Reforming FIFA: SEC as A Parrot

改革国际足联：让证监会治病

 

Clean up football’s governing body with a dose of stockmarket scrutiny

来一剂股市监管，帮助整顿足球的管理机构

 

Every so often, organisations become bywords for something else. Apple means elegance, Berkshire Hathaway loyalty and BlackBerry decline. Alas, FIFA, the governing body of world football, spells corruption. Sprucing up this most tarnished of brands will take more than a bit of tinkering with the way FIFA is run.

 

时不时地，一些机构会变成其他一些东西的代名词。苹果意味着优雅，伯克希尔哈撒韦（Berkshire Hathaway）等同于忠诚，黑莓则代表衰落。可叹的是，国际足联这一世界足球主管机构已经成了腐败的别名。要改造这最为声名狼藉的品牌，不是对其运营方式做一些小修小补就够。

 

On February 26th FIFA’s member associations will hold a secret ballot – what else? – in Zurich to choose a new president who will replace Sepp Blatter. The omens are not good. Mr Blatter bequeathed his successor an organisation in crisis. His fifth term was cut short after the indictment last year of several of the game’s biggest-wigs for alleged money-laundering. He has since been suspended from football for eight years for making an undocumented SFr2m ($2.1m) payment to Michel Platini, then head of Europe’s football body. (Mr Platini, once a favourite to succeed Mr Blatter, has also been suspended from the game; both men deny wrongdoing.)

 

国际足联的成员协会将于2月26日在苏黎世举行一次秘密投票（还会有别的么？），选出接替塞普·布拉特（Sepp Blatter）的新一任主席。目前看来情形不妙。布拉特留给其继任者的是一个深陷危机的机构。去年，该组织的多名最高层人士因涉嫌洗钱而遭起诉，布拉特的第五个任期因此提前结束。此后他因为向时任欧洲足联主席的米歇尔·普拉蒂尼（Michel Platini）违规支付了200万瑞郎（210万美元）而被禁止参与足球事务八年。（普拉蒂尼曾是最被看好的布拉特继任人，同样也遭“禁足”。两人都否认有过失行为。）

 

The five candidates left to vie for the top job talk warmly of the need for term limits and better disclosure. But a radical reform would start with an idea put forward by Stefan Szymanski, a sports economist, among others – turning FIFA into a public company. For good measure, the new, cleaner FIFA would be listed in New York.

 

其余五名争夺主席之位的候选人都在热切地讨论足联需要限制任期及增加透明度。然而，一次真正彻底的改革应以体育经济学家史蒂芬·西曼斯基（Stefan Szymanski）等人提出的创意为起点——将国际足联变成一家上市公司。此外，变得干净些的新机构应该在纽约上市。

 

A public listing would have several benefits. The first is that the level of transparency would shoot up. Scandals afflict listed firms too, but one thing you do not hear from executives at public companies is complaints about the absence of scrutiny.

 

上市会有几大好处。首先是透明度会大增。尽管上市公司也会被丑闻困扰，但你从不曾在上市公司主管那里听到他们抱怨缺乏监督。

 

For FIFA to be under the referee’s beady eye would be precisely the point. According to its annual report, an organisation with just 474 employees spent an impressive $115m on personnel expenses in 2014. A listing would require FIFA to break out how much its executives get. They might expect to face questions from shareholders about the $35m they spent on meetings expenses that year, too.

 

将国际足联置于裁判机警的目光下正是关键所在。根据国际足联的年度报告，这家雇员仅474人的机构在2014年的人员开销达到了惊人的1.15亿美元。公开上市将要求它对外公布高管薪酬。他们或许还会被股东们质疑在该年度光开会就花掉的3500万美元。

 

Opening FIFA to America’s justice system would also have a salutary effect. The reach of the Department of Justice and the FBI is already long: they were behind indictments in 2015 that eventually dethroned Mr Blatter. But a listing in America would bring some of the world’s most enthusiastic law-enforcers to the organisation’s door. In particular, it would make FIFA subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Given the allegations that still swirl around the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, seeking a home with a punitive anti-bribery regime would send a clear statement.

 

让国际足联受制于美国的司法系统也将产生益处。美国司法部和联邦调查局的触角已经伸得很长，正是它们在2015年提出的控诉最终把布拉特拉下马。在美国上市将把世界上最卖力的一批执法者带到国际足联的门前，尤其会让该机构受到《反海外腐败法》（Foreign Corrupt Practices Act）的约束。国际足联将2018年及2022年的世界杯主办权分别授予了俄罗斯和卡塔尔，由此引发的质疑和指控还在持续。有鉴于此，在一个具有惩罚性反贿赂机制的国家上市，将会发送一个明确的信号。

 

Becoming a public company would also formalise and sharpen FIFA’s incentives to make as much money as it can through legitimate means. Of the $5.7 billion in revenue that FIFA pulled in between 2011 and 2014, the biggest chunk was from the sale of television rights for the 2014 tournament in Brazil. More revenue – from the sale of broadcasting, marketing and licensing rights to World Cups – and tighter cost control ought to be enough both to keep shareholders happy and also to raise money to foster grassroots initiatives worldwide. The profit motive would also encourage faster development of the women’s World Cup.

 

变为上市公司也将令国际足联通过合法途径全力牟利的动机正式化也更明确。国际足联在2011年到2014年间获取了57亿美元的收入，其中最大一块来自出售2014年巴西世界杯的电视转播权。通过出售世界杯的播放、营销和许可授权来实现更多营收，同时加大成本控制，这应该会让股东们满意，同时也会筹集资本在全世界范围促进基层创新。创收的动机也会鼓励女足世界杯更快地发展起来。

 

Fantasy football

梦幻足球

 

The beautiful game should not be handed to Wall Street without safeguards. To protect FIFA’s mission to develop football, a portion of revenues would have to be ring-fenced for distribution to its member associations, perhaps by a separate charitable arm (which would also be responsible for the rules of the game). To ensure that some private-equity baron doesn’t take FIFA over and load it up with debt, this charitable arm would need to retain majority voting rights over the listed firm. That would still leave plenty of scope for shenanigans as money sloshed between FIFA and football’s member associations. But it would also ensure that FIFA received harsher scrutiny.

 

足球这项美好的赛事不应不加防范地交予华尔街。为保护国际足联发展足球运动的宗旨，其部分收入须被留作其成员协会的经费——或许由一个独立的慈善部门来操作（该部门也将负责制定赛事规则）。为确保国际足联不被某个私募巨头掌控而使其负债累累，该慈善部门将需拥有对上市公司的多数投票权。由于经费会在国际足联和成员协会之间转移，这仍将给不诚实操作留下了不小的空间，但也会确保国际足联受到更严格的监督。

 

Sadly, not one of the candidates vying to take over from Mr Blatter is likely to countenance a listing in New York. But when you judge their promises to restore FIFA’s integrity, that should be the yardstick.

 

可惜，目前竞争接任布拉特的候选人之中，没一个人有可能会赞成国际足联在纽约上市。但是，当你评判他们信誓旦旦要恢复国际足联廉洁公正的承诺时，应以此为标杆。

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