Where Most Needed

James Surowiecki, the economics columnist for the New Yorker, wonders about the persistent corruption and autocratic tendencies of FIFA, and points out that the very things that seem attractive about nonprofit organizations could be the source of the trouble:  egalitarian governance and protection from outside interference. 

The current president, Sepp Blatter, is under investigation over FIFA's role in a bribery scandal for television rights.   There's also Andrew Jennings' new book Foul! about FIFA (Jennings previous investigative efforts involved the International Olympics Committee).  (See this transcript of an interview with Mr. Jennings from Australian TV, unfortunately not translated.)

These issues should not be glossed over because this is merely sports.  Mr. Surowiecki is right in highlighting the structural issues and asking how it could be changed.  Certainly there have been attempts to inject transparency into other nonprofit operations, with mixed success.  One might think that this is different—sports agencies, whether FIFA or IOC (or the Big Ten), have a guaranteed income from television rights. 

But it's not so different: the truth is that television coverage is also what fuels the more commonly noted international NGOs like the Red Cross and Oxfam.   And so far, there is no international body that can stand up to the power of the visual image.