Keir Radnedge

Death of a whistle-blower away

Chuck Blazer told everyone who asked that his idol was Joao Havelange. Both worked hard for football, and that deserves to be acknowledged, yet both bent it into a game of self-enrichment. The goal became power and personal wealth, and while power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

And not only in sport, but in politics, business and religion as well. Sepp Blatter, a man who should know (and who should know better), was fond of quipping that football could not expect to be immune to “the little devils of society”. True, but knowing he was supping with these little devils around the FIFA boardroom table, Blatter’s ultimate failure was in acquiescing, not acting.

Havelange worked his way up from Brazilian Olympic swimmer to national sports supremo to World Cup-winning director to FIFA president. That opened his bank vaults to the commissions/ bribes of ISL Marketing.

No wonder Blazer, who has died at 72 after a long battle with cancer, admired Havelange. Where Havelange led, Blazer followed – all the way to the enforced and self incriminating admissions which lifted the lid on the scandal-wracked excesses within FIFA’s leadership and FIFA Gate.