Some enormous and worrying gashes have suddenly appeared in the fabric of soccer. ISMM, FIFA's marketing and television partner, has filed for bankruptcy. The common theme in those items could simply be incompetence. Much more likely candidates for the root of the troubles are ambition, and its close ally, greed. Now there's a couple of items that play havoc with good judgment.
Easy money leads to overly ambitious schemes just as surely as it leads to corruption.
When the thought of losing a few million bucks here and there doesn't really worry anyone, then money is likely to be spent on badly conceived schemes, or it may just quietly disappear. The heads of the FA have undoubtedly been turned by the vast wealth of the game in England. FIFA's problems with ISMM reflect the extent to which soccer is not in charge of its own fate. ISMM has made some bad judgment calls on deals with other sports, but soccer is suffering. Returning to England, we find a curious example of money being spent freely.