon but you aren't that keen on reading about FBI investigations and accounts of executives behaving badly, then I'd advise you to stay away. Having said that, The Fall in the House of FIFA deftly accomplishes what it set out to do and is an authoritative and informative account of FIFA's recent activity.
7 / 10
July 18, 2018
Never has there been a book with more content, info data, names squeezed into a tiny book to the detriment of a good read.
I was so intrigued by this story and so excited about reading this until I started reading it. There’s no flow to this book at all. It may as well be a list bullet points or a diagrammatic timeline rather than putting readers through hours or torturous words, names and numbers.
Very disappointed.
I was so intrigued by this story and so excited about reading this until I started reading it. There’s no flow to this book at all. It may as well be a list bullet points or a diagrammatic timeline rather than putting readers through hours or torturous words, names and numbers.
Very disappointed.
January 13, 2023
الكاتب انجليزي لايخلو الكتاب من التحيز لدولته وأمريكا كذلك وكأنها الملاك الحارس للنزاهة علي العالم الكتاب فيه العديد من الحقائق فعلا عن فساد الفيفا ولكنه لايكشف كل الحقيقة لانه متحيز ضد اتحادات واسماء ودول بعينها فقط
November 26, 2017
David Conn writes about soccer for the Guardian and has written a handful of books about various soccer related subjects. Conn is also a fan and as a kid in 1974, watching the World Cup on television, he fell in love with the game, can still describe a dribble that Johan Cruyff used to trick an opponent (footage available on YouTube), and has a firm belief that soccer is one of the purest, bridge-building sports in the world. So for Conn to get in the middle of the corruption of Fifa, Concacaf, and the world of Soccer, you can tell that Conn does not want to say everything that is to be reported. His chapter on Franz Beckenbauer, the captain of the West Germany team, is loaded with disappointment in a man that Conn obviously respected until his fall as well.
Disappointment in the entire global football governing bodies is well laid out in this report. "The Fall of the House of Fifa" feels more like a report than anything. As Conn unravels in the corruption and bribery throughout not only the current Fifa, where 14 of the 22 people of the most senior members of Fifa, those who voted for the World Cup to be in Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022, have had criminal or ethics charges against them since, the truth is that the corruption does not start there. Since the beginning, since Adidas found a way to get their boots and kits on every player, by digging their fingers into Fifa's operating procedures and keeping them there, Fifa has never really been a governing body on the straight and narrow. The corruption lies in two forms: where the games are going to be played and who is going to broadcast them. When television rights became a commodity, it drove the price of the games higher and those places that wanted to host international competition had to spend more and more money to get them. The problem was where the money was going, not to youth programs and building pitches in poor countries and helping out the global communities, but to those in charge, for houses and swimming pools and expensive appetites. "The Fall of the House of Fifa" is a dense work that unravels the webs of corruption and guilt, not flinching when Conn has to bring down his heroes along with the villains. If you are only a casual fan of soccer or if you have no interest in the wheeling and dealing behind the scenes, this is not for you. This is for the reader who likes a good money story and for those who can feel Conn's pain as he uncovers the truth about something that we all have found to have great importance in our lives as sports fans.
Corruption is not a new thing for Fifa, and even though Conn's book goes through much of the money, bribery, and deals that made the organization one of the most corrupt financially in the world, he does not get into the other corruption, like that Joao Havelange, the Fifa president from 1974 to 1998, hinting that the 1966 and 1974 World Cups were rigged, but as a whole, "The Fall of the House of Fifa" is so much information, so dense with thievery and bribery, that it is unable to escape the pages without having a tarnished perspective of the soccer you loved because of the pitch, not because of how the teams got there. With soccer more than any sport, it feels like the more a person scratches the surface, the more dirt comes appears.
I received an ARC through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Disappointment in the entire global football governing bodies is well laid out in this report. "The Fall of the House of Fifa" feels more like a report than anything. As Conn unravels in the corruption and bribery throughout not only the current Fifa, where 14 of the 22 people of the most senior members of Fifa, those who voted for the World Cup to be in Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022, have had criminal or ethics charges against them since, the truth is that the corruption does not start there. Since the beginning, since Adidas found a way to get their boots and kits on every player, by digging their fingers into Fifa's operating procedures and keeping them there, Fifa has never really been a governing body on the straight and narrow. The corruption lies in two forms: where the games are going to be played and who is going to broadcast them. When television rights became a commodity, it drove the price of the games higher and those places that wanted to host international competition had to spend more and more money to get them. The problem was where the money was going, not to youth programs and building pitches in poor countries and helping out the global communities, but to those in charge, for houses and swimming pools and expensive appetites. "The Fall of the House of Fifa" is a dense work that unravels the webs of corruption and guilt, not flinching when Conn has to bring down his heroes along with the villains. If you are only a casual fan of soccer or if you have no interest in the wheeling and dealing behind the scenes, this is not for you. This is for the reader who likes a good money story and for those who can feel Conn's pain as he uncovers the truth about something that we all have found to have great importance in our lives as sports fans.
Corruption is not a new thing for Fifa, and even though Conn's book goes through much of the money, bribery, and deals that made the organization one of the most corrupt financially in the world, he does not get into the other corruption, like that Joao Havelange, the Fifa president from 1974 to 1998, hinting that the 1966 and 1974 World Cups were rigged, but as a whole, "The Fall of the House of Fifa" is so much information, so dense with thievery and bribery, that it is unable to escape the pages without having a tarnished perspective of the soccer you loved because of the pitch, not because of how the teams got there. With soccer more than any sport, it feels like the more a person scratches the surface, the more dirt comes appears.
I received an ARC through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
August 26, 2021
⭐️⭐️⭐️½ - THREE AND A HALF STARS. It’ ironic that a book about the men who run Fifa should be written by a guy named Conn.
The contents of the book are in the public record -except for a few quotes from interviews with the author- so there’s not much new to the story. Why was it so convoluted and so poorly written, then?
The timeline visits ports of call in the following chronological order: A, B, C, M, O, P, F, G, R, E, X, F, G, Y, P, E, L, Z, etc. randomly backwards and forwards visiting and re-visiting the same situations over and over again. It’s ridiculously confusing (notwithstanding the barrage of acronyms and participants).
The précis: Horst Dassler, founder and owner of Adidas was the Steve Jobs of corruption. A creator. He envisaged new ways to grow his brand and invented marketing plans unheard of at the time. First step, corrupt the fuck out of João Havelange, Fifa’s President (1970-1998). Havelange took a liking to the power and the sweet money and roped in Joseph Blatter as Secretary General. Blatter learnt many dark tricks under the old master, who he succeeded in 1998.
Along the way, other deplorable characters joined in the circus at secondary level. However, because they were not constantly exposed to public scrutiny, these secondary criminals were even more brazen than the masters: Ricardo Teixeira (Havelange’s son-in-law), Nicolás Leoz, Julio Grondona, Jack Warner, Jeff Webb, Chuck Blazer, Worawi Makudi, Mohamed bin Hammam and a few others.
Blatter took Michel Platini under his wing and introduced him to the easy money, planning perhaps to extend his reign vicariously. Platini took a liking to money.
Franz Beckenbauer took a lot of money for Germany 2006 that he was not meant to. Germany 2006 was bought though corruption. He was also involved in suspicious dealings in Australia 2010 bid. The only vote Australia got was his.
Votes for South Africa 2010 were bought with a $10m cash bribe to Jack Warner. Danny Jordaan delivered it in a suitcase, Thabo Mbeki (SA President) approved the payment.
Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 World Cups were bought with through cash bribes.
French president Sarkozy influenced directly on Michel Platini to get him to vote for Qatar 2022 while the Qatar bid president was negotiating to buy PSG, which was facing bankruptcy.
From the initial Havelange election (1974) right up until Blatter’s last (2015), every single Fifa presidential election was decided by political leverage or bribes to the confederations paid for with Fifa’s own money from a president’s discretionary fund. In between those elections, World Cups were adjudicated. From Germany 2006 onwards, every World Cup was bought by the bidders bribing the confederations and individual associations. All this from court records.
Gianni Infantino, the man who took over from Blatter was himself under serious suspicion only three months into his tenure for developing a penchant for travelling in private jets facilitated by unknown benefactors “free of charge”.
And so the story goes. A cabal of corrupt, greedy criminals most of whom are walking free.
The most telling quip of the whole saga comes from a Blatter interview with the author talking about bribes under Swiss law: ““At that time, it was so-called commissions–it only came in 2003 to forbid it. Not only was it permitted, you could deduct it from taxes. So come on…”
The contents of the book are in the public record -except for a few quotes from interviews with the author- so there’s not much new to the story. Why was it so convoluted and so poorly written, then?
The timeline visits ports of call in the following chronological order: A, B, C, M, O, P, F, G, R, E, X, F, G, Y, P, E, L, Z, etc. randomly backwards and forwards visiting and re-visiting the same situations over and over again. It’s ridiculously confusing (notwithstanding the barrage of acronyms and participants).
The précis: Horst Dassler, founder and owner of Adidas was the Steve Jobs of corruption. A creator. He envisaged new ways to grow his brand and invented marketing plans unheard of at the time. First step, corrupt the fuck out of João Havelange, Fifa’s President (1970-1998). Havelange took a liking to the power and the sweet money and roped in Joseph Blatter as Secretary General. Blatter learnt many dark tricks under the old master, who he succeeded in 1998.
Along the way, other deplorable characters joined in the circus at secondary level. However, because they were not constantly exposed to public scrutiny, these secondary criminals were even more brazen than the masters: Ricardo Teixeira (Havelange’s son-in-law), Nicolás Leoz, Julio Grondona, Jack Warner, Jeff Webb, Chuck Blazer, Worawi Makudi, Mohamed bin Hammam and a few others.
Blatter took Michel Platini under his wing and introduced him to the easy money, planning perhaps to extend his reign vicariously. Platini took a liking to money.
Franz Beckenbauer took a lot of money for Germany 2006 that he was not meant to. Germany 2006 was bought though corruption. He was also involved in suspicious dealings in Australia 2010 bid. The only vote Australia got was his.
Votes for South Africa 2010 were bought with a $10m cash bribe to Jack Warner. Danny Jordaan delivered it in a suitcase, Thabo Mbeki (SA President) approved the payment.
Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 World Cups were bought with through cash bribes.
French president Sarkozy influenced directly on Michel Platini to get him to vote for Qatar 2022 while the Qatar bid president was negotiating to buy PSG, which was facing bankruptcy.
From the initial Havelange election (1974) right up until Blatter’s last (2015), every single Fifa presidential election was decided by political leverage or bribes to the confederations paid for with Fifa’s own money from a president’s discretionary fund. In between those elections, World Cups were adjudicated. From Germany 2006 onwards, every World Cup was bought by the bidders bribing the confederations and individual associations. All this from court records.
Gianni Infantino, the man who took over from Blatter was himself under serious suspicion only three months into his tenure for developing a penchant for travelling in private jets facilitated by unknown benefactors “free of charge”.
And so the story goes. A cabal of corrupt, greedy criminals most of whom are walking free.
The most telling quip of the whole saga comes from a Blatter interview with the author talking about bribes under Swiss law: ““At that time, it was so-called commissions–it only came in 2003 to forbid it. Not only was it permitted, you could deduct it from taxes. So come on…”
June 29, 2017
Shock waves were sent through the soccer world when it was announced that the 2022 World Cup tournament would be held in Qatar during the summer months of the northern hemisphere. Many asked how this could happen and what was the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) thinking when they did this. A subsequent investigation found that allegations of kickbacks, bribery, money laundering and tax evasion played a big role in this announcement and also the awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia.
These well-known incidents of corruption, as well as lesser known ones, some dating back to the 1970’s, are covered in this well-researched and through book on FIFA by award winning writer David Conn. He exposes so many incidents of bribery and other questionable actions by FIFA officials that one may get lost trying to keep them all straight. The old vendor cry that you can’t keep the players straight without a scorecard is applicable here, even though there is very little written about the actual games on the pitch.
Some of the specifics in the reports and interviews of the book will leave the reader shaking his or her head. One of these passages that did that for me was in the report of an investigation in bribery accusations, FIFA “believed bribery was a part of the routine facts of life in South America and Africa.” This after the organization had denied any corruption in those areas after sending millions of dollars for development of the game and facilities in which to play. If you are confused after reading that, then so was I.
That was just one passage of many that highlight the extent of the corruption in the organization and Conn writes about them with the knowledge only a veteran writer of the sport and the organization can do. His interview with FIFA President Sepp Blatter was also must-read material. This book is one that readers who are interested in the inner workings, good and bad (mostly the latter) of one of the biggest sports institutions in the world must add to their bookshelves.
I wish to thank the Nation Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
http://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/201...
November 27, 2023
I often complain about the poor standard of modern journalism, with its focus on social media driven scandals and its constant search for clickbait success. David Conn's The Fall of the House of FIFA is exactly the type of journalism that I wish we had more of. It is thoroughly researched, well written, well balanced, and any ambiguity in the events is acknowledged rather than brushed over to better suit the argument. It is NOT simply a dry description of events, however. Throughout the book, Conn's voice as a football fan and a journalist trying to get the facts is strong. I particularly enjoyed the final chapter's interview with Sepp Blatter, which gives a good sense of the personalities of both the author and his subject. Despite the book's quality, it isn't exactly an enjoyable read. The endless litany of corruption and the seeming impunity and arrogance with which the upper echelon of FIFA apparently operated (and perhaps still operate) are infuriating to read about and I found myself occasionally taking a break to read something less aggravating for a while. The fault there lies with the subjects of the book, not the writer, though. I can understand some of the criticisms stating that The Fall of the House of FIFA reads like one long newspaper article. I suppose that is the truth of its origin. I can't help wishing that there was more journalism of this quality being published in actual newspapers.
November 26, 2022
It felt appropriate to be reading this book to understand how corrupt FIFA has become since the election of Havelange in 1974.
The awarding of the world cup to Qatar built in part on the blood of migrant workers is the latest chapter of FIFA descent in to the moral abyss.
What the book also highlights that for many years with FIFA there was far worse corruption particularly in Europe that was worse than what was revealed in Qatar.
The profiles of Warner, Blazer, Havelange and Blatter are excellent.
The shame is that FIFA has done some good since 1974, particularly in developing football World, but for far too long, it and the associations within it have been a den of thieves where money is misused and ends up in the hands of football officials rather than those who need it, bribery, grubby deals and much more.
Conn writes from the perspective of a disillusioned fan of football, exactly how I feel when it comes to international football and FIFA. Its why bar the England games I have also been boycotting the current world cup in Qatar built on the blood of migrant workers, after the epic and disgraceful sportswashing that took place in the last world cup in Russia.
If you want to understand how FIFA works or rather works for themselves at the expense of fans and footballers this book is for you. Having read this book I personally believe FIFA cannot reform itself, instead what is needed is a breakaway international football organisation.
The awarding of the world cup to Qatar built in part on the blood of migrant workers is the latest chapter of FIFA descent in to the moral abyss.
What the book also highlights that for many years with FIFA there was far worse corruption particularly in Europe that was worse than what was revealed in Qatar.
The profiles of Warner, Blazer, Havelange and Blatter are excellent.
The shame is that FIFA has done some good since 1974, particularly in developing football World, but for far too long, it and the associations within it have been a den of thieves where money is misused and ends up in the hands of football officials rather than those who need it, bribery, grubby deals and much more.
Conn writes from the perspective of a disillusioned fan of football, exactly how I feel when it comes to international football and FIFA. Its why bar the England games I have also been boycotting the current world cup in Qatar built on the blood of migrant workers, after the epic and disgraceful sportswashing that took place in the last world cup in Russia.
If you want to understand how FIFA works or rather works for themselves at the expense of fans and footballers this book is for you. Having read this book I personally believe FIFA cannot reform itself, instead what is needed is a breakaway international football organisation.
August 29, 2024
A rather thorough history of FIFA and its downfall. What surprised me the most is that I came away with a soft spot for Sepp Blatter. I always assumed that, because so many of the governing body of FIFA were corrupt, Blatter had to be corrupt as well, and I couldn’t understand how he could keep getting elected President. But it turns out that his main fault may have been turning a blind eye to the corruption going on around him (and, in the case of Michel Platini, facilitating it). But while other members of FIFA’s Executive Committee, like Jack Warner, Chuck Blazer, and Jeff Webb, were venal, Blatter’s sins were sins of ambition. He was the consummate politician, a la Machiavelli, and enjoyed the status, but I think he had a genuine love of the game and wanted to use it for good. I was especially touched by how much he wanted the approval of his dead father.
Of course, there are other points of view. The Netflix documentary FIFA Uncovered, which includes interview with David Conn, the author of this book, suggests that Blatter used his knowledge of ISL’s bribes to his predecessor, Joao Havelange, to force Havelange to retire before he wanted to and in effect turn the reins over to Blatter. Blatter could have learned a lesson from Havelange and stepped down before his reputation was tarnished.
Of course, there are other points of view. The Netflix documentary FIFA Uncovered, which includes interview with David Conn, the author of this book, suggests that Blatter used his knowledge of ISL’s bribes to his predecessor, Joao Havelange, to force Havelange to retire before he wanted to and in effect turn the reins over to Blatter. Blatter could have learned a lesson from Havelange and stepped down before his reputation was tarnished.
April 4, 2019
Jack Warner, Chuck Blazer, Michel Platini, Sepp Blatter. All giants of global football administration and now all banned from the sport.
What Conn takes his time to lay out--but what ultimately makes the book quite profound--is the idea that "European standards of governance" are every bit as troubling as the corruption accepted as a cultural flaw of the non-European members of FIFA.
In many ways, this book is a dirge for FIFA's posturing as a humanitarian institution. Yet, Conn still keeps it engaging for lovers of the game by highlighting how little of the decision making within FIFA had any relevance to the interests of sport relative to the enrichment of powerbrokers.
So much of sports journalism is hagiography of utter bastards and Conn doesn't get sucked in. The one truly redeeming moment of the whole telling is the revelation that a crowd of French fans resoundingly booed Platini's image as the national team was poised to win the Euros on home soil.
What Conn takes his time to lay out--but what ultimately makes the book quite profound--is the idea that "European standards of governance" are every bit as troubling as the corruption accepted as a cultural flaw of the non-European members of FIFA.
In many ways, this book is a dirge for FIFA's posturing as a humanitarian institution. Yet, Conn still keeps it engaging for lovers of the game by highlighting how little of the decision making within FIFA had any relevance to the interests of sport relative to the enrichment of powerbrokers.
So much of sports journalism is hagiography of utter bastards and Conn doesn't get sucked in. The one truly redeeming moment of the whole telling is the revelation that a crowd of French fans resoundingly booed Platini's image as the national team was poised to win the Euros on home soil.
December 27, 2023
Well researched and detailed account of the many "questionable" events surrounding executives' elections and World Cup selections.
Good contextualisation, too, with a brief history of football and its governing bodies.
In my opinion the author falls short in providing a coherent and easy to follow narrative. Events are often told and retold out of chronological order, making it difficult for the reader to follow and make sense of the innumerable meetings, interviews, elections that took place over the nearly 50 years covered by the book, etc..
Considering the length of time during which all these events tool place, the number of people involved, the complexity of the events and the skills of those perpetuating them, it is no surprise that we are still left with more questions and suspicions than hard, proven facts..
Overall a good recounting of the dark days of FIFA, consequence of its own meteoric success and a glimpse of hope that things would eventually improve..
Good contextualisation, too, with a brief history of football and its governing bodies.
In my opinion the author falls short in providing a coherent and easy to follow narrative. Events are often told and retold out of chronological order, making it difficult for the reader to follow and make sense of the innumerable meetings, interviews, elections that took place over the nearly 50 years covered by the book, etc..
Considering the length of time during which all these events tool place, the number of people involved, the complexity of the events and the skills of those perpetuating them, it is no surprise that we are still left with more questions and suspicions than hard, proven facts..
Overall a good recounting of the dark days of FIFA, consequence of its own meteoric success and a glimpse of hope that things would eventually improve..
March 20, 2018
I greatly enjoyed this book on FIFA's troubled history. Its extensively researched and well written. As a follower of David's writing in the Guardian the book lives up to expectations.
Its a sad reminder of the scale of corruption and the breath of individuals involved. Blatter emerges as not quite the villain but rather the enabler and master politician. There is plenty of new material even for those following FIFA closely, especially a fascinating interview with a post retirement Blatter.
The only criticism is that it is a bit too detailed at times. Sometimes the narrative could be shortened and there is a bit of repetition at times.
All in all its a highly recommend for anyone interest in football politics or just good journalism.
(I received a free copy of this book via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review)
Its a sad reminder of the scale of corruption and the breath of individuals involved. Blatter emerges as not quite the villain but rather the enabler and master politician. There is plenty of new material even for those following FIFA closely, especially a fascinating interview with a post retirement Blatter.
The only criticism is that it is a bit too detailed at times. Sometimes the narrative could be shortened and there is a bit of repetition at times.
All in all its a highly recommend for anyone interest in football politics or just good journalism.
(I received a free copy of this book via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review)
August 14, 2017
I received a review copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.
The book is masterfully researched, and depressing for any football (soccer) fan to read. The enormity of the unabashed corruption surrounding this organization is astonishing. Each time you would read about a scandal, you would assume that the current scandal would be the last, and the organization would begin to redeem itself, only to discover another scandal almost immediately afterwards. You do not have to be a fan of the sport to gain something from this book, but it would certainly help you in doing so.
I went back and forth between rating this book 3 or 4 stars, but went with 4 simply because of the level of research the author obviously poured into this book.
The book is masterfully researched, and depressing for any football (soccer) fan to read. The enormity of the unabashed corruption surrounding this organization is astonishing. Each time you would read about a scandal, you would assume that the current scandal would be the last, and the organization would begin to redeem itself, only to discover another scandal almost immediately afterwards. You do not have to be a fan of the sport to gain something from this book, but it would certainly help you in doing so.
I went back and forth between rating this book 3 or 4 stars, but went with 4 simply because of the level of research the author obviously poured into this book.
March 19, 2018
This revealing, if not slightly repetitive, look behind the scenes of the FIFA scandals undercovered over the last couple of years was somewhat heartbreaking to read. Woven throughout the expose is the fact that, no matter what, money corrupts. The power and reach of FIFA is such that their potential to do so much good both and off the field - especially in third world countries - is potentially unparalleled. Sepp Blatter was even arrowing for FIFA to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Unfortunately, greed won, and despite being obnoxiously excited for this year's World Cup in Russia, it now will be tainted by the stink of a broken system that screws over the little guy. The saying "Sport is like life" has never been more appropriate.
October 24, 2018
Excellent book, brilliantly researched and presented in a easy to read style. I’m sure it leaves no,stone unturned as it seems to have covered all the low-life that we’re residing there, including Blatter, Havelange, Platini, Beckenbauer and a host of others lining their pockets with others peoples' money.
As a England fan, our FA representatives (and others) were finally proved to be right about the massive endemic corruption, fraud and bribery from within the 'House of FIFA'.
But, there are still a few chapters yet to be written as the average working class football fan will hopefully get to see justice served on these criminals.
As a England fan, our FA representatives (and others) were finally proved to be right about the massive endemic corruption, fraud and bribery from within the 'House of FIFA'.
But, there are still a few chapters yet to be written as the average working class football fan will hopefully get to see justice served on these criminals.
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