HEALTH-SPORTS: WHO Gives Breath of Fresh Air to Ailing FIFA

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, May 23 2002 (IPS) - The Tobacco Free World Award, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) will present next week to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), is a salve for the divided football authority and for its president, Joseph Blatter, who faces corruption charges.

The annual distinction granted by the WHO this year honours FIFA for its decision to ban tobacco advertising and sales during the 2002 World Cup, to take place in South Korea and Japan from May 31 to Jun 30.

The WHO will present the prize in Seoul on May 28 during the FIFA’s 53rd congress, which promises highly charged debate due to the deep divisions among the authorities governing the world’s most popular sport.

Five vice-presidents and six other members of the FIFA board are supporting a criminal complaint filed against Blatter before a Swiss court.

The lawsuit stems from charges against Blatter for corruption, fraud, nepotism, abuse of authority and financial mismanagement of FIFA, which is based in the Swiss city of Zurich.

The petition by the 11 members, out of a total 24 on the executive board, is based on the denunciation for the same charges drawn up by FIFA secretary-general Michel Zen-Ruffinen, who until recently was Blatter’s confidant. Both men are Swiss nationals.

One of Zen-Ruffinen’s accusations states that the bankruptcy of the ISL/ISMM firm, which handles agreements between FIFA and the television advertising sponsors of the football matches it organises, had cost the institution much more than the 32 million dollars Blatter had officially acknowledged in losses.

The FIFA president, who is also facing a defamation lawsuit brought by his secretary, argues that Zen-Ruffinen is not in a position to adequately assess the association’s financial situation.

A report by Blatter, addressed to the delegates from the 204 associations to take part in the Seoul congress, states that FIFA will obtain some 900 million dollars for the television broadcast rights for the tournament, equivalent to 70 percent of the institution’s resources, in spite of the ISL/ISMM bankruptcy.

FIFA must earmark a slightly higher sum – approximately 950 million dollars – as a contribution to the 32 teams of the national associations participating in the final stage of the World Cup, to be prorated for each team based on the outcome of the championship.

The enormous revenues from the football championship TV broadcasts, which at the 1982 World Cup – played in Spain – barely reached 25 million dollars, has turned FIFA into the prey of the ambitions of the national federation leaders.

Blatter reached the pinnacle of power within FIFA after spending long years in the second seat, as secretary-general, to Brazil’s Joao Havelange (1974-1998), who led the association with an iron fist, buoyed to great extent by the successes of his country’s football team.

But now re-election has become a problem for Blatter, undermined by the strong opposition of his leading rival, Sweden’s Lennart Johansson, president of the Union of European Football Associations, who is promoting the candidacy of Issa Hayatou, the Cameroon-born president of the Confederation of African Football.

The dispute is expected to come to a head May 29 in Seoul when the FIFA congress is to choose between Blatter and Hayatou, after spending the previous day discussing the institution’s accounts and the crossfire of serious accusations among its officials.

One of the FIFA vice-presidents who oppose Blatter, South Korea’s Chung Mong-joon, said Thursday in Seoul that the association is suffering the “biggest crisis in its history.” Chung is head of the organising committee of the World Cup in South Korea.

Within this context, the WHO award represents a moment of respite for FIFA. The Geneva-based health agency of the United Nations grants the award each year to an individual or institution that stands out in the campaign against tobacco consumption.

Past recipients of the WHO tobacco control award include King Phumiphon Adunyadet of Thailand, the former health minister and current foreign minister of South Africa, Nkozasana Dhlamini Zuma, and former attorney general of the U.S. state of Minnesota, Hubert Humphrey III.

An agreement between FIFA and the WHO establishes that there will be no tobacco sponsorships or publicity and that all sales of tobacco products will be prohibited at the sites where the 2002 World Cup games and related events take place.

The areas reserved for smoking will be small and will be located at a distance from the crowds to prevent second-hand smoke, says the WHO.

“Sports and tobacco do not mix,” stated Gro Harlem Brundtland, WHO director-general.

“FIFA’s decision to back our public cause is a significant step towards achieving the goal of sports free from tobacco,” said Brundtland. “The world’s biggest sporting event is now tobacco free.”

The WHO is seeking the approval of its 199 member states of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which has been under discussion since October 2000. The aim is to eliminate tobacco advertising and to limit consumption worldwide.

According to the UN agency’s figures, tobacco use caused the deaths of some 4,023,000 people around the world in 1998.

Smoking and other forms of tobacco consumption are on the decline in many industrialised countries, but are increasing rapidly in developing countries, which causes a dramatic increase in related diseases, says the WHO.

By the year 2020, tobacco use will be the world’s leading health problem and will cause approximately 8.4 million deaths each year, according to the agency’s calculations.