Graham Kelly: Fifa's mandarins still have much to do to restore credibility

Joao Havelange gazed down on the celebratory scenes from the best seat in the house as his former son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira, a Brazil jacket covering his Fifa executive uniform, struggled to steady the waist-high plinth on which Cafu would be photographed holding the World Cup he had just received from Fifa's president Sepp Blatter.

The 86-year-old patriarch of football's global family, the honorary president of Fifa, a title accorded to Havelange when he stepped down from the top job four years ago, was entitled to a brief moment of self-congratulation. Not only had the team of his homeland confounded critics by rediscovering their legendary winning panache, but also his protégé, Blatter, had secured a second term with an increased majority of 139 votes to 56 over his African challenger, Issa Hayatou, the president of the Confederation of African Football. The Fifa family was complete, even if certain relationships were somewhat strained. Watching from the tribune nearby was fellow octogenarian, Charlie Dempsey, the Oceania representative whose controversial abstention two years ago ensured that the 2006 World Cup would go to Germany. Dempsey, on the proposal of Blatter, was accorded life membership at the conclusion of the Seoul Congress in a move that smacked of a return for services rendered.

Even though he transformed Fifa's finances, Havelange had his critics. It would have been surprising if he had survived world football's manifold machinations for 24 years without a few controversies along the way, but the questions raised about patronage paled into insignificance by comparison with the allegations made against his successor.

However, most of the Fifa electorate, the 204 national associations, did not care if the former general secretary had overstretched himself.

The essence of the charges was that because of the demands of Blatter's development programmes, and not solely because of unforeseen circumstances such as the collapse of Fifa marketing partner, ISL, and 11 September, as he claimed, Fifa got into financial difficulties last year, and, without authority, he mortgaged its future, taking out costly loans against anticipated income from World Cup 2006.

Since the respected general secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen blew the whistle on his boss, pointing to favours received by his supporters, it was little surprise that he was ousted.

More disconcerting was the sacking, amid a cull of seven more personnel last week, of the media chief Keith Cooper. No explanation was offered, though anyone recalling Cooper's beautifully abrupt dismissal of the Italians' World Cup conspiracy complaints as "hogwash" will not have been unduly surprised by his master's latest petty tyranny. Italy are one of Blatter's biggest supporters. Fifa is a vast, succulent, gravy train and no one riding it wants the journey to end. Executive committee members enjoy a lavish, unreal lifestyle whenever football is in town. Blatter even continued paying the £33,000 salary of the Russian federation president Viacheslav Koloskov for two years after he had left the committee.

Blatter has said he is merely a transitional president between the grand seigneur and the younger generation. He shrewdly undermined the alliance between Uefa and the African Confederation, which (had it stood up) could have fatally damaged his chances both in 1998 and 2002, by cultivating the national associations, whereas, in some quarters, despite Uefa's best efforts, its Meridian development project for African nations was still perceived as little more than new-style colonialism.

Some major European countries support Blatter. England, bravely, do not. In 1998, hopeful for some encouragement from Blatter for the £10m World Cup bid, we gave our backing after he and Havelange suggested they might usefully restore the birthplace of football to a place at Fifa's executive table.

Blatter will be 70 in 2006. In 2004 a sea of sickening platitudes will mark Fifa's centenary. Can he afford to step down and hand the keys of power to an outsider? Is there any such man? Maybe Michel Platini, his former, unelected, running mate, who now has the endorsement of the European associations, will stand. Platini never wants anything other than the top job, but is he an infighter? One whose name has rarely been mentioned, but who is always present on the big occasions and who has strong credentials, is Franz Beckenbauer, but the reports of financial assistance offered to Germany, now Blatter supporters, by Fifa in connection with the staging of the next World Cup are a concern.

The Fifa executive committee members now know they are part of a massively discredited regime, which, had it been in charge of a local Sunday league, would long ago have been subjected to the most rigorous inquiry and its officials banned from holding office indefinitely.

What proposals they come up with to restore credibility when next they meet in September, are awaited with some hope but no great expectation.

grahamkelly@btinternet.com