It is half-time in the match between the US justice system and Fifa. In the first half, the Americans took a shock early lead, with the unexpected arrest of several of Fifa’s leading players. But world football’s governing body struck back with a defiant equaliser — re-electing its discredited president, Sepp Blatter.
The ultimate outcome of this match will be of interest all around the world, and not just to football fans. President Vladimir Putin of Russia has denounced the Fifa arrests as yet another example of the abuse of American power. His reaction illustrates that the Fifa struggle has become a highly visible test-case of one of the central questions in world politics — is the US still powerful enough to call the shots in global organisations? Or is the sole superpower’s grip on global institutions slipping?
Fifa, of course, is a niche organisation. But the same questions of whether ultimate power still lies in the west applies to much more systemically important global institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the UN and its sub-organisations including the UN Human Rights Council. It is also increasingly a question in the network of non-governmental organisations that provide the wiring for the world economic system; from Swift, the organisation that handles international financial transfers between banks, to Icann which regulates the internet.