Namibia recently took orders from Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Now Germany is taking orders from FIFA, the “occupying power” Germans and others are beginning to hate.

Cash-hungry FIFA and its Executive Committee (“Excomm”) have turned the organization into a business machine that will earn US$2.35 billion, a lot more than dozens of countries around the world make in a year.
Namibia recently took orders from Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Now Germany is taking orders from FIFA, the “occupying power” Germans and others are beginning to hate.

Cash-hungry FIFA and its Executive Committee (“Excomm”) have turned the organization into a business machine that will earn US$2.35 billion, a lot more than dozens of countries around the world make in a year.
Every team is treated equally in the field, making World Cup tournaments a great equalizer for poorer countries that are ignored by the rest of the world. Images of distraught fans convey how much pride rides on these games. Yet FIFA has given a red card to sportsmanship and friendship and substituted cold hard cash.

Deutsche Welle reports that FIFA is pocketing millions from ticket sales instead of sharing it with the German Organization Committee which has spent, along with the government, some US$4.6 billion for the tournament.

FIFA ordered Germany to take down the corporate names from the AOL Arena in Hamburg and Allianz Arena in Munich and to cover up the Nike logo in Frankfurt. It tried and failed to copyright the phrases “World Cup 2006” and “Football World Cup 2006” — thanks to a wise judge and a lawsuit by the Ferrero Group, maker of the yummy duplo chocolate bar.

FIFA Excomm’s insatiable appetite for money has been criticized by German football officials, who demanded the World Cup be “cleaned.”

FIFA President Joseph “Sepp” Blatter is under investigation in Switzerland in connection with a bribery and corruption scandal. And German President Horst Köhler is reportedly reconsidering a plan to award Mr. Blatter the country’s highest civilian honor, the Bundesverdienstkreuz.

If FIFA were a country, its total revenue from this year’s tournament would put it somewhere between Guam and Aruba if ranked by GDP. But I would not choose to live in FIFA land.