The Fall of the House of FIFA

Jack Warner, Chuck Blazer, Michel Platini, Sepp Blatter. All giants of global football administration and now all banned from the sport.

What Conn takes his time to lay out–but what ultimately makes the book quite profound–is the idea that “European standards of governance” are every bit as troubling as the corruption accepted as a cultural flaw of the non-European members of FIFA.

In many ways, this book is a dirge for FIFA's posturing as a humanitarian institution. Yet, Conn still keeps it engaging for lovers of the game by highlighting how little of the decision making within FIFA had any relevance to the interests of sport relative to the enrichment of powerbrokers.

So much of sports journalism is hagiography of utter bastards and Conn doesn't get sucked in. The one truly redeeming moment of the whole telling is the revelation that a crowd of French fans resoundingly booed Platini's image as the national team was poised to win the Euros on home soil.