Sepp Blatter will be pleased.
With Fifa's ethics committee throwing the book at Mohamed Bin Hammam, his one-time rival for the presidency, Blatter will feel he has started to deliver on his promises to steer the Fifa ship back onto the right course.
But if Fifa is to regain its moral authority to lead world football, then Saturday's decision to ban Bin Hammam for life for bribery must be the start of a new era for the organisation.
In an article for the New York Times earlier this week, Ronald K Noble, the secretary general of Interpol, underlined the crisis Fifa is facing.
He argued that, at a time when the threat from match fixing has never been greater, "public confidence in Fifa's ability to police itself is at its lowest point ever".
Bin Hammam's ban suggests that Fifa might have finally got the message. In the last eight months, one-third of Fifa's 24-man executive committee have faced allegations of corruption (admittedly with varying degrees of seriousness and substance).
Three have now been banned (Bin Hammam, Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii) and a fourth (Jack Warner) resigned rather than face the music.
But there will be critics who argue that Fifa should go further.
For starters it needs to come up with a more coherent and structured plan for rooting out corruption and corrupt officials inside its own organisation.
Blatter's invitation to the singer Placido Domingo to join a new council of wise men to assess the challenges facing the game was beyond parody.
A stronger independent investigations unit and ethics committee must be a priority.
Then Blatter must push through reforms to the way Fifa chooses World Cup hosts and its leading officials. Never again can such important international decisions be taken in private by such a small group of unaccountable men.
But is there really the appetite for change?
One only has to remember the angry reaction FA chairman David Bernstein received when he stood up during the Fifa congress and called for a postponement of the presidential election until all the corruption claims were investigated.
Bin Hammam claimed the case against him was politically motivated while Warner said the culture of gifts had been around inside Fifa for years. Why was Bin Hammam exposed now, on the eve of the presidential election against Blatter?
If such suspicions are to be dispelled once and for all, then today's verdict on Bin Hammam must be the first step on a long road.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét