FIFA’s Institutional Politics

Written in 2013 by Brittney Balser, Christina Malliris, Caitlin Moyles, and Maggie Lin.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter. Image retreived from thetimes.co.uk. 

FIFA. The most powerful name in International Soccer. We hear about them often in the background of disputes, as the organizers of the World Cup, in commercials, in stories, and in pictures. But how much do we actually know about this organization that runs the world’s most popular sport? If the answer is, “a lot—I am a member of FIFA,” then perhaps you don’t actually need to read this. But if you are like the majority of us and the answer is “not much,” then perhaps we can help you out.

If you are looking for the basic way that FIFA works, then check out The Structure and Policies of FIFA. If you want to learn about some good things FIFA does, you can hop on over to FIFA’s Humanitarian Aid and Corporate Social Responsibility, which critically examines FIFA’s corporate social responsibility campaigns and charitable work. If you’re looking for a collection of all of the controversies FIFA has been involved in, and perhaps a way for us to improve their accountability, check out The Dark Side of FIFA: Controversies and the Future and, for a more sarcastic view, head on over to Caricatures of Critique: Is FIFA Rotten to the Core?, where you can both read about FIFA’s controversies and browse interesting comics laden with satirical commentary.

We hope these links and pages will give you, our readers, some insight into what makes FIFA function and tick.

How to cite this article: “FIFA Institutional Politics,” Written by Brittney Balser, Christina Malliris, Caitlin Moyles, and Maggie Lin (2013), World Cup 2014, Soccer Politics Blog, http://sites.duke.edu/wcwp (accessed on (date)).