The Fall of the House of FIFA

June 15, 2017

FIFA's (Federation Internationale de Football Association) World Cup Tournament is a global quadrennial celebration of soccer. Behind the cheers and flag waving, scandal festered within FIFA in recent years, including cash in brown envelopes, secret bank accounts, and tax evasion. In a story that took more than a decade to expose, lifelong fan and journalist Conn (The Beautiful Game) left no stone unturned in his efforts to follow the money, skillfully re-creating a time line of the corruption that threatened the very integrity of the game. Conn's meticulous research and smooth writing style bring this unseemly chapter in FIFA history to a close, with realistic hope for the future of the most popular sport on earth. VERDICT Serious sports historians and soccer fans will find this to be the conclusive account of the recent international FIFA scandal. As we look ahead to the 2018 World Cup, this is also a timely reminder that money and power are always a threat to high ideals in sports.--Janet Davis, Darien P.L., CT

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2017
When, in 2010, the members of FIFA's executive committee awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatara tiny, brutally hot, oil-rich nation with no appreciable soccer historyit was perhaps the most visible symptom of what many had alleged was a long pattern of corruption in the governing body of the world's most popular sport. Founded in 1904 for the simple purpose of organizing games between teams of its handful of member countries, the Federation Internationale de Football Association would grow to comprise 211 countries and a fantastically rich stream of TV and sponsorship revenueand a culture of personal enrichment that led in 2015 to police raids, criminal charges, and a wholesale change of personnel at the top. Award-winning journalist Conn chronicles the mess with authority derived from his Guardian reporting and firsthand interviews with key figures, including disgraced former FIFA president Sepp Blatter. Though end notes and an index would have been useful resources, Conn's account is comprehensive and essential. It's depressing, too, but with comprehensive reform still yet to be realized, fans shouldn't look away.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)