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Fifa president Sepp Blatter is pelted with fake dollars in a protest during a press conference, July 2015. (Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
Fifa president Sepp Blatter is pelted with fake dollars in a protest during a press conference, July 2015. (Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)

Pop CultureNovember 15, 2022

Fifa Uncovered shines a spotlight on soccer’s rot

Fifa president Sepp Blatter is pelted with fake dollars in a protest during a press conference, July 2015. (Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
Fifa president Sepp Blatter is pelted with fake dollars in a protest during a press conference, July 2015. (Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)

The Netflix documentary is an uncomfortable history lesson ahead of next week’s World Cup, writes Catherine McGregor.

This is an excerpt from The Spinoff’s weekly pop culture and entertainment newsletter Rec Room – sign up here.

The 2022 Fifa World Cup will surely go down in history as the most morally dubious sporting event since the end of apartheid. That this year’s tournament doesn’t even come into focus until episode three of Fifa Uncovered is a mark of how deep and pervasive the rot at the heart of world soccer’s governing body really is.

The series is screening ahead of this weekend’s opening ceremony in Doha, and if you’re wondering why a World Cup is happening now rather than at the height of (northern hemisphere) summer when the tournament is usually held, well, good question. The answer lies at the end of a thread of corruption stretching back to 1974, when Brazilian João Havelange was elected Fifa president – with the help, Fifa Uncovered alleges, of numerous brown envelopes of cash delivered to voting nations.



Havelange came into the role with big plans for a parochial organisation that at the time was still being run from a small upstairs office on a Zurich side street. Many of his ideas were positive: he created the women’s World Cup and multiple regional tournaments and programmes that embedded soccer in poor nations across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, helping transform the sport into the world’s game.

He also oversaw the tidal wave of corporate cash that began flowing into Fifa’s coffers, from the sale of TV rights – more shady arrangements, more kickbacks – and massive brand sponsorships. These deals were pioneered by Havelange’s right-hand man, and eventual successor, Sepp Blatter, a Swiss marketing man who almost single-handedly turned soccer into the most valuable sports product in global history.

As Fifa president, Blatter presided over an orgy of corruption largely centering on Jack Warner, head of soccer’s North, Central American and Caribbean confederation. Along with his sidekick, the marvellously named US sports administrator Chuck Blazer, Warner embarked on a scarcely believable run of bribe-taking, including $10 million in exchange for his votes in support of South Africa’s World Cup bid. That money was ostensibly a donation to fund soccer initiatives for the Caribbean’s African diaspora, the descendants of slavery, but nothing ever came of it. The money went directly into Warner’s pocket.

And so it went on until 2010, when the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were decided. If Russia being awarded the 2018 tournament (over the UK, the clear frontrunner) was a shock, the 2022 winner was a complete bombshell. Fifa Uncovered tells how Qatar, a tiny gulf nation with a terrible national team, no football culture to speak of and not a single stadium of its own, used its eye-watering oil wealth to buy votes.

German players send a message to Qatar prior to a World Cup qualifying match, March 25, 2021. (Photo: Tobias Schwarz – Pool/Getty Images)

Defending Qatar in the documentary is Hassan al Thawadi, the head of the nation’s bid, who makes decent points about the value of bringing the World Cup to the Middle East for the first time and the racial undertones of some of the criticism – then goes and spoils it all by wiping away hilariously fake tears at the memory of the backlash. This is the chance for the interviewer to go for the jugular, yet when al Thawadi challenges him to name specific instances of corruption, he stumbles, allowing the Qatari to shrug off the allegations as coincidence and sour grapes.

It’s a frustrating moment, but elsewhere Fifa Uncovered does a great job of laying out the shameless venality and abuse underlying this month’s tournament. It’s important that everyone is aware of the human rights violations – against women, the LGBTQ community and, perhaps most horrifically, migrant workers – that remain facts of life in Qatar. Facts that Fifa members conveniently ignored in 2010, blinded by the dollar signs that are now an unavoidable part of the business of soccer.

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Fifa Uncovered culminates with the 2015 raid on Fifa’s Zurich HQ at the direction of the FBI in New York. All told, 41 people were arrested and 18 were charged, Jack Warner among them; he still lives a life of luxury in Trinidad & Tobago where he is fighting extradition to the US. For Fifa, the financial corruption may have been reined in but the willingness to turn a blind eye to dictatorships and human rights abuses remains. When the World Cup kicks off next week it’ll be up to the fans to remind Fifa what fairness in sports really means.

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Pop CultureNovember 15, 2022

Watch the full series of Chris & Eli’s Porn Revolution

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All six episodes of Chris & Eli’s Porn Revolution in one handy (and safe for work) tab. 

It’s time we shake the shame around our porn use. In Chris & Eli’s Porn Revolution, two comedians went on a mission to shed the stigma around pornography and bring some pretty big questions to the party. What is Aotearoa’s porn production history? Is free access to online pornography impacting our rangatahi? And can pornography be artful, ethical, even feminist?

Building up to the launch of their big public awareness campaign, the pair chat with a range of experts and creators across the country to get their heads around the complexities of porn. But as they learn more, will it even be possible to sum it all up in one snappy slogan? And is it worth risking their high-profile careers for the health of the nation’s sex lives? Watch below to find out. 

Episode one: Understanding our porn past and present

Chris Parker and Eli Matthewson have a lot to learn as they embark on their campaign to get the country talking about porn. They begin with a whistle-stop tour of what porn in Aotearoa looked like in the past, and what it looks like now.

Episode two: Think of the children

Chris and Eli feel overwhelmed by hearing some concerning statistics about rangatahi and porn but they’re buoyed by speaking to experts about how parents can navigate those awkward chats. 

Episode three: Talking porn at the dinner table

The duo host a dinner party with their friends to yarn about their porn habits and fears. But after meeting with an expert in porn addiction, it turns out the panic might not be all that it seems.

Episode four: Meeting Erika Lust, the Queen of ethical porn

After watching Aotearoa’s first gay porn, the boys realise that porn can also be impactful art. They interview an erotica writer and the “Queen of Ethical Porn” about changing the culture with their work.

Episode five: What’s the deal with OnlyFans?

It is the biggest thing in porn right now, so what’s the deal with OnlyFans in Aotearoa? Chris and Eli meet three different people who share the highs and lows of being creators on the platform.

Episode six: Is Aotearoa ready for a porn revolution?

After months of tough conversations and a lot of laughter, Chris and Eli are ready to launch their campaign. But first, they get some final wisdom from local porn legend Astrid Glitter.

Chris & Eli’s Porn Revolution is made with the support of NZ On Air.

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