The SIG Column – 29 June

Labelled a repeated liar in a court of law to newly installed general
secretary of FIFA in six months. The dramatic rehiring of Jerome Valcke as the
second most powerful man in football has shocked the sport industry as Drew
Barrand, head of media at Sport Industry Group, explains…

It’s a return to rival Lazarus.

When news of the re-hiring of formerly disgraced ex-marketing chief Jerome
Valcke by global football governing body FIFA began to circulate, the collective
jaws of the sport industry dropped.

When it emerged that not only was he being brought back, but that he was
being installed as general secretary – second only to president Sepp Blatter in
the FIFA hierarchy – the jaw dropping turned first into utter disbelief and then
collective outrage.

It is not that Valcke is not an intelligent and successful businessman.
Anyone who’s held a managing director position at a top organisation of the
likes of French media giant Canal Plus clearly must be doing something right.
It’s more the message that the appointment sends out.

Like most sports governing bodies, FIFA has to cope with the constant demand
of being beyond reproach in its operations. It’s a tough ask, particularly in
the modern era of overly inflated player wages. However, perhaps more than any
other governing body, FIFA has failed in spectacular fashion to live up to its
lofty purpose.

With allegations of financial irregularities besetting the governing body for
the best part of the last two decades, FIFA had developed a reputation within
commercial circles as being a flat track bully. Based purely on this status, the
immense prosperity and global value of the World Cup had led FIFA to make any
financial demands it wanted of its commercial partners.

The whole MasterCard court case essentially represented the commercial world
fighting back. Enough is enough was the edict on which the legal action was
built.

After months of protracted legal wrangling, an out of court settlement was
reached with FIFA paying MasterCard $90m which paved the way to install Visa as
the World Cup sponsor through to 2014.

Rightly or wrongly, as head of FIFA’s marketing and media division Jerome
Valcke was the public face of this unseemly row and the governing body’s
bullying reputation. The initial US court ruling last December placed him at the
centre of the fiasco and labelled him as a ‘repeated liar’ in the negotiations
with the two brands.

While a subsequent ruling of the US Court of Appeal on 25th March vacated the
original verdict and consequently cleared Valcke of the allegations previously
levelled at him, it is difficult for the industry to instantaneously forget
everything that has happened in the last year.

By not only giving Valcke his job back but also promoting him to a much
higher status within the FIFA organisation, the governing body is essentially
stating that such a chequered past is a justifiable track record for a leading
sports governor.

For an organisation that already suffers from reputation issues within
commercial circles, FIFA should have been smart enough to know that Valcke’s
appointment as general secretary would be viewed as questionable at best by the
wider business world.

That FIFA can’t see outside itself enough to appreciate the inherent dangers
of this move shows how insular the organisation has become.

Even though the court proceedings proved inconclusive as to Valcke’s
professionalism, his reputation is damaged.

His appointment as general secretary is a major backwards step for FIFA.
Nothing against the man or his abilities but it sends out entirely the wrong
message.