What do you think?
Rate this book
Omertà: Sepp Blatter's FIFA Organised Crime Family
Omertà! Sepp Blatter's FIFA Organised Crime Family
By Andrew Jennings
‘In Omertà I show that the leadership of FIFA, under Brazil’s João Havelange and now Sepp Blatter, tick all the boxes defining an Organised Crime Syndicate,’ says Andrew Jennings.
‘My investigations took me from confronting the Mafia in Palermo, to FIFA’s glass and marble palace in Zurich, then to the gang wars in Rio, following the trail of briefcases stuffed with gold bars.
‘I had wonderful help and encouragement in Brazil from activists, reporters, fans, academics, police, prosecutors, a brave woman judge, honest politicians – and one of Brazil’s greatest ever footballers.
‘The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be played against a backdrop of the rage of more than half of Brazil’s football-loving population. If demonstrators are killed by the out-of-control riot police, the responsibility rests with Sepp Blatter who years ago endorsed the corruption now engulfing the tournament.
‘In the 1990s I investigated the International Olympic Committee, police corruption and Organised Crime. During breaks I reported from wars in Beirut, Chechnya and Central America. Then it was time to investigate Sepp Blatter’s FIFA, grown fat from bountiful World Cup TV and marketing revenues and not scrutinised by the sports media.
‘At the beginning I thought there would be only a few crooks to expose at FIFA. Then terrific sources from inside the organisation made contact, giving me boxes of FIFA’s confidential internal financial records. I realised that the magnitude of the corruption — and the cover-ups — was breath-taking. It was not a few crooks. As an institution, FIFA was mobbed up!
‘With other reporters I have exposed the organised corruption at the top of FIFA. The scandals of recent years have been marked by the silence of FIFA’s leadership. Like a true gangland boss, Blatter refuses to condemn any of his colleagues forced out for wrongdoing. The global brands that fund FIFA are equally silent. Omertà is their rule.
‘Some of the heaviest punishments inflicted on football officials by Blatter during the last four years of scandals have not been for corruption. They have been for talking to undercover reporters – for breaking the vow of Omertà.
‘Some of Blatter’s Executive Committee are proved to be outright crooks. Others, enjoying fabulous salaries, fees and bonuses, access to World Cup tickets and unaudited development grants look the other way, mouths and eyes glued closed, upholding Omertà. Football’s money is the grease lubricating the FIFA machine and keeping Sepp Blatter in power.
‘Omertà reveals that ‘Blatter’s ‘reform process’ is bogus. He has changed FIFA’s rules to protect himself, rigged the evidence against him and hired expensive investigators to exonerate him
It has cost FIFA millions of dollars to make him the sports world’s Great Untouchable.’
* * * * * *
Andrew Jennings presents investigation films for BBC-TV, has written five books on corruption and thousands of articles for newspapers, magazines and academic journals. Foul! — his first investigation of FIFA corruption has been published in 16 languages since 2006. Blatter went to court in Switzerland to have it banned – and failed!
Andrew has won numerous awards for his journalism and lectures world-wide on corruption and investigation techniques. Sepp Blatter banned him from FIFA press conferences in 2003 when Andrew disclosed that football’s President pays himself a huge secret bonus every year.
Omertà’s Foreword is by former football star, Romario, now a Congressman in Brasilia.
The cover illustration is by Olé Anderson. In 2013 Blatter persuaded a court to ban Olé’s cartoons in Switzerland.
Omertà will soon be available in several other languages.
More disclosures transparencybooks.com
By Andrew Jennings
‘In Omertà I show that the leadership of FIFA, under Brazil’s João Havelange and now Sepp Blatter, tick all the boxes defining an Organised Crime Syndicate,’ says Andrew Jennings.
‘My investigations took me from confronting the Mafia in Palermo, to FIFA’s glass and marble palace in Zurich, then to the gang wars in Rio, following the trail of briefcases stuffed with gold bars.
‘I had wonderful help and encouragement in Brazil from activists, reporters, fans, academics, police, prosecutors, a brave woman judge, honest politicians – and one of Brazil’s greatest ever footballers.
‘The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be played against a backdrop of the rage of more than half of Brazil’s football-loving population. If demonstrators are killed by the out-of-control riot police, the responsibility rests with Sepp Blatter who years ago endorsed the corruption now engulfing the tournament.
‘In the 1990s I investigated the International Olympic Committee, police corruption and Organised Crime. During breaks I reported from wars in Beirut, Chechnya and Central America. Then it was time to investigate Sepp Blatter’s FIFA, grown fat from bountiful World Cup TV and marketing revenues and not scrutinised by the sports media.
‘At the beginning I thought there would be only a few crooks to expose at FIFA. Then terrific sources from inside the organisation made contact, giving me boxes of FIFA’s confidential internal financial records. I realised that the magnitude of the corruption — and the cover-ups — was breath-taking. It was not a few crooks. As an institution, FIFA was mobbed up!
‘With other reporters I have exposed the organised corruption at the top of FIFA. The scandals of recent years have been marked by the silence of FIFA’s leadership. Like a true gangland boss, Blatter refuses to condemn any of his colleagues forced out for wrongdoing. The global brands that fund FIFA are equally silent. Omertà is their rule.
‘Some of the heaviest punishments inflicted on football officials by Blatter during the last four years of scandals have not been for corruption. They have been for talking to undercover reporters – for breaking the vow of Omertà.
‘Some of Blatter’s Executive Committee are proved to be outright crooks. Others, enjoying fabulous salaries, fees and bonuses, access to World Cup tickets and unaudited development grants look the other way, mouths and eyes glued closed, upholding Omertà. Football’s money is the grease lubricating the FIFA machine and keeping Sepp Blatter in power.
‘Omertà reveals that ‘Blatter’s ‘reform process’ is bogus. He has changed FIFA’s rules to protect himself, rigged the evidence against him and hired expensive investigators to exonerate him
It has cost FIFA millions of dollars to make him the sports world’s Great Untouchable.’
* * * * * *
Andrew Jennings presents investigation films for BBC-TV, has written five books on corruption and thousands of articles for newspapers, magazines and academic journals. Foul! — his first investigation of FIFA corruption has been published in 16 languages since 2006. Blatter went to court in Switzerland to have it banned – and failed!
Andrew has won numerous awards for his journalism and lectures world-wide on corruption and investigation techniques. Sepp Blatter banned him from FIFA press conferences in 2003 when Andrew disclosed that football’s President pays himself a huge secret bonus every year.
Omertà’s Foreword is by former football star, Romario, now a Congressman in Brasilia.
The cover illustration is by Olé Anderson. In 2013 Blatter persuaded a court to ban Olé’s cartoons in Switzerland.
Omertà will soon be available in several other languages.
More disclosures transparencybooks.com
232 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 11, 2014
17 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Jennings
70 books16 followersAndrew^Jennings
Andrew Jennings is an internationally respected journalist, writer and film-maker. His seminal book exposing Olympic corruption `The Lords of the Rings' was an international bestseller in 1992. He has written for The Times, Daily Mail, Sunday Times and New Statesman as well as for publications all over Europe. For many years he produced and reported for Granada TV's World in Action and also for BBC radio and television. ~ Amazon bio
Andrew Jennings is an internationally respected journalist, writer and film-maker. His seminal book exposing Olympic corruption `The Lords of the Rings' was an international bestseller in 1992. He has written for The Times, Daily Mail, Sunday Times and New Statesman as well as for publications all over Europe. For many years he produced and reported for Granada TV's World in Action and also for BBC radio and television. ~ Amazon bio
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 23, 2015
A brilliantly researched and absolutely stomach-turning account of the insane level of corruption within FIFA. Just about poisoned every last wonderful football and world cup memory I hold dear. Havelange, Blatter, Warner, Blazer, Texeira and co. are a revolting mob who have robbed billions from the beautiful game. Good on Jennings for kicking the lid off a bunch of abominable crooks.
February 28, 2018
Andrew Jennings once wrote a very interesting book about FIFA called "Foul! The Secret World of Fifa: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals" - That was around 2008. Since then, Jennings' journalism has deteriorated severely, from his Panorama TV shows where he ran around shouting across car parks like a crazyman, to this rather childishly written book. Jennings has become far too close and personal to the subject matter, meaning he is no longer able to cover it in an intelligent and measured manner.
He has effectively morphed into Carrie (Claire Danes) in the Homeland TV series. His heart might be in the right place, and more often than not he's probably on to something, but his now frantic, slightly crazy, and far too personal approach means that you can't take him seriously enough.
Moving away from the author, and to this book specifically, there are some very interesting parts, and he's dug up a lot of rather embarrassing and shocking details on the various men involved at the top of FIFA and the IOC, as he has done throughout his career. Unfortunately though, you have to wade through paragraphs of juvenile insults, nicknames and plain nonsense. Constantly referring to Chuck Blazer as "The Belly" for example. Far too much time is spent covering utterly irrelevant information and bits of gossip. I found myself actually getting irritated by some of what I had to read.
In many respects Jennings is a very good investigative journalist. He has a canny knack for getting his hands on secret documents, and most of his success has been on the basis of this. On the other hand, in this book there's too much weight given to the "this guy told me this once" kind of source. The occasional little anecdote is fine, but they're effectively irrelevant, and they come up rather too often, in particular in relation to already irrelevant bits of gossip.
On top of that the standard of writing is surprisingly low, which in addition to the above means that you would be forgiven for thinking that you were reading a print out from an amateur blogger. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if Jennings had lifted some of the chapters straight from his blog.
All in all, it's ok, but I would expect better from an experienced journalist.
He has effectively morphed into Carrie (Claire Danes) in the Homeland TV series. His heart might be in the right place, and more often than not he's probably on to something, but his now frantic, slightly crazy, and far too personal approach means that you can't take him seriously enough.
Moving away from the author, and to this book specifically, there are some very interesting parts, and he's dug up a lot of rather embarrassing and shocking details on the various men involved at the top of FIFA and the IOC, as he has done throughout his career. Unfortunately though, you have to wade through paragraphs of juvenile insults, nicknames and plain nonsense. Constantly referring to Chuck Blazer as "The Belly" for example. Far too much time is spent covering utterly irrelevant information and bits of gossip. I found myself actually getting irritated by some of what I had to read.
In many respects Jennings is a very good investigative journalist. He has a canny knack for getting his hands on secret documents, and most of his success has been on the basis of this. On the other hand, in this book there's too much weight given to the "this guy told me this once" kind of source. The occasional little anecdote is fine, but they're effectively irrelevant, and they come up rather too often, in particular in relation to already irrelevant bits of gossip.
On top of that the standard of writing is surprisingly low, which in addition to the above means that you would be forgiven for thinking that you were reading a print out from an amateur blogger. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if Jennings had lifted some of the chapters straight from his blog.
All in all, it's ok, but I would expect better from an experienced journalist.
June 29, 2017
A must-read for any football fan, but be prepared to find another sport to love after reading this. Read this and weep. Most fans are aware of corruption in the game, football, alas is not on its own. But I was amazed and dismayed just to see how deep and far reaching it is and has been for years and years. How Blatter and his cronies are not all locked up is incredulous.
This book seems has been superbly researched over a number of years by an English author who has spent many years trying to uncover the criminal behaviour of officials from FIFA and the IOC plus sponsors, large sports organisations and from out of several other cracks in the woodwork.
The title, Omertà, is just about right. Likening their behaviour with the Mafia is spot on and I suppose the only thing these crooked officials have not done is actually 'bump' somebody off. Be thankful for small mercys.
Although we seem to have got rid of Blatter, the corruption is so engrained in FIFA that the phrase 'the King is dead, long live the King' springs to mind.
It's a great read, but you will never regard football in the same optimistic light ever again.
This book seems has been superbly researched over a number of years by an English author who has spent many years trying to uncover the criminal behaviour of officials from FIFA and the IOC plus sponsors, large sports organisations and from out of several other cracks in the woodwork.
The title, Omertà, is just about right. Likening their behaviour with the Mafia is spot on and I suppose the only thing these crooked officials have not done is actually 'bump' somebody off. Be thankful for small mercys.
Although we seem to have got rid of Blatter, the corruption is so engrained in FIFA that the phrase 'the King is dead, long live the King' springs to mind.
It's a great read, but you will never regard football in the same optimistic light ever again.
May 10, 2017
La investigación de Andrew Jennings llevó a la debacle de la FIFA en 2015, cuando fueron arrestados varios miembros de su comité ejecutivo y llevó a la renuncia del presidente Joseph Blatter.
El periodismo es un trabajo paciente (llevó más de 20 años), disciplinado e ingrato, pero tan necesario en un mundo donde las relaciones públicas logran magníficos publirreportajes (narrados por hinchas que ganaron un micrófono) sobre las bondades y el desinterés de una de las organizaciones deportivas más corruptas del mundo.
Está íntimamente ligada a publicaciones como FIFA Mafia (Thomas Kirstner) y Cómo se robaron la copa (David Yallop), con tristes y necesarias coincidencias. Es el desencanto del fútbol, la apatía de ver cómo se amañan campeonatos para favorecer a gobiernos asesinos y corruptos, quienes saben que las multitudes que colman los estadios olvidan con facilidad la crueldad mientras la pelota está rodando.
El periodismo es un trabajo paciente (llevó más de 20 años), disciplinado e ingrato, pero tan necesario en un mundo donde las relaciones públicas logran magníficos publirreportajes (narrados por hinchas que ganaron un micrófono) sobre las bondades y el desinterés de una de las organizaciones deportivas más corruptas del mundo.
Está íntimamente ligada a publicaciones como FIFA Mafia (Thomas Kirstner) y Cómo se robaron la copa (David Yallop), con tristes y necesarias coincidencias. Es el desencanto del fútbol, la apatía de ver cómo se amañan campeonatos para favorecer a gobiernos asesinos y corruptos, quienes saben que las multitudes que colman los estadios olvidan con facilidad la crueldad mientras la pelota está rodando.
January 5, 2021
A brief, well written and described story about the corruption inside FIFA. The book has the correct length between a detailed story but not getting into too much details that can make the story boring.
January 1, 2018
Impresionante investigación periodistica. Saca a la luz la real mafia que es la Fifa, sus integrantes y todos los sobornos que se mueven por el mundo del fútbol.
December 3, 2020
One of the most boring books ever
December 5, 2022
Important journalism but difficult to read and much opinion.
July 23, 2023
Impressive how manipulated football is after FIFA took possession
June 22, 2014
As predictably depressing as it is good. And it's very good, very detailed and I assume factually correct or the author would certainly have be sued half to death by now. Proof that football is dead, or sane FAs should walk out and form a new organisation. Nice mention of the Ipswich owner at the end as well, not in a good way though (sadly and predictably)
June 5, 2016
Absolutely amazing material, thoroughly researched but presented in such a confusing and poorly edited fashion that it was almost unreadable. It was only by sheer fascination with the evidence that I soldiered through.
March 2, 2015
Take your hat off to the horrible bastards, they keep getting away with it.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews