FIFA Corruption Scandal: 7 Most Damning Allegations Ever

Through 2011 to 2012 NGO Transparency International, who work across a number of areas of sport including the prevention of match fixing, tried to fix a rift with FIFA over the adjudication of their management process.

FIFA claimed to have appointed independent committee chairmen who oversaw governance of the regional FIFA member organisations. But their wages are paid by FIFA, completely contradicting the meaning of the word independent.

Had FIFA agreed to cooperate with transparency international, this issue would have been moot. But when talks broke down, T.I. stated in a March 2012 press release that they were disappointed because “FIFA…failed to push forward a comprehensive governance reform process... and send a strong signal they are committed to change.”

Sepp Blatter stated in a later interview with Al Jazeera “[Transparency International] had another view how to develop our ideas” as an excuse for this.

T.I.’s view of FIFA now seems not all that dissimilar to their views on Somalia and North Korea. Either way, Blatter's own self-proclaimed fixes of his corrupt organisation have clearly failed given the latest string of accusations, compounded by this week's high-profile arrests.