No Own Goals: FIFA's New Museum Glosses Over The Sepp Blatter Era

Not far from a now-infamous Zurich hotel where seven FIFA officials were arrested last May in a police raid that touched off the biggest crisis in the history of football's global governing body, the new $140 million FIFA World Football Museum is scheduled to open in late February.

Amid an ongoing legal and media maelstrom, press was recently invited to tour the near-complete venue. To date, some 40 FIFA officials, corporate executives and entities have been charged in the international corruption probe, and last December FIFA's ethics committee levied an eight-year ban from football activities on former president Sepp Blatter over a $2 million "disloyal payment" to UEFA chief Michel Platini–effectively creating a power vacuum at the top of the powerful organization.

During the same week as the museum's press opening, one of FIFA's arrested officials was extradited to the U.S.; another was arrested in Guatemala; and Jerôme Valcke, the organization's former secretary general, was relieved of his duties.

FIFA museum director Stefan Jost said his team wanted to communicate earlier with the media, but that ongoing bad news made that complicated.

"We needed to see what was happening with the turbulences," he said. "We wanted to show the good works of FIFA, but in the circumstances it was very difficult to do so."

Blatter's presence was mostly-if perhaps not mysteriously-absent during the press tour. His name didn't appear in the information packets handed out to journalists, and there was no mention of the events that have rocked the sport over the past eight months.

Instead, the museum—which according to Jost focuses on the "history of the game"—looks at the bright side of the sport: how football moves people through its simplicity, and how the world shares a passion for the game.

Asked how Blatter—who served as FIFA president for 17 years and once aspired (really!) to win the Nobel Peace Prize—will be presented at the museum, Jost said that this was not a museum of "personalities." (Well, at least certain personalities, as footballers were prominent in several displays at the site.)

"History was still in the making" regarding the ongoing crisis at the organization, Jost said. "We need a bit of historical distance … Eventually it will find its way into the museum".

Museum creative director David Ausseil added: "In light of the whole history of football the events of last year are very small. We need time to analyze this. We need to see what is the best way to address the crisis in the context of the museum."

Bringing to mind oft-repeated FIFA buzzwords, Ausseil said the new site was "about what football does to people around the world. Normal people are the focus."

This much seems true: the museum emphasizes football's impact on people's lives, and there are plans to assemble "memory jars" made up of visitors' contributions. Upon entering the building, vast HD screens—some spanning two floors—project colorful images from around the world from where soccer is played, often in humble settings.

Jerseys from FIFA's 209 member associations, including the tiniest island states—all of which receive equal voting power and financial support from the sport's governing body—are displayed in a "rainbow" arch of glass cases.

On an opposite wall, a long timeline presents recent football history, including that of the World Cup, as well as portraits of former FIFA presidents. Blatter included!

Joao Havelange, Blatter's disgraced predecessor, also appeared on the timeline, but closer study of other details was cut short by museum staff, who told journalists they were not permitted in the area.

On upper levels of the 32,000 square-foot museum, collections of historical items and cultural relics from around the world are on display, including an African voodoo doll used for match-fixing and rudimentary balls from different parts of the world. Jost said a colossal amount of effort went into assembling the museum's collection from scratch.

Elsewhere, a large area filled with empty shelves awaits books and other documents that will make up the largest football library in the world, offering a center for "historical and anthropological" research of the game, according to Jost.

Slickly-designed dining and drinking areas with large television screens and football-inspired furniture will soon welcome some of the 250,000 annual visitors expected at the museum.

The museum is also planning a temporary exhibition on football and fashion "to attract an audience such as women, that you may think we may not be capable of attracting, but we will," Ausseil said proudly and without irony. (In 2004, Blatter infamously brought women, football, and fashion together by commenting that the future of women's football depended on tighter shorts.)

Originally conceived by Blatter, the museum has been in the works for years. Shortly after FIFA's new $240 million headquarters was completed next to the Zurich Zoo in 2007, an initial proposal to build a museum nearby was dropped due to traffic concerns.

Six years later, the then-FIFA president symbolically launched the start of renovations at the museum's current site, an abandoned 1960s building known as the "Haus zur Enge" in central Zurich.

According to Ausseil, Blatter's motivation for building a museum was twofold. "After FIFA's 100 years since its creation, and football being 150 years old–it was time to create our own museum about our own legacy. Also, President Blatter wanted to leave something to Zurich."

Presumably, Blatter wanted to leave a bit of himself in the museum, too. But that appears to be on hold, at least while FIFA's legal problems sort themselves out. Eventually, Aussiel said, conferences or talks may be organized to discuss the crisis.

"We want to be open, transparent and accessible for the people," Jost said. "We need to understand them and their expectations of the game. That's part of a new FIFA."

FIFA's acting communications director Nicolas Maingot was less talkative about the museum and Blatter's place in it, declining a VICE Sports interview request and instead emailing a statement:

"The opening of the FIFA World Football Museum provides a great opportunity to engage with football fans on the rich history of the sport. FIFA's primary mission is to nurture, develop and promote the beautiful game globally and the FIFA World Football Museum provides an excellent platform to showcase this."

Former FIFA media director Guido Tognoni said the organization's leadership has committed communication errors over the years, particularly with the simultaneous 2010 announcement of two World Cups in Russia and Qatar. Allegations of impropriety in those selections are being investigated by FIFA as well as U.S. and Swiss authorities.

Trust, he said, needs to be restored.

"Journalists don't like to be cheated with special communications tricks," he said. But "there is a kind of paranoia at FIFA about the media. It is difficult. Right now there is no visibility of (FIFA's) communications, there is no public face. That's a problem for the whole organization."

On February 26, two days before the museum officially opens, a FIFA congress will meet to elect a new president from a pool of five contenders.

"The image, at the end of the day, depends on the human being who manages the company, and who becomes the face of the company," said Tognoni. "We all know that Mr. Blatter was not the ideal person to represent the company. But with a new president, we have to give the person a chance to set up his own style, to hire new people and create his own of communications."

No one yet knows if the new president will preside over the official opening of the new museum, a move that would begin to move FIFA forward from Blatter's long run as the organization's global face. During a visit to the in-progress museum last June, Blatter seemed to double down on his refusal to resign or otherwise exit the stage, commenting, "don't get me wrong. I'm not ready for the museum nor for a waxwork yet."

And now? Blatter is banned from official FIFA functions, and a wax statue seems highly unlikely. On the other hand, Jost said that once the museum opens, Blatter is free to enter as a "normal citizen." Provided he buys a ticket.