Fifa sees out a year of two halves

This should have been a triumphant year for Sepp Blatter, Fifa’s president.

South Africa’s World Cup was lauded for its organisation and enthusiasm (if not the football), the sponsorship tills continued to ring loudly and football’s governing body held a vibrant competition to host not one but two editions of the globe’s most watched sporting contest.

But alongside the races to host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments have come internal and external pressures that may not leave Fifa unscathed.

Mr Blatter was honest enough to admit last month that staging the two races simultaneously had been a bad idea. It opened Fifa up to accusations that those members who champion their countries’ bids would collude to offer reciprocal support from their backers for each other’s races.

The backers of the Iberian and Qatar bids did just that, although clearly something went wrong with the deal. Though others established their own mini-voting alliances, the existence of this pact has spread a poison between Fifa members that will linger.

So too will the damage to Fifa’s integrity after media scrutiny of members, and allegations of corruption.

Some of the scrutiny is historical, though critics have long taken issue with Fifa’s reluctance to root out financial wrongdoing. But the organisation was thrown into crisis mode by a Sunday Times sting in October that accused two Fifa members of accepting money from journalists posing as a lobbying company in return for their votes. The two were suspended.

The good news for Fifa is that it will not have to go through this rigmarole again for the best part of a decade.

In the long term, though, it is doubtful whether Fifa is willing or capable of reforming itself as the International Olympic Committee was forced to do following the 1998 Salt Lake City corruption scandal.

Fifa’s membership is ageing. Talk of a challenge next year to Mr Blatter, 74, comes and goes. If you are a Fifa member, why hurry for change? The body is in rude financial health and accountable only to the rigours of Swiss law.

The sponsors have few qualms, provided they can distance themselves from the rights holder. “For Fifa’s sponsors, the commercial reality is that it’s the World Cup brand they’re buying into, not the Fifa brand,” says Tim Crow of Synergy, the sports sponsorship consultancy

Fifa’s immediate focus is on making sure Brazil is ready for the 2014 tournament. But as an organisation that is run like a gentlemen’s club, its real problem is to ensure that all or most of its members rub along together.

This Fifa conclave in Zurich has been a bloody experience and the atmosphere in the smoking room is decidedly sour. While there are two very happy winners, there are also a lot of sore losers.