The Colonialist

An organization like FIFA does not become corrupt overnight. So how did it happen? Well, long before FIFA became stuff of criminal lore, soccer’s governing body was simply known to be racist and morally corrupt. From supporting South Africa’s racist apartheid regime to propping up authoritarian dictators, FIFA’s so-called Golden Years were more blood red than gold. At the top of the pyramid for much of this, an Englishman named Stanley Rous.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Before FIFA was corrupt, it was merely racist, built in
the image of its colonial architects. FIFA's view of the
world reflected the privileged white status of its founding members,
and maybe because of this the corruption was inevitable. Maybe
it wasn't the results of a few bad apples in
the barrel, but a bad barrel itself. It's a question

(00:27):
that might be best answered by looking at FIFA's six President,
Sir Stanley Rouse, a man with many laudable qualities except
the one he and the lords of soccer needed most,
the ability to see beyond the world as it was
and see the world as it could be if international
soccer was made a fair game for all. I'm Connor Powell.

(00:52):
This is episode five. The colonialist. Bobby Moore's white shorts
were caked with mud, his red number six long Sleep
England's jersey dripped with sweat as he led his team
up the steep staircase at London's Wembley Stadium to the

(01:13):
Royal Box. Bobby Moore leading them up to the Royal
Box to receive the Jewelry may Cup and the Windows medals.
Standing there in a light mustard yellow coat and matching
hat was the young British monarch Queen Elizabeth the second,
as was FIFA's president, an Englishman named Stanley Rouse. After
one of those dainty royal handshakes, Queen Elizabeth passed the

(01:37):
World Cup trophy, named after FIFA's third president, Jules Romay,
to England's exhausted but ecstatic captain. Before kissing FIFA's golden trophy,
as was the tradition, More raised it above his head
in triumph. Winning the nineteen sixty six World Cup over

(02:07):
West Germany on its home soil remains the proudest moment
in English soccer history. For mini soccer fans around the world,
that nineteen sixty six tournament is the golden Age of
World Cup soccer, an era before commercialism took root, when
the game itself, not politics or profit, was front and center.

(02:30):
This golden era, like most of its kind, is a myth,
an incomplete and often inaccurate story old men tell themselves
to avoid an honest historical accounting. Two years before More
raised that precious trophy, FIFA's leadership made a series of
decisions that caused the entire African continent and it's fifteen

(02:53):
World Cup eligible nations to boycott the nineteen sixty six tournament.
Think about that an entire continent skipped the World Cup.
That's quite a footnote for the history books. The seeds
of this boycott were planted years before, and while FIFA
was not then the criminal organization that we've come to

(03:16):
know in our previous episodes, run by the likes of
Set Bladder, Chuck Blazer, and Jack Warner, it was very
much a Eurocentric colonialists and straight up racist institution. In
this episode and the next few, I want to tell
you about FIFA's history, one that looks beyond the polished
golden air packaging that you find on FIFA's website and

(03:39):
share a reeler history that includes the bigotry and racism
that robbed an entire continent of even a chance at
World Cup glory, and the embrace of ruthless authoritarian regimes
that put profits ahead of everything the game stands for.
These are the golden years. The President's as Stanley Ross

(04:09):
and officials are FIFA. The International Football Federation met at
the London Hotel to make the draw for the World
Cup competition. It was a very English affair, shiny silver
trophy cups with decorative winged handles line the front of
the podium in the smoke filled ballroom of London's Royal
Garden Hotel. There are four trophies, one for each of

(04:33):
the four groups that will play in the first round
of the upcoming World Cup. A sea of old men
with mostly white faces stared intensely at the FIFA officials
sitting on the stage. A fifth trophy, also silver plated
but covered with a handkerchief, is full of sixteen slips
of paper. Each slip of paper has the name of

(04:54):
a national team, and after a shake or two, piece
of paper is pulled out, the name of the country
has read aloud and the slip of paper has dropped
into one of the four corresponding trophies. That's how the
first round matches of the sixteen teams are decided. England,

(05:15):
in the opening match on July eleventh at Wembley, one
by one, FIFA's president Stanley Rouse, that was his voice
there read out the names of the teams competing in
the nineteen sixty six World Cup. It's a quaint scene
that had been repeated in one form or another seven

(05:35):
times previously, ever since FIFA had become the lords of
Soccer and held it's inaugural championship tournament in nineteen thirty
in Uruguay. Unlike today, where FIFA's big decisions have become
star studded affairs, early events were more like high tea
and far less flashy as British soccer historians do. Horseville

(05:56):
told me the draw for the World Cup, for example,
it's very business like. It's sort of two platforms of men,
names drawn out. It's noted down on paper, it's popped
on a board and not setting. Everything's finishing. So let's
go back to FIFA's very start in nineteen o four.

(06:17):
The organization was far more rudimentary than it is today.
It was all about staging matches. It was the end
of the nineteenth century and soccer's popularity was surging around
the globe, particularly in Europe and South America. The oldest
international football matches England versus Scotland. The second oldest is
Argentina versus Uruguay. You know, so it was a very

(06:38):
much two continent sport. There was a big problem. The
rules of soccer vary from country to country. Even town
to town matches were regularly played under one set of rules.
During the first half of the game and another in
the second half. Promoters have begun to stage international competitions,
and for soccer to survive, i even thrive, the rules

(07:02):
needed to be unified. So I'm May one. Four representatives
from seven national federations France, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland
and the Netherlands met in the back room of a
Parisian sports club to codify the rules of international soccer.
You'll notice the slate doesn't include any South American countries.

(07:26):
In nineteen o four, many of those countries were treated
as more colonies aligned with Europe than as fully independent nations.
Will be then the footboard associates FIFA. FIFA's own portrayal
of the moment is captured in a ridiculous self produced

(07:48):
propaganda film called United Passions, released in America at the
height of FIFA's two thousand and fifteen corruption scandal. The
film grows less than a thousand dollars in the US
on its opening weekend. The film celebrates the signing of
the FIFA Charter, treated it as something akin to the
signing of the Magna Carta or the Declaration of Independence.

(08:10):
The humorous is just well pronounced, but back to our
history lesson. Within a few years of its formation, FIFA
added England, Germany, South Africa, Argentina and Chile to its club.
This made the soccer organization, at least on paper, global.
In reality, FIFA's beating heart remained European, and its administrators

(08:32):
did little to integrate the South Americans, who really had
no role in managing world soccer. During FIFA's first seventy years,
all eleven of its permanent presidents in general secretaries came
from Europe. South American soccer and its issues rarely, if ever,
made it onto FIFA's agenda. It was a very Eurocentric organization,

(08:56):
so with that came this philosophy of colone realism imperialism.
With the exception of Switzerland, all of FIFA's founding members
were former or current colonial powers. FIFA's early administrators came
from that world, grew up in that world. Nineteenth century
colonialism and Christian superiority were to them given, and they

(09:20):
often viewed non European countries, particularly they're current and former
colonies with disdain. Some, like General Secretary Carl Anton Wilhelm Hirschman,
even resisted FIFA's South American expansion on the grounds it
would dilute the organization's European and enlightened character. Even presidents

(09:40):
who supported FIFA's early expansion from Jewels were made to
Arthur Drury to Stanley Ross still believe soccer radiated from Europe.
They viewed these non European countries as less civilized and
incapable of leadership and global affairs. Most shamefully, Fee of
his founders believe these countries would only come into the

(10:03):
twentieth century if they followed the steady hand and firm
rules of European institutions. Nowhere was this reality more evident
than in World Cup draws, where the lords of soccer
often excluded non white countries. Here, again, Stu horse Field,
when you have European presidents who come from nations who

(10:25):
have colonized African states, there is always going to become flat.
There is always going to be this issue of race
and repression. So in the spring of nineteen sixty six,
as Sir Stanley Rouse read out the names of the
sixteen nations invited to compete in the World Cup, I
wanted to put this sequence of matches now on the
board on the lift ten were from Europe, five or

(10:48):
from Latin America, and one was from Asia. None were
from Africa. It might have been called a World Cup,
but it was more like a European Championship with a
few friendly nations invited to the party. Which it's just
the way FIFA's European leadership liked it. Keep in mind
it was now nineteen sixty six, not eighteen sixty six.

(11:11):
The Beatles were closer to their end than their beginning.
The Summer of Love was just two years away. The
US Civil Rights Bill had just been passed. FIFA, in
all of its humors, was continuing to expand with the
idea that its vision would rule the world. But the
world was starting to see things differently. Small plumes of

(11:42):
black smoke rose into the air. It's March nine sixty
and the Sharpville township of South Africa. Men, women, and children,
young and old are seeing hymns as they burned their
government issued identification cards. The white police ordered the black
demonstrators to stop and back away from the police station's

(12:03):
flimsy chain length defense. They protesters ignored the parking commands
and continued protesting. The Aparthei regime's newest racial decree that
required black South Africans to always carry their ideas or
face arrest. The peaceful protests turns ugly when a squadron
of US built Fight SI saber jets buzzed the crowd

(12:26):
to scare protesters away. That's when the rocks begin to fly,
raining down on the one and fifty or so white
police officers. Police get the command to load their weapons,
then can be ordered a fire. Gunshots ripped through the
backs of unarmed protesters as they fled. The Charville massacre

(12:52):
as the march murders are now known, left sixty nine
people dead and hundreds more injured. It all so put
an international spotlight on the South African government and it's
horrific apartheid system. Historian Peter A. Legie wrote about the
events of that day in his book African Soccer Escapes,
How a Continent changed the world's game well apart It

(13:15):
was a harsh form of government sanctioned racism and segregation,
carried out by a white minority in a country where
they never represented more than twent of the population. If
the white Afrikaans government was embarrassed or remorseful about the
vicious and racist attack, they didn't show it now they

(13:36):
doubled down a little more than a week after the
Sharpville massacre, the Interior Minister Yon the Clerk, said the
segregation of South African sports would continue, especially in the
increasingly popular game of soccer. Not only were mixed race
teams outlawed in South Africa, but so were mixed race

(13:57):
teams from other nations. This would be a big test
for FIFA. The Agusty era was thick and oppressive when
FIFA gathered for its nineteen sixty World Congress, but the

(14:18):
scorching Mediterranean son wasn't the only thing causing delegates from
FIFA's now sixty nine member nations the sweat that summer.
Only three years before, Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan and South Africa,
the only four independent nations in Africa, united to form
the Confederation of African Football or CALF. CALF gave the

(14:40):
continent a permanent say inside FIFA, and while some in
FIFA's leadership saw the formation of CALF as a healthy
sign of soccer's global reach, the expansion was a political
conundrum for FIFA's old guard. Here Again, as historian Peter A. Legie, Egyptians,
Ethio Opens and Sudanese demanded that South Africa field they

(15:03):
racially integrated team at that inaugural African Nations Cup in Cartoum,
but the White Association refused to do so, basically hiding
behind an excuse that they couldn't do anything about government policy.
Citing its policy of racial and tolerance. These three African
countries voted to expel South Africa from CALF shortly after

(15:25):
its formation. Now in Rome, with the Sharpville massacre still
fresh in the mind of its delegates, the same three
African nations demanded FIFA boot South Africa from the global
soccer community. It was an inherently racist football organization that
would not tolerate mixed race teams. It would not tolerate

(15:47):
competition between black teams or white teams. FIFA was formed
by Europeans for the sole purpose of governing international soccer,
so the idea of FIFA expelling one of their own
for political reasons was unthinkable to most of FIFA's Eurocentric members,
especially since such a move would force those same nations

(16:09):
to look directly at their own colonial pass FIFA was
terribly concerned about the political ramifications of this Within the organization,
Many of the non European, non white delegates felt the
organization had to act. Doing nothing risk undermining FIFA's policy
of non discrimination towards players of all races. Under the

(16:31):
sweltering Roman sky, FIFA's Congress voted fifty two to ten
to adopt a resolution declaring soccer matches open to all people,
regardless of race or religion. They stopped short of kicking
South Africa out directly. Instead, they said in the nation
that continued to practice racial discrimination would be expelled from

(16:53):
FIFA within a year. It was a courageous policy forced
on the founders by FIFA's newest members, and it had
real consequences, as Allegedy explains, by a late nineteen six one,
time was up. South Africa turned down the opportunity to
introduce racially integrated football, and FIFA suspended South African September

(17:15):
of sixty one. The suspension meant that the apartheid regime
would be banned from the World Cup and from any
other international soccer competitions, a devastating blow to a sporting
nation that had not yet faced international pressure for its
apartheid system, and this was a symbolic victory at a
very difficult time for deliberation movements in South Africa. When FIFA,

(17:39):
this major global body, sanctioned white South Africa, it instilled
hope at a very much needed time for most black
South Africans. It was historic. FIFA had set itself apart
from most international organizations for its willingness to tackle a
difficult human rights challenge. This was really the first major

(18:00):
incident in international football of expulsion due to racial discrimination,
but the moment was fleeting. Just three days later, the
very same group that booted South Africa out elected the
conservative Englishman Stanley Rouse, a staunch defender of South Africa,
as its president, and in so doing set up more

(18:23):
than a decade of conflict. Stanley Rouse rarely gave an
inch to anyone. At six ft three inches tall, the
former English referee, school teacher and soccer official was a
mountain of a man on and off the pitch. Stodgy
and self righteous, he believed the rules of soccer, like

(18:46):
the rules governing civilized society, were sacro sainct. There was right,
there was wrong, there was black and there was white.
Here again as Stu Horsfield, he was very intelligent without
being a great Denies are in a great thinker. He
was very stable, incredibly stable person. FIFA sixth president was
once asked by a journalist if he had ever been

(19:07):
offered a bribe. Rolse sneered at the question and the
implication that a man of his moral grounding could be
corrupted by money. He insisted that any attempt to bribe
him would be a foolish endeavor, and he vowed that
anyone who tried would be expelled from the sport. He
was so incorruptible. He said, anyone who wanted to be

(19:28):
on a FIFA committee should pay for their own train
ticket or airfare to Zurich, now the home of FIFA,
and earned their spot. The only thing more rigid more
immovable than Rouse's Victorian principles were his steadfast imperialist beliefs.
Rouse believed in the superiority of the British Empire. He

(19:50):
also believed, as only someone so set in their ways can,
that his views were beyond politics. They were fundamental. As such,
he said sports and politics should never mix, nor should
sports be used to promote a political agenda. As a
very well educated young man, he was also all his

(20:12):
time a man who believed in the amateury thoughts and
the sport shouldn't be a battleground for politics. Rouse once
described an African referee training program as missionary work, which
I guess means Rouse wasn't against mixing sports, religion and
politics if his own conservative, Christian and colonialist beliefs were

(20:33):
being upheld. So it might not surprise you to learn
that Rouse was a vocal supporter of and regularly expressed
sympathy for South Africa's brutal apartheid regime and it's all
white soccer association. When Rousse was elected FIFA president just
three days after the organization suspended South Africa, he immediately

(20:55):
went to work to undo the ban. He was constantly
trying to find ways to get a party in South
Africa readmitted, and this really angered many members of FIFA
as well as, of course, the anti apartheid movement as
a whole. In January of nineteen sixty three, Rouse led
a delegation to South Africa too. I guess the word

(21:18):
is investigate the situation. You'll hear the details in just
a moment, but let me give you the top line.
RALS met with the government sanctions all white pro apartheid
Football Association of South Africa and he met with a
breakaway football delegation, the racially mixed South African Soccer Federation.

(21:39):
He took the side of the white guys here again
his Stu Horse film the South African Soccer Federation, who
set themselves up as an alternative governing body whose mandate
was to represent all of South Africa, so white South Africans,
black South Africans, mixed Ray South Africans, but Stanna Rousse
refused to recognize them. FIFA's president returned home them with

(22:00):
a glowing report of the Football Association of South Africa
and recommended FIFA's Executive Council reinstate the old white group.
They produced a truly astounding report that concluded that there
was no racial discrimination in South Africa, and as a result,

(22:21):
FIFA lifted temporarily this suspension on a part to in
South Africa. This was rather incredible, Indeed, the reaction of
many members was outreache. The African continent just saw that
as another indicated that while Stanley Rouse was in charge,

(22:42):
FIFA would be an inherently racist organization. When Stanley Rouse's
playing touchdown in Egypt in January of n Cairo's once
rudimentary airport was nearing the end of a six year
construction project, two new runways and a spacious modern terminal,

(23:06):
or just weeks away from opening. It was to be
a symbol of just how far Egypt and Africa had
advanced since independence. But if the continent was looking to
the future, FIFA's president arrived carrying the baggage of its
colonial past. Rouse had just finished his investigation into South Africa,

(23:27):
and after FIFA's Executive Committee officially reinstated South Africa under
Rouse's direction, he stopped in Cairo for the Confederation of
African Football's General Assembly. Much like the airport, CALF was
going through a remarkable transformation, growing from just four member
nations in ninety seven to more than thirty a few

(23:47):
years later. As it grew in size, Peter Leggie says,
and also grew in confidence. As more African nations wonder independence.
In the late fifties and especially in the sixties, this
relationship ship between FIFA and Africa became more and more contentious.
The meeting between Rouse and the African delegates was every
bit as tense and confrontational as you would expect. During

(24:11):
his opening speech, Rylse City had seen no evidence of
discrimination in South Africa, and in a very paternalistic tone,
the Englishman suggested fiefa's African members would just have to
accept the Executive Committee's decision. Now, South Africa was just
one point of contention in that meeting. Despite adding dozens

(24:31):
of new nations the FIFA's membership rollins since World War Two,
the World Cup remained anything but a global tournament. At
the nineteen fifty eight in nineteen sixty two World Cups,
the only sides that qualified for the competition were from
Latin America and Europe. There were no African or Asian
teams represented. This only added to the strong sense that

(24:53):
the World Cup was essentially a European soccer festival that,
as I said earlier, allowed a few Latin American friends
that crash the party. Calf lobby Rouse and FIFA's Executive
Committee to give at least one automatic spot to the
now sizeable African delegation. When FIFA announced that the top
African and the top Asian team would be forced to

(25:14):
compete in a winner take all playoff to secure the
one non European, non Latin American spot in the nineteen
sixty six World Cup, Calf decided the only way to
force FIFA to take their concerns seriously was the withdrawal
in mass from the global tournament. In other words, stage
of boycott. So Africa just boycotts in the entire World

(25:37):
Cup qualification process and didn't end to the tournament. Some
seventy nations tried to earn a spot in the nineteen
sixty six World Cup, none of course, were from Africa,
but the continent was represented at least in terms of talent.
While England won the tournament on its home soil and
Bobby Moore hoisted the Jewels were made trophy before eighty

(25:58):
thou ecstatic English fans. The top goal scorer of the
tournament played for Portugal and was born in Mozambique, then
a Portuguese colony. Even though the African nations boycott of
the nineteen sixty six World Cup qualifying process, kaf did
achieve a big victory off the field. Seventy eight of

(26:19):
FIFA's one hundred members voted to overturn Stanley Rouse's recommendation
and once again suspend, though they didn't expel South Africa
from World soccer play. Rouse had overruled FIFA's membership, and
now three years later FIFA's members had overruled Rouse. It

(26:39):
was a monumental slap in the face to South Africa's
apartheid regime and to Rouse and by Africa had won
a guaranteed spot in that year's World Cup and those
turbulent times. The world was changing and Rouse and his
ilk were stuck in the past, and he would soon

(27:00):
ace once again the collective wrath of the African continent.
It was a gray, rainy Dane Frankfurt when Stanley Rouse

(27:20):
woke and walked to breakfast. For almost thirteen years, the
aristocratic Englishman had been the most powerful man in world soccer.
In his mind, his re election was a foregone conclusion. Yeah, sure,
there had been some disagreements between FIFA's old guarden its
newer members on his watch, but what Rouse thought were
isolated disagreements over South Africa and automatic spots at the

(27:42):
World Cup were clear evidence to his detractors of FIFA's
inherent racism and ingrain colonial structure. They wanted change. Still,
as Roose sat drinking his English breakfast tea on the
morning of June, he saw a little reason to think

(28:02):
there was anything to worry about other than a light
rein in the day's forecast. Here's the story in John Sugden,
author of the book Football, Corruption and Lies. When it
came to the seventeen four election, he thought he could
put his feet up and rely on the Africans and
the agents. He thought he could rely on the support
because he'd been so loyal to them in his own mind.

(28:24):
As FIFA's members gathered in West Germany for its presidential election,
the winds of change were blowing, and Rouse was oblivious.
Here's Stue Horsfield. It was still convinced that this almost
colonial attitude of we looked after you since you've come
into the FIFA family. He still assumed that that was

(28:47):
enough to secure the vote. He didn't acknowledge the mobilization
of African nations, of Asian nations and the fact that
they had had enough, that had enough of what they'd
seen as an inherently racist organization. Frustrated with Rousse's colonial complacency,
the Confederation of African Football, which had now grown to

(29:09):
thirty seven nations, had thrown their support behind the wealthy
and outspoken Brazilian sports administrator Jiao Havalanche. The fifty eight
year old former Olympic swimmer positioned himself as a champion
of the southern and to be blunt browner game of soccer.
As the Brazilian sports official Silvio Pacheco wrote at the

(29:30):
time about Jaojavelange, his candidacy is not for South America,
his candidacy is for the entire world. If Rouss was
celebrated in the patrician dining rooms of London, Paris and Zurich,
Havlanch would align himself with the players on the dirt
pitches of Cairo, Kinshasa and Kingston. Before arriving in Frankfurt

(29:51):
for the nine election, Havlanch toured the world with the
Brazilian superstar Pale, visiting a remarkable eighty different countries. During
this whistle stop tour, Havalanche courted supporters by attacking FIFA's
European dominance. He vowed to expand the World Cup from
sixteen to four teams and increase the number of automatic

(30:14):
spots for Asians and Africans, an expansion Rousse opposed at
a fear of deluting the tournament's European nature, and most crucially,
Havalanche promised unlike Rouse to permanently ban South Africa from
FIFA because of While Stanley Roush refused to acknowledge and
refused to see, Havalanche very much takes advantage and can

(30:38):
see the opportunity that's there if he can call the
African vote and if he can mobilize the African and
Asian nations. Now. As attractive as these policies were the
FIFA's newer members, getting them to vote was an entirely
different matter. Havlange very little scruples, very good at manipulating

(30:59):
the situations to himself. In many of the newer national
delegations were poor and they lacked the money to travel
to far flung Frankfurt for a FIFA congress. So Havalanch,
who was born the wealthy son of an arms dealer
and made millions during a very successful business career, used
his own personal wealth to fly in Key voters before

(31:23):
the nineteen seventy four election. This just wasn't done within
the stuffy and aristocratic FIFA, remember rals saying new members
should buy their own tickets and Rousse they didn't have
the money anyways to carry out such a crass strategy.
Habland would later talk openly about the helping hand he
gave would be supporters. By the time FIFA's members sat

(31:44):
down to vote, Rouse's miscalculation was on full display. He
didn't stand a chance. Havalans defeated the uncompromised Englishman sixty
eight votes to fifty two and became fifa seventh president.
Stew horse Field pinpoints where Rouse led his eye off
the ball because of Stanley Rouse's refusal to change, in

(32:07):
his refusal to accept politics, having a place in the
sport that he loves ultimately becomes his own doing. Once
the election was confirmed, Havalanche kiss Rouse on the cheek,
presented the former president with a bouquet of flowers. Rouse
would later comment that the bouquet felt more like a

(32:27):
burial wreath. Under Havlange, a new era would begin, one
of exploding revenues and commercialization and globalization. When he took
control of FIFA seventy four, it was still a modest
operation with virtually nothing in the bank. By the time
the Brazilian retired in FIFA had four billion dollars in reserves,

(32:52):
and it become a two hundred and fifty million dollar
a year business. But the man who built FIFA into
a multibillion dollar marketing machine. Would also be implicated in
a string of scandals involving millions of dollars in bribes
and shady kickbacks, and worse, Avalanche had a nasty habit
of cozing up to gangsters and dictators and choosing profit

(33:15):
over human rights. That's coming up next on The Lords
of Soccer. The Lords of Soccer, Al FIFA Stole the
Beautiful Game is an Inside Voices media production in conjunction
with I Heart Radio. The series was written and executive
produced by Gary Scott and me Connor Powell. Logan Heftel

(33:39):
and Katie mcmurran provided the sound design with assistance from j. C.
Swaddick and Jake blue Note. Alec Cowen is our associate
producer and Jeffrey Katz was our story editor. Our fact
checker is Alexa O'Brien and thanks to Miles Gray, who
produced the series for I Heart Radio. If you have
any comments or questions, please reach out. You can find

(34:01):
us on Twitter. I'm at Connor m Powell and Gary
is at Gary Robert Scott and if you have any
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you hear, please give us a shout out at the
hashtag lords of soccer