What I Didn't Know About FIFA

I wrote a blog about the right way to handle the decision to not involve our nation in changing the conviction of our best scoring player to serve a suspension for the next game against Belgium. I hope that you picked up that it was rushed so that I could get it off before the contest to demonstrate that it was wrong to interfere in the deliberations of FIFA. I referred to our Chariots of Fire moment which was a movie demonstrating how Eric Lindell refused running in the 400 meters race in the 1924 Olympics in Paris because a qualifying heat was run on a Sunday. He ran the 400 meters event instead for which he had not properly trained. He did the right thing for his personal code of faith. He won that 400 meters race and set a world record in the process.

I know nothing about soccer, but today I learned more than I wanted to learn about the governing agency of world soccer, FIFA, which made my decision to keep out a star player based on the rules was the right one. FIFA is run by Mr. Infantino who is friends with Trump.

According to Trump, he was watching the game and thought the decision of the ref was wrong and called Infantino to ask for that to be reviewed. (Code for you know what I really want.) When the decision was overturned in favor of the American being able to play that next game, people around the world considered it as one of Trump’s bad pardons. Infantino was given the news from his elected body that acts on things of such a nature and indicated that he sometimes changes the decision of that group. The red card rule is clear that the player can’t play in the next game.

What I didn’t know is that FIFA is one of the most controversial unethical organizations (read corrupt) operating. It has worked hard to correct that image. But it brought back all those feelings of corruption into the world mindset. It was a high price for world soccer and a high price for our team if they won. Our team eventually lost 4-1. Infantino indicated that all such decisions are made by an elected committee with no influence from the outside. Infantino went on to say that is the way we work. But he has the final say before the word becomes public. With the reputation on the line of FIFA, he should have stayed away from that decision that would make Trump happy. The team would always have an asterisk next to its name.

Trump said that he just asked for a review. Infantino had the same explanation. I wondered why Trump was not taking credit for the overturning of the red card. Both Infantino and Trump didn’t realize that perception (around the world) equals reality as they both tried to walk back their role in this decision. This is another example that everything Trump touches metaphorically dies. We will always wonder if Trump leaving the decision up to the coach and player could have produced a spirited response on the playing field instead of a distraction from Trump wanting to exercise his power.

Infantino reviews these decisions.  When the committee can’t be autonomous with their decisions that can be changed by the very control that they must have points to the possibility of a lack of integrity. When the committee was asked to justify their reversal, there was no information forthcoming about why the situation was reversed. They had no answer implying that it was taken out of their hands.

Remember Infantino gave Trump the FIFI Peace Prize. I found myself scratching my head wondering what the process was where they came to that conclusion.

The person who headed this committee to make decisions, Mr. Maduro added, “FIFA uses the word independence, like they use the word peace, human rights, or accountability. They use the words which have no meaning. Mr. Infantino has portrayed himself as largely removed from the process.” However, Infantino said, “I read the decisions of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee when they are issued,” he said. “Sometimes I agree with them, and sometimes I disagree.”

So, who gave that Peace Prize to Trump knowing that Europe and other nations outside of America feel about Trump? Obviously that award was not given by the whole body of FIFA which everyone assumed, but my guess is that it came from a committee of one, Infantino.

Remember everyone is paying a price? Is it worth it? Does it help us to love more and see more justice in our world? Infantino and World Soccer took a wonderful opportunity to be a moral movement and turned it into Trump’s answer to everything. “It’s all about winning and not about following the rules (law). That price was not worth it. What if we refused the get out of jail card, win or lose, would have demonstrated that in our nation honor takes precedence over anything. It’s a stance that would be a double bind for our players no matter what they did particularly when the team could have moved forward with the ethical stance of doing the right thing and having that remembered for the test of all time.

But there is more. What Trump did to the USA Team was not to trust them to rally around the players who would be on the field (pitch). What a terrible message to communicate to a group of young men who have played their hearts out since the very first second of the very first game. I, for one, thought that they had the right stuff to play against any odds. We will always wonder if Trump and Infantino let the situation alone, and our team was given a chance to rally and bring a spirited response instead of all this distraction by Trump and Infantino’s putting their hands on the scale of justice and what is right. The message could have been one for the ages like the one still remembered about Eric Lindell depicted in the movie Chariots of Fire. In America we do what is right and lawful. We are not subject to someone else intervening with a history of breaking the law and standards because winning is everything. America would have been seen as an entity where we exercise our motto as justice is defined as a nation that chooses the hard right and not the easy wrong.

Listen to the theme song for Chariots of Fire. I have always found it inspiring to run harder.

Music Chariots of Fire