FIFA’s media office sent the invitation to media representatives twice. Obviously, the international football federation wanted to make sure that numerous journalists attend the event. On Twitter, FIFA President Joseph “Sepp” Blatter announced a “hugely exciting major project”. Only a few minutes later, he revealed he was talking about the FIFA Museum in Zurich.
The campaign worked well, and in front of numerous cameras and microphones Blatter could tell many journalists about his dream and his gift to the “sports city Zurich”. Next to him on the podium sat Rolf Dörig, chairman of the insurance company Swiss Life, the owner of the property chosen for the museum.
For Blatter the attention was a welcome change from the negative headlines of the past week: First, executive member Nicolas Leoz stepped back under the pressure of an impending ethics proceedings for having accepted more than one million Swiss francs of kickbacks. Then Alexandra Wrage resigned, the renowned member of the FIFA Reform Commission. She justified her decision saying it was a waste of time to work out proposals of reform for FIFA. And finally, former executive member Jack Warner launched a new attack against Blatter and presented evidence showing that Blatter was only elected FIFA president in 1998, because Warner got a six million dollar gift from Blatter’s mentor, Joao Havelange.
All this was forgotten for a moment when, in front of the assembled media, Blatter put bricks on each other, which – like his safety helmet he wore – were embossed with the FIFA logo. However, something else was also forgotten in that moment. At this point, it is unclear whether the FIFA museum can actually be built.
A spokesman for the city of Zurich confirmed that neither FIFA nor Swiss Life have submitted a building application for the major project. This means that the authorisation is missing. The property owner, Swiss Life, after several attempts had finally received the permits for the renovation of the house. However, in the application for these permits there was no talk about a museum.
A city spokesman said the museum project was so different than what Swiss Life had previously planned that the need for a new building application was probably inevitable. But to provide such a request to the city also means that residents may raise objections against the project. And if you take the reader comments on Zurich’s online media as an indicator, objections to the FIFA project are not unlikely. “FIFA should better pay normal taxes, rather than building a monument for Godfather”, was one comment. “Nobody wants to have a museum here. We want shopping possibilities,” said another comment in reference to the fact inside the planned museum, there was supermarket formerly. In an online survey by a Zurich daily newspaper, 58% out of 681 participants spoke out against the museum project. This is quite bad news. A single objection to the FIFA Museum could massively delay or even stop the implementation of this project.
Whether Blatter will ever inaugurate his monument and if this will happen during his current term of office, is difficult to predict today. The only entity that can be truly happy is the insurance company Swiss Life. Finally, it found a use for the property that was contaminated with asbestos many years ago and has stood empty in recent years, despite being in a good location in Zurich. Thanks to FIFA, a rental income for the next 40 years is now guaranteed.
Jean Francois Tanda is a leading investigative journalist specialising in international sports. He writes for weekly Swiss business newspaper Handelszeitung www.handelszeitung.ch