FIFA has trouble 'footing' the bill

The World Cup is not like most other sporting events.\nThe 32-team international soccer tournament held every four years will commence Friday with two nations, Japan and South Korea, sharing hosting duties for the first time ever.\nThe closest sporting event in the U.S.you can compare it to might be the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. They are both about a month long, they both draw a widely diverse array of fans prone to irrational thought and both have people in the stands who blow horns at random. Of course, at the NCAA Tournament, they are called pep bands.\nThe NCAA typically has the University of Cincinnati, a party school where studying gets in the way of practice. The World Cup has Senegal, and no party is like a Senegalese party.\nLike I had to tell you.\nThe World Cup certainly doesn't compare to Major League Baseball. While MLB Commissioner Bud Selig continues to portray MLB as being in horrible disarray, FIFA President Sepp Blatter -- FIFA is the international soccer governing body and yes, Sepp Blatter is his actual name -- looks at his organization with a glass half-full perspective. \n"We survived the loss of our marketing partner ... with minimum loss," Blatter said amidst rumors of insolvency and demands by five of the seven FIFA vice-presidents for him to resign. "We survived the loss of our insurer of the World Cup, we survived the insolvency of our television partner, we have 15 marketing partners for World Cup 2002 and we have hundreds of million Swiss francs in our bank account.\n"Another organization would be happy to be in such a shape, but not all in FIFA see it that way." \nIn fact, the five vice-presidents have accused Blatter of borrowing against expected World Cup income in 2002 and 2006 and using that money to make FIFA's financial picture look better than it really is. Of course, MLB does just the opposite, taking its profits and turning them into losses when the owner shifts the profits to his corporate subsidiaries while retaining the losses. Or do you really believe baseball can lose over $500 million and draw 70 million fans at the same time?\nAnother way the World Cup is different is that nobody is threatening to contract Cameroon if nobody shows up to their games.\nThe Olympics have been compared to the World Cup, and that argument has a point. Both are international events. The administration of both has been accused of financial mismanagement and worse. In fact, Michael Zen-Ruffinen, the general secretary of FIFA, reported Blatter's alleged borrowing scheme to membership, which subsequently led to a Swiss prosecutor pursuing ongoing corruption charges against Blatter.\nMeanwhile, I have only so much space in one column to detail all the allegations against former International Olympic Committee Juan Antonio Samaranch during his tenure. Here's one to wet your appetite though: The Salt Lake City bribery scandal, where IOC members received bribes in exchange for their votes for the 2002 Winter Olympics site.\nThen again, the Olympics feature many different sporting events and last for a little more than two weeks. The World Cup is twice as long and features one sport.\nThe American sports media loves to bash both. They say the Olympics are rife with corruption, and not even the innocence of figure skating is immune. As for soccer, it's boring, so the lazy sports columnists and commentators don't bother to learn the game and its players.\nThe World Cup is definitely not like the National Basketball Association. That was proven last week when Ireland coach Mick McCarthy kicked Roy Keane (figuratively speaking), the team's captain and best player, off the team for his constant criticism of him. It makes me wonder if McCarthy has ever heard of Latrell Sprewell. \nIn fact, P.J. Carlesimo came out and said, "I can coach Roy Keane ... wait a minute, I'm not a coach anymore."\nMeanwhile, England's best player, defenseman David Beckham, is married to Posh Spice.\nOver here, our major sports stars marry much edgier has-beens like Brooke Shields and Tawny Kitaen.\nNever mind.