The incentive for this piece has been provided by the recent threats from FIFA to ban Brazil from all international competitions because of a decision taken by a court in Rio de Janeiro. For the record, the ruling deposed the president of the Brazilian Football Confederation, Ednaldo Rodrigues due to irregularities in the election process.
In fact, there will be a special commission appointed to make a decision on the issue on January 08. It’s a threat that, if it comes to pass, will create major issues on all levels of the sporting world including the best online betting brands that have based a lot of their policies into the power of the Brazilian national team and the clubs from the country.
The history of the case
Should the Judicial System have been involved?
What we have here seems to be a violation of the Penal Code that led to an irregular change of the elections’ system. FIFA did not intervene on the first offense as it is clear even within their rules that any such infringement of the law, must be dealt with, through each nation’s legal authorities. However, they did intervene and threatened with a banning of the Brazilian National team and the clubs from all international competitions, when a court decided that the second infringement was in violation of the appropriate procedure.
FIFA’s threats are based on the notion that no governmental or other authority should intervene in the self-governing of football. According to them, the second infringement should not have been taken to a court. It should have been handled by CBF internally. So, the question becomes: is FIFA superseding the sovereignty right of a nation to its own Jurisprudence (=i.e. the rules and laws by which the justice system works)?
Rules on paper only
FIFA (and UEFA for that matter), have repeatedly issued threats on banning countries because of the intervention of their institutions to the affairs of football. Yet, there have been at least two cases, where their rules were clearly bypassed. How? By voting the President of the country as president of the football ruling body. The letter of the law was used to defeat its spirit. It is well-known how voting works in certain countries. Nevertheless, both the international and the European football ruling bodies, accepted the results of a clearly manipulated voting process.
Fans want fairness
For the fans and the betting world, the major issue is the knowledge that sports are not been used as grounds for political wrangling and games of power. Therefore, there should be ruling bodies to make sure that everything stays within the rules and that any infringements are dully punished. However, those bodies should not dictate policies. Policies that would be detrimental to those that would like to open betting accounts at the best betting software. Would anyone be interested in placing wagers in competitions where Brazil would be banned for any reason?
