What is odd is that many are surprised by the latest news that Michael Garcia has accused FIFA of whitewashing the results of his investigations into the corruption surrounding the 2018/2022 World Cup bidding processes etc. Is it even newsworthy? If “football” or “soccer” had become the world’s ambassador against corruption then it should have been.

In broad terms corruption costs the world an estimated US$7,000,000,000,000 a year; sources for that estimate include recent reports from Transparency International, Kroll and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. This level of corruption has been going on year in year out at a cost of circa US$2 billion a day and very few give a damn.

Sepp Blatter is far from alone and far from the top of the mountain he lives on. But for corruption Ebola would have been wiped out years ago, there would have been no ISIL and so on.

To focus on one aspect of corruption isn’t wrong but it just goes to show how much widespread corruption the world has come to accept without questioning it. Transparency International have called for the publication of the original findings by Garcia. Garcia should publish his own report and damn the purportedly “legal” consequences.

This article was first published on 13th November 2014.