What does FIFA's dispute reveal about leadership?

Some of the most powerful people in world football are currently arguing about power. And one of the things they apparently agree on is that leadership should not be about possessing it.

Amid threats of World Cup boycotts, breakaway competitions and an increasingly bitter struggle over Gianni Infantino’s future, one sentence in an extraordinary letter from three of FIFA’s confederation presidents stands out: "Leadership in football is not a possession. It is a duty of service."

That is quite a sentence in the middle of a fight for control of world football.

Trust

We shouldn’t be naïve. Those accusing Infantino of deception are themselves powerful figures within the game, with alliances to maintain and interests to protect. This is not a straightforward contest between good leaders and bad ones. But that almost makes their choice of words more interesting.

Service. Trust. Integrity. Accountability.

Football cannot function on rules alone. It depends upon trust: trust in referees, governing bodies and competitions, and ultimately in the legitimacy of what happens on the pitch. Once that trust begins to disappear, the problem is bigger than whether the correct procedures have been followed. Which is why the accusation of a "fundamental breach of trust" matters.

What is striking is how widely the assumptions behind those words are shared. Nobody needs persuading that honesty is better than deception, accountability better than secrecy, or that leaders should serve the institutions entrusted to them rather than use those institutions to serve themselves.

We recognise good leadership when we see it. Sometimes we see it in remarkable ways. Yet we are also remarkably inventive at bending power towards ourselves.

Which makes a conversation recorded in Mark’s Gospel feel surprisingly contemporary (Mark 10v35-45).

Leadership as service

James and John come to Jesus wanting the best seats: "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." They know what greatness looks like: position, recognition, proximity to power.

Jesus does not abolish their category of greatness. He turns it upside down.

The rulers of the nations, He says, "lord it over them".

"Not so with you."

Greatness is found in service.

And at that point, FIFA’s letter and Jesus appear to be saying something remarkably similar. Leadership is not possession. It is service.

But Jesus keeps going.

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10v45).

It is those final words that take us somewhere else.

Jesus is not simply affirming a principle of good leadership which human beings can recognise and sometimes wonderfully embody. He is telling us what He has come to do.

To give His life. As a ransom. For many.

That is much more than an example to admire or a leadership principle to adopt. It tells us something about ourselves as well as something about Jesus. We do not simply need to learn how to use power better. We need rescuing from the way we use it for ourselves.

Football is asking who can be trusted to lead the game. It is an important question.

But Jesus offers more than the leader we would like others to be.

He is the Saviour we need Him to be.