Football might unite the world, but there is little unity inside Fifa. Employees describe a toxic workplace, a culture of fear and even death threats.
By Sam Kunti
Fifa’s director of professional football Ornella Bellia’s Instagram is picture-perfect: posts vary from posing with David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo or offering congratulations to Fifa president Gianni Infantino to images of a five-star life that comes with her Fifa role. She calls the luxurious hotel Chedi, a Fifa hotel during the Qatar World Cup, her home. But Bellia does more than simply flaunt her luxury existence. Overseeing global relations with clubs, she often emphasizes how hard she works. Some of her posts are zen: “Human beings can never be happy by the material world.”
On the surface, Bellia is a model employee of the ‘new’ Fifa. Perhaps, she truly is. It’s an open secret at Fifa that Bellia’s modus operandi makes her department dysfunctional, affecting her direct staff members. Marta*, a former Fifa employee, has pressed both civil and criminal complaints against Bellia with authorities in Zurich. The former employee worked for years at the professional football department with a variety of responsibilities, including oversight of one of Bellia’s pet projects.
Marta blew the whistle on Bellia at Fifa, but compliance – a division serving under Fifa’s chief legal and compliance officer Emilio Garcia Silvero – didn’t act. The world governing body doesn’t take well to whistleblowers. Marta has been in a legal battle with Fifa for months. Her accusations include mobbing. She argues also that Fifa didn’t pay out overtime, a recurring theme at Fifa.
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