Grant Wahl's FIFA Candidacy Is Stupid, And That's Kind Of The Point

SI against Sepp Blatter when Blatter's term expires in June. It's a big joke, of course — a man without any executive experience. The sad part is that it's less of a joke than Blatter seeking a fourth term.

Wahl's crusade is off to a roaring start, glad-handling outside SI's offices in Midtown Manhattan, railing against "Seppsis" and FIFA's "Blatter Infection." His campaign promises are incredibly simplistic: goal line and replay technology, referee accountability, more transparency, less sexism, and no more stupid yellow cards for celebrating. These are the most basic things that any blogger or fan or shlub in a pub would say soccer needs.

And yet, if the changes are so obvious, and so universally agreed upon as necessary, why must they even be proposed? If it takes an outsider to come up with something so revolutionary as "be more accurate" and "be less corrupt," how broken is the system in the first place?

Maybe not irretrievably. FIFA is Blatter, and has been for the past 13 years, and there's a reason he made our Worst Men In Sports list. There's a long list of suitable candidates who would be better for the bureaucratic rigors of FIFA than Wahl, and more importantly, better for soccer than Blatter. Let's hope that come June 1st, there's a new president who undertakes the most basic reforms, and we don't require the services of a joke candidate to fix serious problems.