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We are all now well aware of the on-going shenanigans at FIFA. We might ask why this story is getting all the attention and is it not just an internal wrangle which preoccupies the few, but doesn’t really touch the rest of us? The FIFA case does throws up some puzzling issues. Why does it seem that it is only the Western countries and Football Associations who are exercised by the culture operating within FIFA? At the first official press conference of FIFA post the election of the new President, it was noticeable that all the questions focused on allegations of corruption and all the questioners were from Europe or the US, with the British and German journalists being to the fore. Officials within FIFA would counter their critics by pointing out that the FIFA President won a significant majority of the votes in the recent election. They would further suggest that all this criticism of FIFA is simply sour grapes from Europeans and the US, and that it is an attempt to impose Western cultural hegemony yet again. However, FIFA’s problems are our concerns. They are not simply Western concerns, but global issues. Corruption often conjures up images of people getting rich. But in fact, corruption more often produces poverty than wealth. The harmful effects of corruption are especially severe on the poor, who are hardest hit by economic decline, are more dependent on public services and the least capable of paying the extra costs associated with bribery, fraud, and the misappropriation of economic privileges. As I experienced when working overseas for the Foreign Office, corruption also hinders much needed investment through distorting the rule of law and weakening the institutional foundation upon which economic growth depends. For example, countries that score badly on the World Bank’s Doing Business Indicators also score badly on the Corruption Perceptions Index, including Chad, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, all ranking in the bottom 15 countries on both tables. In tangible terms for example, it is estimated that corruption costs an additional $48 billion to achieve the MDG on water and sanitation. Tackling corruption requires a sharp change of culture, ideally it should be done for wider moral interests, but could also be done for enlightened self- interest. For just as corrupt countries find it difficult to attract investors then so too will FIFA find it increasingly difficult to attract sponsors. Perhaps those leading FIFA’s efforts might taken inspiration from the words of Jesus when he says, ‘I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance’.