布拉特如何将国际足联变成了一个“法外之地”？

    17年，塞普•布拉特已经像一位国王一样，将国际足联统治了足足17年之久。

    虽然他是通过选举获得了国际足联主席一职，但他奉行的是说一不二的专制统治。4年前，他在没有竞争对手的情况下当选。尽管十多年来一直遭到财务管理不善的指责，但布拉特在国际足联209个成员国中依旧很受欢迎。在最近的一次选举中，他再次大获全胜，他的竞争对手甚至在投票程序结束之前便宣布退出。而就在这次选举之前，有14名国际足联高官被捕，并将面临贪污和制度性腐败的指控。

    只是在美国司法部迫使布拉特一名下属佩戴窃听器之后，布拉特才宣布辞职，走下“王座”。

    为什么像塞普•布拉特这样一位受欢迎的领导者，会如此公然置道德约束于不顾，任由腐败文化滋长？

    事实证明，许多问题都与一件最简单、最基本的东西有关：权力。布拉特和国际足联都拥有太多的权力。

    布拉特掌握的权力源于国际足联与其他世界性机构不同的运行模式。在国际足联主席选举期间，209个国际足联成员国各有一票，投票权的分配和成员国人口多寡或是否曾参加过世界杯毫无关系。多年来，布拉特通过分配国际足联的收入，为贫穷国家投入了更多资源——这些国家之前一直被国际足联忽视，迫切需要这些资源。这样做的另一个“好处”就是，许多国家都对布拉特忠心耿耿，导致他的地位牢不可摧。

    那么，国际足联又拥有多大的权力？国际足联自己的主席曾经宣布“国际足联的影响力，超过了世界上任何国家、任何宗教，因为它通过开展足球运动向人们传递正能量。”足球所激发的情绪，使国际足联能够占有大量的资源：自1999年以来，国际足联积累的财富达到145亿美元。

    当然，布拉特与国际足联掌握的权力并不全是坏事。事实上，权力是一种催化力量，能够推动我们的世界向前发展，释放人类的潜能，成就一番伟业。通常情况下，大权在握的感觉具有建设性意义。在感觉拥有更多权力的时候，我们大多数人会表现得更好。毕竟，这种感觉可以让我们更自信地展示自我，要求我们应得的加薪。权力帮助布拉特将足球运动扩展到全世界。

    正如我们在即将出版的一本新书《朋友与敌人：何时合作，何时竞争，如何共赢》所述，权力的影响不止于此。权力会让我们的思考、感觉和行为方式发生变化，使我们陷入麻烦当中——有时候问题会非常严重。而且这种影响不只限于个人：拥有更大权力的机构往往会面临同样的命运。

    我们在过去15年的研究显示，权力会从根本上改变一个人，令他感觉自己是隐形的、无敌的。就布拉特而言，这种感觉让他失去王冠。而国际足联需要为此承担的后果，可能是多位高官锒铛入狱。

    这种隐形的、无敌的感觉，会让人们产生“脱抑制性心理”，做出不该做的事情。我们可能会谎报开支，向商业合作伙伴撒谎，甚至索取贿赂，但在正常情况下，我们的行为抑制系统会发挥作用，使我们抵制住诱惑。在说话的时候同样如此。我们可能脑海中想起了某些不恰当的事情，但（谢天谢地）我们会抵制住将它说出口的诱惑。

    For 17 years, Sepp Blatter reigned supremely over his FIFA kingdom.

    Though he was elected to his position, his rule was absolute. Four years ago, he ran unopposed in elections. And even after decades of accusations of financial mismanagement, he remained wildly popular among FIFA’s 209 members. In the most recent election, just days after 14 senior soccer officials were indicted and arrested on charges of bribery and institutional corruption, his victory was so massive that his opponent withdrew from the competition before the voting process had even concluded.

    It was only after the U.S. Justice Department pressured an associate of Blatter to wear a wiretap that Blatter was finally dethroned.

    Why is it that a leader as popular as Sepp Blatter acted with such blatant disregard for moral constraints and presided over a culture of corruption?

    It turns out that a lot of the problem has to do with something so simple yet so fundamental: power. Both Blatter and FIFA had A LOT of it.

    Blatter held power because FIFA works differently from every other world body. Each of FIFA’s 209 member countries had the same single vote during FIFA Presidential elections, regardless of their population or whether they had ever participated in a World Cup. And over the years, Blatter divided FIFA’s revenues so that resources poured into poor countries — countries that had long been neglected by FIFA and desperately needed the infusion. And this distribution of resources did something else— it secured Blatter’s position by ensuring that scores of nations would loyally vote for Blatter.

    How powerful was FIFA? Well, its own president declared that it is “more influential than any country in the world or any religion through the positive emotions football triggers.” Those emotions evoked by soccer enabled FIFA to preside over a massive pot of resources: amassing $14.5 billion since 1999.

    Of course, the power that Blatter and FIFA held wasn’t all bad. In fact, power is a catalyzing force that moves our world forward and unleashes our potential to accomplish great things. Often, feelings of power are constructive and most of us will perform better when we feel more powerful. After all, this feeling helps us to deliver a confident presentation and ask for the raise that we deserve. And power helped Blatter expand soccer throughout the world.

    As we mention in our forthcoming book, Friend & Foe:When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at Both, the effects of power don’t stop there. Power can cause us to think, feel and act in ways that get us into trouble — sometimes serious trouble. And it’s not just individuals: Institutions that have greater power often suffer the same fate.

    Our research over the last 15 years shows that power fundamentally transforms people by making them feel both invisible and invincible. For Blatter, these feelings cost him his crown. For FIFA more broadly, it is likely to lead many of its executives to prison.

    The feelings of invisibility and invincibility lead people to feel disinhibited and do things they really shouldn’t be doing. We might be tempted to misreport our expenses, lie to a business partner, or even ask for a bribe, but normally our inhibition system kicks in and we resist temptation. The same is true about saying inappropriate things that come to mind. We might think something, but (thankfully) we resist the temptation to say it.