Global sports governance and corruption

Abstract

This article examines Global Sports Organisations (GSOs) in the light of the recent and numerous allegations and findings of corruption against them. In a seemingly unprecedented step in World sport, FIFA, the global governing body of football (or soccer), has banned its own president (Sepp Blatter) from any activity in the sport for 8 years for not fulfilling his fiduciary duties to the organization. It suggests why this corruption exists and persists, and in this light, it also suggests what form remedies must take. In briefly describing the genesis of the GSOs, it is argued that the roots of the corruption go back to the structures put in place in the early days of the GSOs, most notably a lack of transparency, even though they were not then necessarily corrupt. The current power of the GSOs is then briefly described, and a new argument is made, namely that the GSOs, with few exceptions, have either monopoly or quasi-monopoly status that aggravates the tendency to corruption. Such monopolistic status can be maintained even when it is known or suspected that a GSO is corrupt. This article is published as part of a thematic collection dedicated to global governance.