The Australian whistleblower Bonita Mersiades considers a clean World Cup bid to be unthinkable given the current FIFA circumstances.
“When I look at my own country, Australia, I think: It’s a good country. We have democracy and transparency. It’s different in the FIFA world. The system there suggests that you can only win if you follow the rules of FIFA,” says Mersiades in the World Cup special of the magazine “11Freunde”.
Mersiades was head of communications for Australia’s bids for the failed World Cups in 2018 and 2022. According to her own statements, she was disgusted by the dubious machinations in the back rooms and hidden payments, later she also unpacked before the FIFA Ethics Committee.
FIFA reformers lose ‘morals and values’
In her view, FIFA needs a complete fresh start in order to change the existing system. “The federation needs a complete change, a change from the outside. Basically a rocket that destroys everything and then you can rebuild everything,” she said.
At the moment, however, such a “cultural change” is not foreseeable. “As soon as an individual comes along, say a reformer, who wants to change the system, he will quickly find that the system changes him. It sometimes seems as if all these people have to do is put on the blue suit and sit in a VIP box and they lose their morals and values,” said Mersiades.
Mersiades had worked for Australia’s 2022 World Cup bid, which had no chance of voting with one vote on the first ballot. In the course of the investigation into the award, she said that the Australians had paid money for votes, at least indirectly.