Flickr/The Sport Review. Some rights reserved.Corruption has been getting a lot of attention recently. Who could have ignored the sheer scale and brazenness of what’s been alleged at FIFA? The total value of bribes involved is yet to be determined, but estimates suggest it could go into tens of millions of dollars, possibly even hundreds of millions, all spanning over many decades.
When announcing the charges the US Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, said the indictment alleges corruption that is “rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted”. The sad thing about this story is that many football fans had suspected widespread wrongdoings for a long time, and the most surprising thing was that someone had finally done something about it.
The scandal prompted David Cameron to call on world leaders to tackle the “cancer” of corruption that is “the archenemy of democracy and development”. Although his interest in the cause can only be welcomed, we have relied on reactive measures for too long to cure this disease. What we need is some preventative medicine, with sunlight as the first line of defence. Unfortunately, despite the government’s commitment to transparency and tackling graft, its performance so far has been, by analysis, inadequate.
