Conventional wisdom suggests that this popularity exists despite football’s widespread and longlasting corruption, dishonesty and scandals. Since the 1960s, FIFA has grown from a relatively modest sporting organization into one of the most powerful and certainly richest institutions in world sport. Large-scale football violence diminished in England during the same period that followed the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, the Taylor Report and the transformation of stadiums into all-seater environments. Football’s history suggests that abuse, like corruption, flourishes when loyalty and reputation are valued above scrutiny. That’s football’s filthy appeal.