Football’s world governing body is in the middle of an unprecedented crisis with 6 of its 24 board members now accused of corruption. But is there recourse in international law to pursue justice, or is the body’s President Sepp Blatter right in saying its no-one’s business but FIFA’s own?

Tweet

Sepp Blatter stands unopposed in FIFA’s Presidential election on Wednesday. Under his rule  Blatter says there will not be an outside investigation into allegations of brown envelopes stuffed with cash passing into the hands of Fifa officials; of Qatar ‘buying’ the 2022 World Cup it controversially won the right to host last year; or of even the way the ‘FIFA family’ conducts its €1.3 billion a year business under the powerless gaze of the football-adoring public.

Penalty kick
But are there circumstances where outside entities could intervene and go over Mr Blatter’s head? Professor of International Sports Law at the Asser Institute in The Hague, Ian Blackshaw explains that “if outside parties are affected by any of these decisions by FIFA, for example if the main sponsors Coca Cola & Adidas have indicated today that they’re not happy with the situation … if a situation arises whereby their interests are affected & they don’t get satisfaction by going through FIFA, it is possible that they could take their cases to the court of arbitration for sport”.

Crossing the line
Criticism of Blatter’s style and stubbornness is not new, but this is the first time the issues surrounding the most powerful body in football have become so grave that they have invited political attention. The trouble is that the law governing international sport is vague, says Ian Blackshaw.

“The British sports minister is talking about this with his colleagues in the European Union, and seeing if they can bring some pressure to bear, but it is a rather grey area on the whole. International sports federations … have autonomy to run their own affairs – provided of course, they don’t breach the law.”

If the law has been breached, the chances of a private prosecution being brought will depend firstly on if and how FIFA cleans its own house. After that, it might be time for the seemingly impenetrable fortress that is football’s governing body to face something stronger than the enforcement of its own rules.