How FIFA’s Fouls May Revive the Beautiful Game: David Goldblatt

June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Barcelona’s victory over ManchesterUnited in this year’s Champions League final will go down as oneof the finest displays of soccer that the modern era haswitnessed. But, for a performance of true audacity, for a storythat captures the essence of contemporary soccer, the Catalanshave been eclipsed by the games being played inside FIFA -- thesports global governing body -- and above all by Sepp Blatter,who was just re-elected as FIFA’s president.

Blatter, incumbent for 13 years, has been playing at thetop of his form. In the past six months 10 members of FIFA’s 24-member executive committee have been accused of selling theirvotes in connection with the bids for the 2018 and 2022 WorldCups. The Qataris who bid successfully for the 2022 tournamenthave been accused of buying some of them. Blatter’s and theinstitution’s legitimacy look very frail. If the presidentdidn’t know what had been going on, he shouldn’t have beenrunning the show, and if he did know, well, the same goes.