The reputation of Fifa, and football itself, may be fatally wounded

Swift and decisive verdicts in the criminal investigations underway – including potential prosecutions of the most high-profile figures – would send a message about the need for a new culture in what was once known as the 'beautiful game'

Fifa's headquarters in Zurich (Getty Images)

The evidence against Sepp Blatter, former president of Fifa and football’s very own Sun King, has always appeared to be more than circumstantial. Yesterday it stepped up a level, when the lawyers acting for Fifa in their investigation of the corruption scandal that has engulfed football’s governing body revealed that the pompous Swiss bureaucrat had awarded himself and two cronies £55m in pay rises and bonuses.

As Bill Burck of Quinn Emanuel, the US law firm retained by Fifa, put it: “The evidence appears to reveal a co-ordinated effort by three former top officials of Fifa to enrich themselves through annual salary increases, World Cup bonuses and other incentives totalling more than SFr79m in just the past five years.”

For Mr Blatter, Jerome Valcke and Markus Kattner, that’s nice work if you can get it. All three deny allegations of corruption.

With criminal proceedings by the Swiss attorney general, Michael Lauber, having been opened against Mr Blatter last September and Mr Valcke last March, the reputation of these blowhards is demolished forever. Banned for six and 12 years respectively, they may not work in senior sports administration again. If that were a private sorrow alone we could all forget about it.

The trouble is the reputation of Fifa, and by extension football itself (which, without irony, used to be called the "beautiful game"), may be fatally wounded, too.

When he was suspended from Fifa last year, there was a feeling that with the passing of the Blatter era, the worst was behind the organisation. Alas this week, German newspapers reported that new Fifa president Gianni Infantino had discussed how to dismiss Domenico Scala, the former head of the audit and compliance committee. This matters because Mr Scala was responsible for setting Infantino’s wage – £1.3m – which the latter described as an “insult”. Fifa has now been forced to deny that Infantino is being investigated for corruption too.

The whole thing stinks. So deeply rooted is the culture of corruption in Fifa that the demise of its leadership looks insufficient as a method of eradicating it. But two things might help.

First, swift and decisive verdicts in the criminal investigations that are now under way – including potential prosecutions of high-profile figures – would be the clearest way of sending a message about the need for a new culture in football governance. Second, football’s strength and wealth derives ultimately not from the Blatters of this world, nor even the leading players. It derives rather from the hundreds of millions of fans around the world who love and fund its growth.

The mismanagement of Fifa is above all a betrayal of the fans. In England alone, as the recent verdict on Hillsborough has shown, the organised, principled fury of fans can be a spur to reform and justice. If this noble sport is to once again be the "beautiful game", it will be because the demands of fans for proper administration are heard and heeded. For that to happen, fans everywhere will have to raise their voices, long after the likes of Sepp Blatter have been silenced.