Thank goodness we're done with sucking up to Fifa

The Times Editorial: We are more familiar than most with how Fifa rides roughshod over virtually everyone. Football's world governing body is almost a nation state, as South Africa has found out over the past few years.

While we were bidding for the 2010 World Cup, then preparing for it and finally successfully hosting it, we were forced to be in thrall to Sepp Blatter and his cronies. What a relief that that part of the tournament is over.

There is a sense of schadenfreude about Brazil's situation. Let the South Americans, who must stage the next World Cup, put up with Fifa and see how they like it.

There is a similar sense about the English, who are falling over themselves to please Fifa as they attempt to win the right to host the 2018 soccer World Cup.

The British government, the England Football Association and everyone linked to the England bid are apparently willing to do anything to ingratiate themselves with the Fifa hierarchy. One member of the English soccer establishment even went so far as to accuse the BBC of being unpatriotic because it screened a programme critical of some Fifa executives.

The BBC is used to such accusations and we know the shame of having to suck up to Fifa, having become experts at it recently.

The latest allegations against Fifa of impropriety, presented on the BBC programme Panorama, are unproved, but they provide strong circumstantial evidence of dodgy people at work.

So far, Fifa has shown great reluctance in dealing with the problem. Fortunately, the International Olympic Committee has not. The IOC has, in the past, faced up to its own corruption and dealt with it.

The world will need the Olympic body to again take the lead in investigating what looks like more crookedness in sport.