A red card for futbol.

• Author: Zirin, Dave
• Position: Edge of Sports

In the lead-up to this year's World Cup in Brazil, the media has finally been paying some attention to the billions of dollars in waste, the forced removal of people from their homes, and the protests and crackdowns that have ensued. The Brazilian government has come under much-deserved criticism.

But the power that orchestrated this financial and political calamity has by and large escaped scrutiny. The Federation Internationale de Football Association, commonly known as FIFA, is one of the most corrupt, scandal-plagued pits of infamy in the history of sports.

FIFA's influence is as profound as its wealth. The exact numbers are unknown, but its former president, Joao Havelange, bragged in 1993 that the organization's bottom line was greater than that of GM, which was the world's biggest company at the time. The roots of this wealth lie primarily in FIFA's ability "to turn passion into commerce," as Eduardo Galeano has noted. The revenue streams are a result of selling every stitch of clothing on a player's body for ads and the merciless breaking of any player who dares speak about organizing players on a union basis.

In Forbes magazine's 2012 list of the top forty paid athletes, only four are soccer players, despite soccer's position as the most lucrative sport on Earth.

FIFA has always hitched its profits to its ability to own the product, and that "product" includes the players themselves. Its desire for monetary control over the beautiful game knows no bounds.

In 1956, FIFA banned the Hungarian players who formed a rogue team after the USSR ran over their country with tanks. In 1958, as Algeria fought for independence, Algerian players made their own team, including some who left cushy professional playing jobs in France to be part of the effort. Not only did FIFA have those players blacklisted and ban the team, but it also suspended Morocco for having the temerity to play them in a match.

During all of this political tumult, the World Cup first started being televised to a global audience. Not coincidentally, this was also when FIFA first started selling entire sections of...