Some scandals shake the foundations of football and then, eventually, are consigned to history.
FIFA’s 2015 corruption crisis was supposed to be that moment.
The New York Times has published an investigation that suggests otherwise.
FIFA vice president Alejandro Dominguez accused of pocketing $5m
According to The Athletic, Alejandro Dominguez, president of South American football’s governing body CONMEBOL and a serving FIFA vice president, is the subject of a formal ethics complaint.
This alleged that he and another senior official secretly took more than $5 million from funds that were supposed to have been recovered from football’s biggest ever corruption scandal.
A whistleblower with claimed firsthand knowledge of the payments has come forward.
The allegation is staggering in its irony.
The money in question was clawed back from accounts once controlled by officials indicted in the original FIFA corruption case.
That money was supposed to represent football cleaning itself up.
According to the complaint, it didn’t end up where fans were told it would.
Instead, a significant portion of it allegedly made its way to Dominguez and a colleague in the form of secret bonuses or commissions.
Payments that, if proven, would represent one of the most brazen acts of self-enrichment in the sport’s history.
What makes the story even more damaging is what happened next.
Senior FIFA figures, the New York Times reports, have known about this complaint for more than a year.
And yet the status of any investigation remains entirely unclear.
However, CONMEBOL has stated it is unaware of any complaint.
FIFA and Dominguez did not respond to questions from the New York Times.
The timing of this investigation could not be more uncomfortable.
The 2026 World Cup begins in just weeks.
If the allegations are proven, the implications stretch far beyond one individual.
The beautiful game. The ugly foundation.
Some things, never change.
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