Skins boss calls for Fifa boycott

The chairman of sportswear giant Skins believes the small number of multi-national corporates that Sponsor Fifa have the power to change the organisation for good. Photo / AP

The chairman of the world's first official non-sponsor of Fifa has urged those corporates still contributing to Sepp Blatter's trough to launch an 11th hour bid to prevent his re-election.

Blatter is expected to be re-elected Fifa president at congress tonight in Switzerland, but Jaimie Fuller believes the small number of multi-national corporates that Sponsor Fifa have the power to change the organisation for good. Prominent New Zealand sports lawyer Aaron Lloyd also believes the time is right to shine a light on the damage poor governance does in sport.

Fuller, chairman of sportswear giant Skins, said the astonishing thing about the arrests of nine senior Fifa officials and five connected media and promotions executives this week was that "it wasn't at all surprising".

Skins became the first official non-sponsor of Fifa when it became aware that their corporate ideals ran counter to what they see as the graft and corruption within the world's largest sporting governing body. Fuller has personally written to his equivalent at all the major companies sponsoring Fifa, reminding them that their stated company policies and vision did not marry with Fifa ethics.

"I mean, Visa is a financial services company. How can they have their name associated with fraud," Fuller says. "How can they possibly still support Fifa."

Visa have put their heads above the parapet and issued a statement condemning Fifa, but has stopped short of telling Blatter he must step down or even delay tonight's elections.

"Our disappointment and concern with Fifa in light of today's developments is profound.
As a sponsor, we expect Fifa to take swift and immediate steps to address these issues within its organisation," a Visa statement said. "This starts with rebuilding a culture with strong ethical practices. Should FIFA fail to do so, we have informed them that we will reassess our sponsorship."

Fuller has labelled the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar as the "Hypocrisy World Cup" and believes if one sponsor goes, four or five others will follow. "It'll be bang-bang-bang-bang," he says. "The only one that will stay will probably be [Russian natural gas company] Gazprom."

He believes it has to happen now.

"We have to strike while the iron is hot. If Blatter gets re-elected I suspect there will a feeling of, 'Oh well, he's got away with it again', and nothing will change.

"There needs to be a cultural change. This [the arrests and controversy] is not an isolated incident. These are not a few rogue employees. This sort of behaviour is saturated throughout this organisation.

"If we don't get rid of Blatter now, the only thing that will stop him is his arrest."

Fuller's interest in cleaning up Fifa was piqued further when he was "smuggled" into a labour camp in Qatar and saw the appalling conditions the most vulnerable workers from the poorest parts of Asia, mostly the subcontinent, were subjected to. He said Nepalese workers were denied the opportunity to return home in the wake of the country's recent devastating earthquake.

Fuller likened the conditions to indentured servitude and again wrote to Fifa's corporate sponsors to ask the CEOs and chairmen how they could effectively endorse such conditions, when in all cases they contradicted their own stated employment policies.

A recent study found that since 2010, more than 1200 migrant workers have died in Qatar under hazardous working conditions. The Guardian reported that more than 4000 are expected to die before the start of the 2022 World Cup. In comparison 10 people died working on Brazil's stadia ahead of last year's World Cup and that was considered too many. One died in preparation for the London Olympics in 2012.

As global scorn continues to rain down on Fifa, New zealand lawyer Lloyd believes this is the time to shine a light on global sports governance.

Lloyd, a partner with MinterEllisonRuddWatts, says poorly run sports bodies are devaluing their product.

"When you talk about boards and governance in a sports context, their paramount objective has to be to protect the value of that sport for your stakeholders," Lloyd said.

Lloyd said there was a correlation between a lack of integrity in boardrooms and on-field corruption in sport. When you get widespread corruption in sport that devalues the brand - the most obvious example being road cycling in the wake of the doping scandals.

The devil's advocate would respond that for all of Fifa's shenanigans, football's sporting primacy is unrivalled, while corruption scandals in the Olympic movement and Formula One, to name just two, haven't seemed to harm those organisations ability to attract sponsors, broadcasters and revenue.

"That might be right now, but is it a sustainable model?" Lloyd asks. "Does corruption matter in the boardroom? You have to look at it in an almost puritanical or ethical sense. It must do."

Once integrity was undermined, whether it be on the field or in the halls around it, then the raison detre of sport is lost.

"There has to be genuine competition or there is no reason to buy season tickets or to bid for TV rights."

To rid sports of corruption, significant "front- and back-end work" was required.
"At the front-end we're talking governance and the management of elections for that governance. It's making sure conflicts of interest are properly managed.
"Good governance is the framework of integrity," Lloyd said.

The "back-end" is the ability to investigate and to enable whistle-blowing. It is knowing how to blend internal investigations into criminal investigations.

"Is it even possible to self-police? Good organisations should have internal investigative teams, but it needs to be in partnership with law enforcement."

It was the law that eventually got to the heart of Fifa's corruption, proving the old adage that no one and no organisation is above it.