Case Study

Leadership and Hindsight

Hindsight often makes it easy to identify poor leadership or lack of leadership in the world of sport. For an example, we need look no further than the rights holder of the worlds largest sport event: the FIFA World Cup. Controversies related to the leadership of FIFA have given much cause for concern; in particular, many observers view the scandals associated with former FIFA president Joseph Sepp Blatter as constituting a prime example of poor leadership. Blatters tenure has been criticized for alleged fi nancial mismanagement, vote-rigging scandals, ticket scams, human rights issues, and even bribery related to the selection of World Cup host cities (Russia for 2018 and Qatar for 2022). Blatters reputation has also been tarnished by his public shaming of referees and his derogatory comments about female players. These issues have damaged FIFAs reputation and left many observers questioning Blatters suitability to lead in the fi rst place. In addition, many people believe that Blatter wielded too much control and was not only unethical but also overly authoritarian in his approach to running the organization. Leadership theory has taught us that, depending on the situation and context, a leader who involves others in decision making may achieve better results.Every sport organization needs ethical leadership, transparency, and principled governance. This is particularly the case in large organizations such as FIFA that need to ensure good governance. In some cases, the leader of such an organi-zation generates growth and satisfi es corporate sponsorsas Blatter did to some degreebut the path traveled to get there is not revealed until much later. Ulti-mately, Blatters leadership will be remembered less for growth of the game than for damage done.

Is it fair to evaluate a persons leadership qualities based on public informa-tion? Why, or why not?