The murky governance of football's governing body FIFA and the role of its president Sepp Blatter has again been called into question. And FIFA is now a text-book example of how certain forms of governance leads to certain outcomes.

Blatter came out this week attacking the European meddlers and has defended FIFA's role as the guardian of world football and has rejected calls to share control of the sport, according to news reports.

"Despite the indisputable respect that the world of football must show national legislation, it must be extremely vigilant with regard to attempts by governments - as well as supranational government organizations - to control the most popular sport on earth."

Blatter's latest outburst comes in the wake of the sport being ravaged by financial scandals, corruption and racism. For more gory details about the corruption - which includes match fixing in Italy and misappropriated funds - read this report in the Guardian last month.

Let's remember that the politics of soccer is so vicious and ruthless that Henry Kissinger once said it made him "nostalgic for the Middle East".

Still, Blatter is coming under increasing pressure. The question is whether the end is nigh.


FIFA is facing an internal revolt with its continental confederations pushing for more autonomy, reports the Turkish Daily News.

And the president of UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations since 1990, Lennart Johansson is running hard to be re-elected and has vowed to clean up the dirty deals and tighten up the rules, according to The Independent.

Whether any of this changes remains. Blatter and the forces of the status quo are not going to go down without a fight.

As I pointed out earlier this year in a blog on the governance of FIFA's fiefdoms, the system is designed to deliver certain outcomes and keep the incumbents in power.