OpinionMay 28 2015

Is the FBI the world’s police force?

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Once again Mary Dejevsky of the Independent has proved that she is one of the brightest and most perceptive of British journalist for the past three decades or so by challenging the FBI’s lead role in the FIFA arrests.

While the entire world is over-dosing on these arrests and the so-called fight against alleged corruption in the organisation, it was Dejevsky who brought matters back to earth by questioning the extended reach of American law enforcement.

Ignoring for the time being that these arrests took place in what was meant to be an independent jurisdiction and equally that all those arrested were low hanging fruit – either from developing nations, mainly Latin America and the Caribbean – all, with the exception of Mr Blazer, are non-Europeans and non-Americans.

If only we had the same level of proactivity over bankers with their alleged market fixing and money laundering, as alternatives to massive fines which, given time, will be paid for by consumers.

Was this well-timed global carnival which followed the arrests, with a passive and willing media queuing up to get ‘good’ photographs, a reflection of the principle of innocent until proven guilty?

What is really important is that America is not a globally leading footballing nation, nor, according to most of the evidence in the public domain, most of the alleged offences happened on US soil, so why is it so keen to take the lead on these arrests, apart from the implicit suggestion that the FBI is more competent than the law enforcement officers in the rest of the world?

While condemning the alleged corruption, it is important to keep a watchful eye on the way US law enforcement is extending its reach, no doubt part of globalisation.

We must always play the ball and not the man.

However complicit Mr Blatter is, or is alleged to be, with wrong doing, he too deserves fair play. This global show of enforcement power is all about Mr Blatter.