Ever since Swiss police arrested over half a dozen officials on behalf of the United Stated Department of Justice back in May, FIFA's top sponsors have been publically calling for reform. After years of public bribery, graft, theft and corruption, the top money makers have said enough is enough.

Sepp Blatter met with representatives of Coca-Cola, Visa, McDonalds, Ab Inbev (Budweiser), and Adidas on Thursday to update the group on the steps the lame-duck president is instituting to reform FIFA. It's unclear if the group laughed at the ideas, or just the execution. For fans who have been demanding change, this was a huge first step in real change happening.

For months now it's been obvious that FIFA wouldn't change on its own accord, and it would require one of two organizations to force the situation: sponsors or police. The FBI and Swiss police are doing their parts by continuing investigations, separately, into corruption while other government agencies around the world are beginning, or cooperating with, their own probes. The most notable of the bunch is in Paraguay where the federal government has removed the immunity tag on CONMEBOL's headquarters to allow their police and prosecutors the chance to clean up the South American organization.

While the Sponsor Five represent the biggest group of investors, it should be noted that a big chunk of FIFA's revenue comes from the broadcasting side and those companies (such as FOX, Telemundo, and others) have been a bit more quiet over recent issues than this group.

So what steps are FIFA taking? Well, as FIFA is wont, they have created a committee to investigate ways to end corruption and to recommend steps on how to reform itself. This sounds great on paper until one takes a look at who is on the committee. Kevan Gosper, a former IOC Vice President accused (and cleared) of corruption charges; Gorka Villar, the son of crooked Spanish FA head Angel Maria Villar; Hany Abo Rida and Constant Omari, both members of the crooked Executive Committee, are the highlights of the group. Sure it's being chaired by Francois Charrad, who helped reform the International Oliympic Committee at the turn of the millenium, but he is surrounded by the crooked and corrupt so the chances of him being able to suggest real changes are likely slim to none.

Some of the changes suggested are publication of salaries, stricter vetting of cadidates and even term limits. All of those are wonderful ideas but still miss the biggest problem (no surprise there). There is zero accountability of where money from FIFA to the confederations and federations goes. When a federation receives a GOAL Grant, there is no follow through to make sure that money goes to building, or maintaining, new fields or creating youth programs or what have you (as it's intended). More often than not, most, if not all, of that money goes into the pockets of corrupt officials the world over.

What FIFA needs is to create an arm that tracks the money and has the power to punish those who misuse those funds. It'd also be real nice if Sepp Blatter, or whomever replaces him in February, would stop handing out million dollar bribes bonuses willy nilly to rally support (such as he did at a CAF meeting right after the previous World Cup). While this wouldn't clean up the organization completely (there is still the matter of Qatar and their money and politics, not to mention their death camps slave labor work force) it'd clean out the oldest, most rotten forms of corruption. The problem is how to enact such change when it'd lead to less (personal) money for federation heads the world over.

One thing is for certain and can be put onto stone tablets right now: if Michel Plantini wins the election in February, little will change at FIFA. Reforms will be enacted but they will simply be window dressing. The heart of the issue, money, won't be tackled and life will go on. Well, for members of FIFA. For the workers in Qatar it won't as they'll continue to die by the hundreds, resulting in at least 10,000 dead by the time the World Cup rolls around in 2022. Remember, Plantini was a key supporter and backer of Qatar hosting and it's unlikely he'd suggest (allow) they move the World Cup.