It seems so utterly appropriate to have my last post on this particular issue on the very eve of the World Cup here in South Africa.
This book just puts the entire shameful 2010 World Cup debacle (as I discussed at length in an earlier post on this blog) into such sharper focus.
The blurb on "Foul!" on http://www.amazon.com/ describes the book very well: "Andrew Jennings, the world's foremost investigative sports reporter, spent four years delving into the dark side of 'the beautiful game'. The result is this explosive and damning expose of the officials that run football's world governing body FIFA - a story of how the 'men in suits' put personal ambition and money before the fans on the terraces. No individual has managed to penetrate the secret world of FIFA. Until now. Andrew Jennings, the world's leading sports investigative reporter, has unearthed the stories that FIFA doesn't want told. He blows the whistle on an international cash-for-contracts scandal and reveals how some football officials have been urged to secretly repay the sweeteners they received. He asks why FIFA President delayed acting against troubled marketing company ISL, who wrongly withheld GBP 45 million of FIFA's cash. He exposes the vote-rigging that went on behind closed doors in the fight for control of FIFA. Jennings has researched in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. He has uncovered damning evidence and persuaded FIFA insiders to talk to him about the questionable business practices they've witnessed. "Foul!'s" mix of world-class probing journalism, compelling storytelling and dark humour make this the most important book ever written about the men who control the people's game."
It's suffice to say that the book is pure genius. Jennings takes no prisoners in what is a stunning and insightful expose of the putridly corrupt organization that is FIFA. This is page-turning, gripping and compulsive investigative journalism at its best.
Jennings previously blew the lid off another putrid world sports organization, namely the International Olympic Committee (IOC), entitled "The Great Olympic Swindle: When the World Wanted Its Games Back", co-written in 2000 with Clare Sambrook. That is one book I simply must get my hands on ASAP, if his brilliant book :Foul!" is anything to go on!
It is one scandal after another, with a particular focus on the current President of FIFA, one Herr Sepp Blatter and his posse of cronies and lackeys, all corrupt and venal to some extent or another. Blatter comes off mightily badly - as he should do, given the overwhelming evidence of his explicit and tacit dealings in the corrupt cesspool that is FIFA today.
Former President of FIFA, the odious Brazilian, Joao Havelange, and the head of the CONCACAF football federation (the federation for North and Central America and the Caribbean), a certain Jack Warner from Trinidad and Tobago, also come off particularly badly, corrupt bastards that they are.
Jennings shows in no uncertain terms just how tarnished and muddied the Beautiful Game has become. Awash with money and influence, yes, but rotten to the core.
His writing style is crisp, easily read and unravels itself, layer by enticing layer, like a top-class whodunit.
Besides, what's not to love and admire about a man who write a book that FIFA wanted banned?!
Enough said. He's a class act, is Mr. Jennings. And his book is a class read.
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