The FIFA Executive Committee: Corruption behind The Beautiful Game

March 10^th, 2026

Patrick Walsh

Soccer, or football, as it is known elsewhere, is the world’s most popular game. It is has  over 3.5 billion fans globally. Needing only a ball, and something that counts as goal, the game is easily accessible to all and requires little to no money. The simplicity of the game, yet the intensity of emotions around it, lead to its nickname… “The beautiful game”

In a little over 90 days a whistle will blow at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, signaling the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The world’s eyes will be on the fields, the players, the coaches, the fans and the results. The World Cup is the most watched sporting event in the world, with viewership for the 2022 World Cup final match recorded at 1.5 billion viewers. The World Cup represents the best players in the world fighting with all they have for the glory of their nation, and to rise victorious as Champions of the World.

On the field, soccer is a simple sport with little money needed to compete. However off the field, there is much money and power to be had by whoever holds the keys to the World Cup.  Off the field, and behind the scenes there has been another game being played by soccer’s Governing body. The Federation Internationale de Football Association or FIFA has been the controlling body of the World Cup since the very first World Cup played in 1930. FIFA is an organization who’s core mission is to “Development the game, touch the world and build a better future” for soccer. But FIFA’s past tells us a different story. It is a story where a small group of men were given and incredible amount of power around the game of soccer and abused that power for selfish financial gain.

World Cup Overview

Even in the early 1900’s soccer was hugely popular across the world, especially in Europe and South America and international matches were beginning to be played. And so in 1904 a group of Individuals in France formed The Federation Internationale de Football or FIFA in order to oversee these international competitions and promote the sport. Prior to FIFA’s formation, countries were deemed World Champions based on their performance in the Olympics. FIFA aimed to change this, and in 1930 FIFA organized its first World Cup tournament in Uruguay. FIFA would go on to organize 23 more editions of the World Cup, including this years 2026 edition which will be held in June in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The organization of FIFA is made of up 211 member countries divided into 6 confederations and also a FIFA Council formerly know the FIFA Executive Committee. This Council is composed of a representative from each of the 6 confederations and other elected officials, with the most visible member of FIFA being it’s president who at this time is Giovanni Infantino.

World Cup Finances

While it is not lost on me that Soccer is not the top sport that is enjoyed by the 33 Club, I think it’s fair to say that the financial report of the FIFA World Cup can be respected.

 When it comes to revenue generation, the third highest way that FIFA generates money is through ticket sales. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil brought in $714 million, the 2018 World Cup in Russia brought in $689 million and finally, the latest edition, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar brought in $929 million. Marketing is the second highest revenue category for FIFA. Brands such as Coca-Cola, Adidas, Budweiser, Hyundai-Kia along with others helped generate FIFA $1.66 billion from 2015-2018.  The 2022 World Cup brought FIFA $1.25 bilion revenue from marketing rights.

Up until the 1960’s the world cup earnings slowly increased for each tournament. After the 1966 England World Cup, which included a worldwide broadcast of the final, the TV broadcasting rights revenue would become FIFA’s chief source of income. In 2011, FOX beat out ESPN for the North American broadcast rights that it still holds today. During the 2019-2022 cycle, which included the 2022 World Cup, North American broadcast rights were an estimated $520 million. Europe was $1.03 billion. Asian and North Africa $875 million, South Africa and Central America $352 million and the rest of the world about $103 million.

FIFA’s overall financial breakdown during the last few World Cup cycles is as such. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil generated $4.8 billion in revenue with $2.2 billion in expenses, equaling a $2.6 billion dollar profit for FIFA. This accounted for 83% of FIFA’s revenue for the 4 year cycle between World Cups. The 2018 World Cup in Russia saw $5.36 billion in revenue vs $1.82 billion in expenses, giving FIFA a $3.54 billion profit. While the latest 2022 World Cup in Qatar saw FIFA spending $1.7 Billion dollars while generating $7.5 billion dollars in revenue for a take home profit of $5.8 billion dollars. With all this in mind, it is safe to say that the World Cup is a massive revenue generator for FIFA.

World Cup Host Country Voting

From the beginning, FIFA has been an organization that is simply just to organize and delegate where soccer matches will be played. However, this power translates into massive financial gains for individuals and countries. Hosting the World Cup is a huge economic and publicity boom for any country. Thus, there is much power in the votes that decide who will host the world cup. At its inception, FIFA granted each member country a vote for who they thought should host the World Cup, however by 1974 the voting power to determine the world cup host nation was taken away from all the member countries and given to FIFA’s Executive Committee. It was a committee composed of 24 members of the FIFA organization, one member president from each of the 6 confederations and the rest of the 24 made up of appointed officials. A majority vote of 13 of the 24 members was needed in favor of a bidding country. And so if a country wanted to host the World Cup, they would have to persuade 13 of the 24 members of the Executive Committee to vote for them.  Now the power of determining what nation would host the World Cup was held by a small group of men, who as history has shown us, were susceptible to corruption and bribery in exchange for their promise to vote for a particular country to be the host. FIFA states that it held internal guidelines and regulations for its processes, such as no collusion or taking of bribes but as FIFA whistleblower Bonita Mersiades notes “As I started to put things together, I realized that the whole process was set up to be corrupt. The whole process was set up for all the things that were in the guidelines that they said you shouldn’t do.”

It’s Good to be a FIFA Executive Committee Member

On the surface, official documents will show that there is a small and practical list of requirements for nations to bid to host the World Cup. Sufficient infrastructure, stadiums, parking, hotels and hospitality. This is merely the surface level activities that most of the public sees while behind closed doors, more is at play in the bidding process in order for a country to secure the World Cup.

Typically, there are anywhere from 4-6 countries who are vying to secure World Cup hosting rights for any given cycle, and a host location is generally revealed approximately 7 years in advance, though this number may vary. Countries who are bidding for the World Cup must fill out the required paperwork but also pledge upgrades to their infrastructure in order to make their counties bid more attractive. Many countries promise to upgrade stadiums and hotels and roads in order to make travel easier. The goal was to convince the Executive Committee members to vote for your country over the others.  

While representatives from a country hoping to get a bid would meet with the Members of Executive Committee, it was more common for consultants to be hired by a country to be the middleman between countries and the Executive Committee members. Consultants were hired to be the communication point between the Executive Committee and a country so that if a countries representative was ever asked “ did you have this conversation with an FIFA Executive Committee member?” the representative could put their hand over heart and state that no, they did not have that conversation, because the reality is that the conversation was had, but between the Executitve Committee member and a consultant, then the consultant and the country, but never Country to specific Executive Committee member. It was also common to arrange meetings with influential members of a bidding country, such as government officials and especially billionaires of a country in hopes of impressing Executive Committee members with their wealth. 

In order to secure a vote from a particular member of FIFA’s Executive Committee, countries would work through their consultants to find out what the Executive Committee members’ demands or wishes were. And the number one source of corruption in FIFA’s past was the individual members of the Executive committee asking for things. Sometimes this would be money, family trips or international matches to be organized between countries. International matches result in large TV rights deals, branding opportunities and also large allotments of tickets to the executive Committee members that could then be sold off for much higher than asking price.

But another large form of corruption and manipulation of FIFA Executive Committee members was the exchange of gifts. In a 2025 interview, a former head of Corporate and Public Affairs at Football Australia, and now a FIFA whistleblower, revealed that “The gifts would get more expensive and more expensive as time went by and consultants were almost trying to outdo each other with how valuable the gifts were. But you wouldn’t go anywhere without them, because you wouldn’t be welcome without them. At the time of the FIFA Australian conference, Australian Billionare Frank Lowey hosted a dinner, at his personal residence, for the FIFA Executive Committee members and their partners. And at the dinner table were gold plated dinner plates with the names of the guests engraved into the plates. And at the dinner table were additional gifts for each of the Executive Committee members and their partners. Men got pearl cufflinks from one of Australia’s more preeminent pearl jewelers and for the women, there were pearl necklaces values at over $1400”.

Other documented gift examples include:

-          Parmigiani luxury watches valued between $8,000-$20,000 given to 2014 World Cup Brazil officials

-          $1,200 digital cameras, $1,000 pendants for official’s wives and $2,000 handcrafted clutch bags were given by countries during the 2018 and 2022 bigging process

-          England gave Mulberry handbags to the wives of FIFA executive members valued at around $1,300

-          Hospitality and travel packages were frequently given – first Class flights, luxury hotels, VIP tours and entertainment and expensive meals during “inspection visits” for potential host countries

-          Artwork, Sports Memorabilia, Luxury clothing (jackets, belts), expensive wines, and gifts specific to a countries culture such as $1,200 carved Japanese Cedar Balls are all examples of documented gifts given to FIFA officials

It is important to note that gifts are not illegal to give. FIFA does allow “symbolic gifts” to be given, so long as the value is less than $100.

Show me the Money

While many Executive Committee members received gifts, it was not uncommon for them to request money as well. One such example involves former CONACAF president (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) Jack Warner who requested $4 million dollars be paid as part of his demands in order to cast his vote for Australian to host the World Cup.  And another report has shown that in 2008 $10 million was transferred from the accounts of South African officials to Jack Warner in an effort to help South Africa secure the bid for the 2010 World Cup. Qatari Whistleblower Phaedra Al-Majid, who was a part of the successful 2022 Qatar World Cup bid has stated that Qatar paid upwards of $1.5 million to secure voted from Executive Committee members. As of writing this paper, documentation is now able to prove that over $200 million was exchanged by countries and members of FIFA in the form of bribes, with the likely, alleged total, actually being in billions of dollars.

FIFA Corruption Exposed

For years FIFA and its officials conducted business in this way. It was a business of corruption and bribes behind the scenes, with few rules and regulations, and kept hidden from the public eye. This would all change in May of 2015 when the FBI raided the hotels of FIFA officials before the start of their annual congress in Zurich, Switzerland. This raid and its subsequent arrests would trigger other nations to open criminal investigations into FIFA officials and when all was said and done, a total of 41 FIFA officials, employees and associates were indited on charges of bribery, money laundering, Wire Fraud, collusion and racketeering. The active president Sepp Blatter would “resigned” from his position and was later banned from football for ethics violations including improper payments.  The 2026 World Cup bid was put on hold until 2020. The voting power was taken away from FIFA’s executive council and given back to the member countries.

All told, the early story of FIFA is one that was open for corruption from the beginning. Massive financial stakes for where the World Cup would be hosted were given to a very small group of voters. This Executive Committee of 24 members, held immense power and with a lack of oversight was bound to be influenced by outside forces. The adoption of consultants, wish lists, gift giving and the process of bidding to host the World Cup became a spiral that encouraged unethical business practices led to one of the largest corruption scandals in global sports history.

In closing, while I know that Soccer is not the main sport of the 33 Club, I hope that this paper has sparked some interest in you about Soccer, FIFA, the upcoming World Cup. The questions I pose to the Club for discussion include: Do you hate or love soccer more or less after hearing this paper? What are other major example of corruption in Sport? What elements of sport cause it to be a source of corruption? What sports organizations do you believe to be the most corrupt? Who is the most corrupt sports figure you can recall? Will you watch the World Cup this year?

Bibliography:

1.      Sport for Business. (2024, July 17). The world’s most watched sports. Sport for Business. https://sportforbusiness.com/the-worlds-most-watched-sports/

2.      Novy-Williams, E. (2021, May 19). FIFA’s biennial World Cup proposal could drive billions in revenue. Sportico. https://www.sportico.com/leagues/soccer/2021/fifa-world-cup-proposal-revenue-1234643537/

3.      International Monetary Fund. (2024). 2022 FIFA World Cup: Economic Impact on Qatar and Regional Spillovers. IMF eLibrary. https://www.elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/018/2024/011/article-A001-en.xml

4.      Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). FIFA World Cup. In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup

5.      Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). 2026 FIFA World Cup. In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_FIFA_World_Cup

6.      Insider. (January 4, 2025). How FIFA Corruption Actually Works | How Crime Works | InsiderYouTube. https://youtu.be/9Eytw2xGx1I

7.      VOX. (2022, November 23). How FIFA corrupted the World Cup YouTube. https://youtu.be/BlKVfJg4hHE?si=hPPvAM51gFezMlSK

8.      Business Insider. (2022, October 22). The True Cost Of The Qatar 2022 World Cup | True Cost | Business Insider. YouTube. https://youtu.be/2ALeYFi_1hg?si=DyrYgUp1k5bmaSMI

9.      Plaantik. (2026, January 11). How the World Cup Changed Under One Man. YouTube. https://youtu.be/FlavCd53VgE?si=HGcRTeqgoeC2GIX1

10. FIFA. (2014, November 20). The story of FIFA. YouTube. https://youtu.be/ulLaO1hLTvk?si=W8lfEC8uyb5UXE9q

11. Top Bins. (2024, September 9). The Entire History Of The World Cup. YouTube. https://youtu.be/RYXmgs_OfS4?si=Vpx37Pk8atZNBPQk

12. You Exec. (2022, September 16). The INSANE PROFITS of the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022. YouTube. https://youtu.be/6n0NMgCA6bA?si=nngNo2inLBDJwLQ6

13. FIFA. (2023). FIFA World Cup 2030™: Overview of hosting requirements. https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/2a76876ef04ed7b9/original/FIFA-World-Cup-2030-Overview-of-Hosting-Requirements.pdf

14. FIFA. (2024). 2024 balance sheet. https://inside.fifa.com/official-documents/annual-report/2024/financials/2024-financials-in-review/2024-balance-sheet

15. Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). 2015 FIFA corruption case. In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_FIFA_corruption_caseB