“FIFA Uncovered” or the chronicle of a tragedy foretold

With four episodes, "FIFA Uncovered" gives the viewer the answer to why Russia and Qatar -without a long soccer tradition and little infrastructure- managed to keep the last two venues of the most important soccer event as It's the World Cup.

Netflix is an expert documenting large corruption scandals that go around the world. Months after the "Lava Jato" scandal was uncovered in Brazil, the platform premiered "El Mecanismo", a series that portrays how the largest corruption case involving a Latin American country occurred. Now Netflix does the same with FIFA after the "FIFA gate" weeks after the ball rolled in Qatar.

What Is "FIFA Uncovered" about?

The starting point of the miniseries occurs with the 65th FIFA Congress in Zurich (Switzerland) when the FBI operative captured dozens of leaders in May 2015. Since then, it has done a retrospective that sheds light on how the FIFA reached the level of corruption that left very few employees or associates off the hook.

Unlike many other works that have been done in this regard , for "FIFA Uncovered" several top-level stakeholders such as Joseph Blatter or Mohammed bin Hammam agreed to give their respective version of the story. Both suffered few legal consequences of "FIFA Gate" and maintain that they are innocent, despite the fact that many facts and testimonies in the same production are biased to the contrary.

To get to the scandal, the series uses the realization of two crucial profiles to understand corruption. These are portraits of Joao Havelange and Sepp Blatter, the two former FIFA presidents with whom they started the barrage of bribes. There is also a clear interest in putting a focus on the achievement of Qatar as the host of the 2022 World Cup.

Read also: The 5 Unmissable Series Before the Qatar 2022 World Cup

"The ball does not get dirty"

As Diego Armando Maradona said when he retired from professional football: "the ball does not stain." Those who understood it best were the corrupt managers of FIFA, who bribed bribery took advantage of the passion of millions around the world. Many of those involved were not even aware of the sport and saw every soccer result with the currency symbols in their bank account.

In this sense, "FIFA Uncovered" is right in making constant parallels of supporting images with children playing on neighborhood courts to contrast with the corruption that existed in the luxurious desks of the FIFA headquarters. Despite so much scandal, people know that this passion is a business, but they continue to support their club or team because what is played on the field has little to do with what is decided in Zurich.

At times, the viewer can come to make similarities of how the dynamics of the series are closer to those of "Game of Thrones", in which everyone seeks to climb and give in the least with favors.

Proof of this is that the World Cup in Qatar is taking place with complaints of bribery for the designation of the venue, more than 6,000 deaths of workers, various restrictions on freedoms and even a change in tradition by changing the dates of the event. However, each fan of the 32 teams expects their country to lift the cup, who doesn't want Messi, Neymar or Cristiano Ronaldo to be the ones who can be crowned?

The ball never stopped rolling and probably never will, despite the fact that those who traffic in this passion continue to do their thing. No one suspects the corruption of FIFA anymore, everyone is sure of it and like the series "El Mecanismo", the gear hardly changes because for things to change it is necessary to root out the evil, and the root -although sore-continues more that lives in FIFA.