SBS will still show World Cup matches even if recent allegations of bribery and vote buying are proved against FIFA.
When asked directly by Crikey if the public broadcaster would show matches even if “the bidding process was shown to be corrupt”, SBS manager of corporate communications Jane McMillan replied that “SBS looks forward to broadcasting all matches from FIFA World cups live and free-to-air regardless of where they are hosted”.
This is despite their own presenters and commentators publicly calling for FIFA to be toppled and that people are “honour bound” to “speak up for change”. It also comes as members of the Australian parliament discuss legal action against FIFA to recover funds from the country’s failed 2022 World Cup bid.
It is not unheard of for national broadcasters to terminate agreements with sporting events that fail a public morality test. German networks dumped coveraged coverage of the 2007 Tour de France after it became apparent doping was widespread.
However, in the absence of a rival competition to FIFA or a legal avenue to exit a contract (Switzerland notoriously protects organisations such as FIFA and the IOC from legal action), it would be a huge ask for SBS to take a stand against corruption. The poorly resourced network, which reportedly paid a make-or-break $15 million for the 2014 broadcast rights, places much of its brand value in the world game and so, like most of the national football associations around the world, is stuck riding the FIFA tiger — unable to dismount for fear of being eaten.
Meanwhile, in Switzerland overnight, 208 delegates at FIFA voted in a controversial presidential election that saw incumbent president Sepp Blatter elected unopposed after his only competition was forced to withdraw from the race due to bribery allegations.
An insurrection by the English football association (FA) failed to halt the election with their motion being voted down 172 to 17, with 17 abstentions (Australia voted for Blatter). The anti-corruption crusade by the FA and the UK press has come under fire from members of the “FIFA family”, with notably the Argentinian delegate accusing the English of being “pirates” and “more busy lying than telling the truth” and openly mocking their losing bid by saying: “With the English bid I said: ‘Let us be brief. If you give back the Falkland Islands, which belong to us, you will get my vote’. They then became sad and left.”
Despite the numbers going against them, the FA claimed victory when Blatter announced a new process for selecting the World Cup host nations in the future. Instead of the 22 member executive committee deciding the winner, all 208 associations will be given a vote.
Pity the poor Australian soccer fan. International events this week have overshadowed the release of the 2011-12 A-League match roster. The new fixture has been very well received by fans and recaptures some of the tight focus that characterised the A-League’s first season before the FFA was distracted by the 2022 World Cup bid. Features include counter-programming the AFL and rugby seasons and an intriguing five-match back-to-back “Marathon Wednesday” on January 4 that has the potential to become an Australian barbecue tradition.
SBS have to ask themselves: “will people watch it?” and the answer’s yes, regardless of the tainted bidding process. THey watch the olympics, F1, etc, after all.
The comparison that the writer makes between the Tour de France and the FIFA World Cup isn’t really comparing apples with apples. In TdF, it was the actual cycling as a sport that was having its reputation tarnished due to the rampant cheating from its elite participants. Indeed, it could be argued that the administrators of the TdF were doing as much as they could to maintain the dignity of the event by testing riders and booting and banning those caught cheating, despite the negative headlines such cases caused.
With the other fruit product however, it isn’t the sport of football that is in crisis, it’s FIFA itself. Isolated match fixing issues aside, people still have confidence that the actual games and players they watch are above board, especially at the highest level such as the World Cup and UEFA Champions League, something that can’t be said about the Grand Tours. So I don’t see why SBS are meant to scrap coverage of its biggest event over some administration issue that, beyond determining how much sleep deprevation its viewers will suffer from, doesn’t affect what is shown much at all. People watch football to see two collectives of eleven manipulate a sphere for 90 minutes. If they are really fascinated about the art of administration being performed by aging men in mediocre suits, they can switch over to Question Time during half time.
SBS, a number of years ago, gave Joseph S. Blatter a lovely free run to expound all his self-serving nonsense. No commentary at the time about FIFA and its appalling ways. Shortly after this it was announced that SBS would be the sole broadcaster in Australia for the 2006, 2010 and 2014 finals.
On the one hand it is clear that making sure the TV idiots at C9 didn’t get it was a service to humanity, however it did require a certain amount of sh!t sandwich eating on the part of SBS. Was it worth it?