FIFA Uncovered (2022)

FIFA Uncovered, a limited Netflix documentary series, is a comprehensive documentary that showcases the biggest event around the world– Football or soccer, depending on how you see it. It’s a multi-linguistic series departed into four parts detailing everything about the scandal that shook the sporting world in 2015 when the highest of the highest leader was convicted for corruption, bribes and money laundering.

What’s fascinating is that it goes into a lucrative detail about who Sepp Blatter was, and the origin of football. The docuseries express that if it didn’t select Blatter, the deep corruption wouldn’t happen. If the swede Lennart Johansson were elected in 1998, the scandal could’ve been prevented. There’s a great number of archive materials, graphics, and interviews that detail the main issue, even from the 1974s when it all started with former and late FIFA executive João Havelange, who influences Sepp Blatter to do the same thing with corruption. It’s deafening with the deep-cut greed that these executives have proved themselves to be, even when electing the host countries. There seems to be augmented disbelief that an organization such as FIFA would even accomplish so much fraud. Even Sepp Blatter seems to later become aware of his irrational decision.

What’s completely clear from the series is how intertwined the organization is with politics. How the World Cup in Football of Male teams, affect the world and world leaders. How Sepp sold his soul to Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup, respectively. Even today, now that the 2022 premiere of the World Cup in Qatar has started, it’s clear that it was from the likes of bribery and that the executive committee was bought by the most ill-fated country for the global sporting event. The pace is alright, as it goes further down the spiral of corruption, the editing and the interviews a nice variation, shaping it to not be uninteresting. The interviewer’s voice can be heard on some occasions to clarify the answers. The allegation keeps coming, secrets untold reveals.  The series hit hard despite the runtime of 3 hours and 41 minutes.

What’s fascinating is how detailed the docuseries is with confirmed sources of who was there at the specific time, which in turn adds some of the credibility. It spends a lot of time on how Qatar’s bid was made and how it came to fruition. It’s a documentary worth watching for any sport, football or crime-interested person because this one is a keeper.