Responding to Allegations of Corruption in the IAAF and FIFA - Case Study Example

RESPONDING TO ALLEGATIONS OF CORRUPTION (FIFA AND IAAF) by RESPONDING TO ALLEGATIONS OF CORRUPTION (FIFA AND IAAF) Introduction Corruption is the impairment of integrity, virtue or moral principle. It is generally understood as the abuse of power by public officials for their own personal gains. It is a major global issue of our time as it occupies all levels of organisations, from small to multinational companies or organisations. The Federation International de Football Association (IAAF) and the International Association of Athletics Federations (FIFA) are examples of international organisations that have received controversial allegations of corruption in the recent past. The bidding process of the 2019 world championship and 2022 world cup in Qatar by both FIFA and IAAF has raised integrity questions concerning the transparency of the whole process. In this paper, we shall analyse some of these accusations and the reactions by these two organisations. Background FIFA is an international football organisation founded by seven European footballing nations in 1904, to oversee international soccer competitions. It is the international governing body of association football. It’s responsible for the organisation and governance of soccer’s major international tournaments, most notably FIFA world cup held since 1930.FIFA’s membership is made up of several of its members and four representatives provided by the football associations of the United Kingdom. Currently, FIFA has a membership of 209 football associations under the leadership of President Joseph Blatter. The growth of FIFA can be attributed to its remarkable impact in international sports and on cultural relations around the world. FIFA has its own controversial issues concerning its management. President Blatter’s reign has seen it occupy the global media spotlight more prominently, especially between the years 2010 and 2011 (Blackshaw, 2011). For instance, his action of dispensing the world cup hosting rights on behalf of his executive committee, the manipulation of institutional politics to ensure his re-election, and retention of presidential power for a fourth term (Pielke, 2014). Corruption allegations regarding FIFA’s bidding process for the 2022 world cup in Qatar has also raised concerns making it an interesting organization to study (Morris, 2011). The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is an international governing authority for athletic program, founded in 1912 by seventeen national athletic federations (Simson, 1994). This was due to the need for a governing body to ensure standardized technical equipment and world records. Its headquarters are based in Monaco with forty fulltime professional multinational staff. It has grown in its membership from 17 to 210 in 1999, a fact that can be attributed to its use of corporate sponsorship as a means to better promote and develop the sport worldwide. Its current president is Lamine Diack from Senegal. IAAF has had its fair share of controversy especially in organising the 2019 world athletics championship competitions. For instance, the human rights activists condemned the choice of Qatar as the next host of the game due to its ill treatment of migrant workers, many of whom have died while constructing building facilities. Such controversies make this organisation suitable for this study. Corruption allegations FIFA is facing new corruption claims over its controversial decision to award Qatar the 2022 world cup (McNamee, 2013). Sources allege that Qatar football official Mohammed Bin Hammam, who was initially banned from football for life after being found guilty for bribery, made payment amounting to 5million US dollars to the FIFA officials in order to secure that bid. It is also said that Mr Bin made payments to African leaders to support Qatar in the race. FIFA is under a high pressure to make a fresh re-run of voting for the 2022 world cup. However, Qatar denies these allegations stating that Bin was not involved in any bidding activity for the 2022 world cup in Qatar. In their reaction to these allegations, FIFA’s chief investigator Michael Garcia has taken the necessary steps to look into the issue. He is making extensive inquiry into the corruption allegation and he is yet to meet senior officials from Qatar 2022 organising committee to discuss the issue. The International Association of Athletics Federations decision to host the world athletics championship was also not received unanimously due to its poor treatment of workers (Potts, 2014). This decision raised concerns whether the organisation cared about the ill and mistreating labour conditions in Qatar. The human rights commission claims that the handling of foreign labourers in Qatar is disastrous and so the federation should reconsider its decision. However in response to these allegations, the president of the federation while talking to Sky news said that Qatar had promised to review its labour laws. He emphasised the fact that the federation had put up measures to ensure that no labourer would be exploited in preparation of the sporting event. Theories used to respond to corruption allegations According to the article “Crisis situations, communication strategies and media coverage’, the situational crisis communication theory is one of the theories used to respond to corruption allegation and manage public relations. The theory was developed by Timothy Coombs with an empirically tested method for selecting crisis response strategies. This theory consists of three elements i.e. the crisis situation, crisis response strategies and a system for comparing or matching the crisis response strategies with the crisis situation Jennings, 2011). The theory suggests that a crisis response strategy chosen should match the characteristics of the crisis situation. The theory was introduced as a symbolic approach to crisis communication. Organisations face a variety of challenges during a crisis. According to Coombs, one challenge is to rebuild the organisational reputation. Good corporate reputations are increasingly recognised as having strategic value for an organisation because it offers a competitive advantage. Crises threaten to damage reputations because it gives people a reason to think badly about the organisation (Huang 2006). According to this theory, every situation is unique and demands a distinct strategy to react to it and manage public expectations. There are several ways in which an organization can react to a situation to salvage its reputation including denial, excuses, justification and concessions. Denial is the publication of statements that dispute the occurrence of the event accused of. Excuses are statements that organizations use to disclaim responsibility for the occurrence of negative events in the organization (Bloch, 2014). Excuses imply that the organization was limited by some uncontrollable factors in containing the negative situation and preventing its occurrence. Justification statements explain that the organization although the organization is responsible for the negative event, the standards used to judge the organization are questionable. In responding to corruption allegations, IAAF and FIFA used denial strategy, which left their sponsors and other stakeholders such as coca cola disappointed. Image repair theory states that threats to a company’s reputation whether imagined or real can destroy the image or brand build in years literally in hours or days (Bloch, 2014). These threats should be anticipated, understood and planned for. The theory suggests that since no organisation is immune to crises, all organisations should incorporate the concept of crisis management in their organisation. As such, this theory integrates the different ideas that have emerged in crisis response research. In brief the theory recommends that to protect a reputation, the responsibility of acceptance of the organisation’s crisis response must be consistent with the stakeholders’ attribution of the crisis responsibility generated by the crisis (Simson, 1992). The theory further claims that wise organisations know that they will experience a crisis, they just don’t know when. Therefore, a good strategy has to be put in place (Forster, 2013). In using the combs situational theory, both IAAF and FIFA used denial as a strategy, claiming that the allegations had no basis (Gibson, 2010). In response to the denial strategy, FIFA sponsors such as coca cola termed the response and subsequent investigation as being ‘disappointing’ (Pielke, 2013). Organisational transgressions These refer to the illegal actions done by officials in an organisation that knowingly put the public at risk. It’s the breach of law, non- compliance or violation of rules and principles. Both FIFA and IAAF have had a series of organisational transgressions in regard to their management and conduct (Maennig, 2008). FIFA has experienced a sequence of ethical issues to the extent of being described as a very corrupt institution. In the recent past, atleast 12 of the 24 executive committee members have been accused of grave misconducts arising from bribes, illegal sale of tickets and other scandals (Jennings, 2011). A good example is Paraguayan Nicolás Leoz, then-president of the South American Football Confederation, who resigned after he took a bribe of worth 130,000 dollars from a marketing partner for his vote to support the world cup 2018 bid in England. FIFA has attracted a lot of criticism from observers and stakeholders concerning its transparency and accountability. In response, FIFA congress addressed the ethics, governance and transparency of the organisation. IAAF has also experienced a share of organisational transgressions in its management (Lenskyj, 2010). For instance, in the documentary-Secret doping: How Russia produces its winners; serious doping matters involving the son and the lawyer of IAAF President Lamine Diack was revealed. This program claimed that the Russian Athletics Federation president received 300,000 Euros from a well-known athlete in order to cover up for her high blood values and allow her to compete at the London Olympics. The payments were reportedly made through Black Tidings, a company whose partner is Papa Didiack, the son to IAAF president. This company was allegedly liquidated soon after the transaction in order to blur any evidence. In response to these allegations, the IAAF vowed to engage each and every individual mentioned in that program in conjunction with the World anti-doping agency (WADA) (Dimant, & Deutscher, 2015). IAAF vice president vowed to news reporters that he would ensure an independent review has taken place to look into the matter. The media promises to continue revealing evident Russian doping system and IAAF involvement. IAAF announced that it would have all these allegations reviewed by its ethics committee (Jennings, 2006) Crisis response strategies The situational crisis communication theory is sued to manage crises in IAAF and FIFA. The theory states that every organisation must have a crisis response strategy to enable it handle crisis in the best way possible. The strategy should have a reasonable or rather a restrained impact on the organisational post-crisis reputation. An organisation should avoid openly taking or rejecting responsibilities by means of crisis response strategy. It is also important that an organisation consider the timing to disclose crisis information (Forster, 2013). However, the most challenging part for organisations is reacting, with the right response, quickly. This is because non-communication or inappropriate behaviour may lead to embarrassment, humiliation, long term invisibility and litigations. Organisations therefore needs a good strategy and avoid such issues. According to the article: Unique responses strategies in sports: Rugby league and the case for diversion”, the crisis response strategies available to IAAF and FIFA has different dimensions used to manage crises. The operations dimension primarily entails getting back the public confidence. The organisations adopt such a strategy with the aim of reducing media coverage of the issue and to reconstruct its relationship with the public. This is achieved through explanation of the problem to the public unveiling the reasons why the issue occurred. The management then declares its commitment to deal with the problem and address the situation (Bruce & Tini, 2008). For instance, after consecutive allegations of corruption in the Qatar world cup bid, FIFA chief investigator declared that he would thoroughly examine the claims and bring clear report to the organisation. FIFA president responded that the organisation was ready to take any responsibility that may come with it allowing the issue to occur and they would thorough consultation into the matter. If the allegations are found to be true, then it will call for a new voting process for the 2022 world cup bid. This strategy revolves around clarifying why the situation occurred or did not occur. Yi-Hui Huang in his 2006 article “Crisis situations, communication strategies and media coverage’, argues that Image repair theory is used to cultivate trust and credibility, which are important to manage reputation. The author advances that most people outside the organisation judge its credibility by looking at the past events and predicting future outcome. If the past behaviour of the organisation was good, it will work for the best of the organisation. Trust is simply the lack of fear. If the society has no fear in the organisation then it has earned its trust. This can be achieved through carefully listening, speaking in plain language, staying in touch, bring victims into the decision making and providing advance information to the public. For example, IAAF listened carefully to the doping allegations levelled against it and vowed to address the issue with no apologies (Huang, 2006). This is in its effort to regain public trust and credibility in the organisation. To show credibility an organisation should be prepared to talk openly, reveal what the public need to know even if they don’t ask for it, quickly explain changes and problems and corporate with the media. Conclusion Both FIFA and IAAF have been plagued with allegations of corruption. In response, these two organisations employed combs crisis communication theory to respond to the allegations. As a result, they vehemently denied the corruption allegations maintaining that the corruption allegations are baseless and untruthful. Regardless, some of the organisations’ sponsors termed the responses as being inadequate and disappointing. Although, the FIFA president implied that all those responsible would be held accountable if the corruption allegations are proved, this was a strategy to hoodwink and win the public’s approval. The subsequent investigations absolved FIFA of any wrongdoing. References Blackshaw, I. (2011). FIFA to Set Up Anti-Corruption Body. The International Sports Law Journal, (1-2), 139. Blitz, R. (2011). Fifa Faces Fresh Corruption Crisis. Financial Times. Bloch, O. (2014). Corporate identity and crisis response strategies: challenges and opportunities of communication in times of crisis. Bruce, T., & Tini, T. (2008). 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