ABSTRACT
The GSOs lay claim to being public interest organisations. They lay claim to an important place in global civil society. FIFA explicitly points itself in this direction. Just prior to the Second Gulf War it claimed that:
As the world stands on the brink of war, football’s role as a force for reconciliation has yet again been demonstrated in the nomination of FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter for the American Global Award for Peace . . . in recognition of the active part he played in bringing together the co-hosts of the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan.™
The Olympic movement in particular has always made strong claims in this area but with no more demonstrable success than FIFA. And as we shall see later, apart from governing swimming around the world, FINA claims among its objectives the promotion of international relations. These three GSOs are not alone in this, several of the major GSOs claim a higher calling than mere commerce or even sport. Yet as we saw in the previous chapter one of the paradoxes of the GSOs as public interest, non-profit organisations is their opacity. They offer the public less financial information than the listing requirements of the world’s stock exchanges. At the same time the amateur and professional athletes who can lay claim to being major stakeholders in sport are little represented in the GSOs. Claiming to be democratic organisations they are more accurately described as oligarchies.
