Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
|
Loading... The Fall of the House of FIFA: The Multimillion-Dollar Corruption at the Heart of Global Soccerby David Conn
   LRB Vol.40 No.12 (1) No current Talk conversations about this book.  Kavinay | Jan 2, 2023 |  no reviews | add a review
When Sepp Blatter joined FIFA in 1975 it had just twelve employees. Forty years later, the FBI have accused fourteen executives of forty-seven counts of money laundering, racketeering and tax evasion linked to kickbacks. This book tells the story of how football got big, how FIFA got corrupt and what this means for soccer fans around the world. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)796.334The arts Recreational and performing arts Athletic and outdoor sports and games Ball sports Inflated ball driven by the foot FootballLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.17)
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wikipedia in English
2
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. (