"FIFA's Dirty Secrets" is an episode of the BBC documentary series ''

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined i ...

'' which was broadcast on 29 November 2010.

Overview

The half-hour programme saw investigative journalist Andrew Jennings look into allegations of corruption with

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

, the world's governing body of

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

. Within the programme, he alleged that three members of FIFA's executive committee had been given bribes by International Sports and Leisure, a marketing partner of FIFA. The three men Nicolas Leoz,

Issa Hayatou Issa Hayatou (born 9 August 1946) is a Cameroonian sports executive, former athlete and football administrator best known for serving as the president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) between 1988 and 2017. He served as the acting ...

, and

Ricardo Teixeira Ricardo Terra Teixeira (; born June 20, 1947) is the former president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). He was in the office from January 16, 1989 to March 12, 2012. In July 2012 a Swiss prosecutor's report revealed that, during his ...

were reportedly involved with a

sports marketing Sports marketing as a concept has established itself as a branch of marketing over the past few decades, however, a generally accepted definition does not exist. Academicians Kaser and Oelkers (2005, p. 9) define sports marketing as 'using spor ...

firm responsible for broadcasting rights and took money from them. Jennings further alleged that a fourth current official has been involved in

ticket touting Ticket resale (also known as ticket scalping or ticket touting) is the act of reselling tickets for admission to events. Tickets are bought from licensed sellers and then sold for a price determined by the individual or company in possession of ...

. Both of these matters had not been properly investigated by

Sepp Blatter Joseph "Sepp" Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former football administrator who served as the eighth President of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participating in FIFA activities since 2015 as a result o ...

, the President of FIFA. It also made a series of claims about the bidding process for hosting the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

. Hayatou, who is the vice-president of FIFA, denied all accusations of involvement in the scheme and claimed money was in fact paid to the

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football, or CAF for short (french: link=yes, Confédération Africaine de Football, ar, link=yes, الاتحاد الأفريقي لكرة القدم, al-Ittiḥād al-Afrīqī li-Kurat al-Qadam), is the administ ...

(CAF). He threatened to sue the BBC for the making of the documentary. The documentary was broadcast only three days before the result of the bidding process for the

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

and

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022; it is the first Wor ...

s were announced. This led to fears from some people that it could ruin

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

's chances of hosting the former tournament, with some accusing the BBC of being unpatriotic; however, the BBC defended these claims.

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

ultimately won the right to host the FIFA World Cup in 2018, with

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

emerging victorious for the 2022 tournament. The question of whether the documentary was a crucial factor in England losing the contest was brought up after the result was announced. The programme received 51 complaints from viewers.

References

External links

BBC's Panorama, FIFA's Dirty secrets
transcript {{FIFA navbox BBC television documentaries Association football controversies Documentary films about association football FIFA Panorama (British TV programme) 2010 British television episodes British sports documentary films FIFA World Cup

Overview

See also

References

External links