"FIFA's Dirty Secrets" is an episode of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

documentary series ''

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...

'' which was broadcast on 29 November 2010.

Overview

The half-hour programme saw investigative journalist

Andrew Jennings Andrew Jennings (3 September 1943 – 8 January 2022) was a British investigative reporter. He was best known for his work investigating and writing about corruption in the IOC and FIFA. Early life Jennings was born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, ...

look into allegations of corruption with

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

, 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 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

. Within the programme, Jennings alleged that three members of FIFA's executive committee had received bribes by International Sports and Leisure, a marketing partner of FIFA. The three men

Nicolas Leoz Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

Issa Hayatou Issa Hayatou (9 August 1946 – 8 August 2024) was a Cameroonian sports executive, 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 th ...

, and Ricardo Teixeira 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, from which they were alleged to have received payments. Jennings further alleged that a fourth official was involved in ticket reselling ( ticket touting). Jennings claimed that both matters had not been adequately investigated by

Sepp Blatter Joseph Sepp Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former association football, football administrator who served as the list of Presidents of FIFA, eighth president of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participatin ...

, 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 called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

. 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 (CAF) is the administrative and controlling body for association football, beach soccer, and futsal in Africa. It was established on 8 February 1957 at the ''Grand Hotel'' in Khartoum, Sudan. At the FIFA Co ...

(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 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

and

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

s were announced. Some commentators expressed concern that the timing of the broadcast might negatively impact

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

's chances of hosting the former tournament, with certain media figures and politicians accusing the

of being unpatriotic; however, the BBC defended these claims.

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

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

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

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 FIFA controversies Documentary films about association football Panorama (British TV programme) 2010 British television episodes British sports documentary films FIFA World Cup

Overview

See also

References

External links