Is the world turning a blind eye like South Africa

I am reluctant to post sports content on this blog as I already have a sports themed blog to fill voice an opinion on a aspect of life which i am passionate about. However, events over the weekend have made me realise that the rest of the world is showing signs of becoming like South Africa when it comes to corruption. They turn a blind eye.

The latest spate of this comes in the form of the world football governing body FIFA which was in the midst of a powership struggle leading up to presidential elections, but this has now resolved itself in such a way that current President Sepp Blatter will stand unopposed for another term as the body's president.

After so many years at the helm of FIFA a few top people in the football world felt that the time ahs come for the proverbial 'changing of the guard', these people were also keen to have a man at the helm from a region which has never been represented to well at FIFA those being Africa, Asia or Concacaf (the ruling body from the North American Region). There is just so much bad publicity surrounding the head of the Confederation of African Football that Africa never put forward a delegate. And for some reason neither did North America.

This left Asia as the only region keen to do so, and they put Qatar delegate Mohamed Bin Hamam forward.

Bin Hamam was instrumental in the global lobby for the world cup to go to Asia and he was vilified when Blatter named Qatar as the tournaments host in 2022.

But Hamam was not finished with FIFA and over the last few months has launched rather scathing attacks on Blatter labeling him 'corruption personified'

So it came down to Blatter vs Hammam in the race for the Presidency. And Blatter was quick to suggest that FIFA investigate Bin Hamam because of growing allegations of 'bought' votes. Bin Hamam responded to this by suggesting that Blatter himself should be investigated.

FIFA found Bin Hamam guilty but cleared Blatter of all charges brought against him. But as many top football officiators have highlighted, Blatter is no angel.

The first instance was in 2000 when Germany won the right to host the 2006 World Cup ahead of South Africa. Now there is not a South African on the face of the earth who are upset to losing to Germany, but it was the way in which they lost. It came down to a vote off where a New Zealand delegate (apparently under instruction from Blatter) voted for the German bid.

This caused such a stink up that FIFA basically handed South Africa the 2010 World Cup when they said that only bids from Africa would be considered. To me this is an admission of guilt on the part of FIFA.

Then there was the whole Russia and Qatar scandal where two superior bids were placed before FIFA. England have a very legitimate reason to be sore about the fact that Russia got the 2018 World Cup and America have got a very legitimate reason to be sore about the fact that Qatar got the 2022 tournament.

Again, whispers of graft and corruption were rife and Blatters name was not far away from these whispers.

But FIFA are turning a blind eye to this. Have they not learned enough lessons from the rest of the world regarding turning a blind eye to corruption? Look at world examples: Zimbabwe, Zambia, the DRC, Panama. All were once flourishing countries who were almost bought to their knees because of corruption.