Fifa puff pic United Passions was sent for an early bath at the US box office, after takings of just over $600 (£394) from its opening weekend.

Frédéric Auburtin’s film, funded by the football governing body and starring Tim Roth as Sepp Blatter, scored $607 from its 10-cinema limited run, according to the Hollywood Reporter. One cinema, the FilmBar in Phoenix, Arizona, reported one ticket sold, a site take of $9.

Budgeted at somewhere between $25-32m, United Passions received three-quarters of its funding from Fifa. The organisation is in crisis after multiple officials were arrested by the FBI for racketeering, fraud and money laundering. Blatter, Fifa president for 17 years, quit last week just four days after winning re-election.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/08/fifa-film-united-passions-scores-just-607-in-us-opening-weekend

United Passions review – Fifa propaganda is pure cinematic excrement

Two hours of wretched, self-congratulatury Fifa history is disastrous cinema, but valuable proof of corporate insanity. And Tim Roth as Sepp Blatter – why?

So where did Fifa’s money go ? Considering that the film United Passions was principally bankrolled by the now-shamed sports organisation, it isn’t unfair to say some of the dough must have ended up in the pockets of Tim Roth, Gérard Depardieu, Sam Neill and Fischer Stevens.

You could argue and say they’re only actors, and actors like to work, but they surely read the screenplay before they signed on. Even without the current headlines, United Passions is a disgrace. It’s less a movie than preposterous self-hagiography, more appropriate for Scientology or the Rev Sun Myung Moon. As cinema it is excrement. As proof of corporate insanity it is a valuable case study.
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The stretch of the film in which we’re to groove on “Blatter doin’ work” is, and I swear I’m not making this up, a series of meetings in which he lands big-ticket sponsorship deals. The camera dwells lovingly on a trunk full of Adidas products. The big “we did it” is a phone call Blatter makes to Havelange (in his private pool overlooking the ocean), announcing interest from Coca-Cola. None of this is done through a Mad Men-like lens. This is pure corporate pamphleteering. The final act concerns virtuous Blatter winning a re-election despite having “enemies” elsewhere on the board. Did I say corporate pamphleteering? More like Stalinist propaganda.

This would all be a goof if the ripple effects from Fifa weren’t so severe (the deaths in Qatar make this no laughing matter). Blatter and the other Fifa execs will have their day in court, but United Passions’ very existence is a strong bit of evidence of just how rotten and delusional this organisation became. Had the arrests in Switzerland not happened, this wretched movie would have disappeared without trace. Now it is something to scrutinise – and learn from.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/04/united-passions-review-tim-roth-sam-neill-gerard-depardieu

Dribbling Nonsense: FIFA Plays to Distract in the Risible United Passions

Frédéric Auburtin’s absurdly hagiographic drama United Passions purports to tell the history of FIFA — the world’s governing institution for soccer — from its 1904 founding up until its announcement of South Africa as the host country for the 2010 World Cup. Auburtin takes pains to paint FIFA in the most glowing possible light, eliding entirely controversies that have dogged it for decades, including numerous accusations of corruption and tacit support of human rights abuses: One recent report alleged that more than 62 laborers working on preparing the 2022 Qatar World Cup will die for each game played at the tournament.
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As propaganda, United Passions is as subtle as an anvil to the temple. As drama, it’s not merely ham-fisted, but pork-shouldered, bacon-wristed, and sausage-elbowed. The script is essentially a press release with speaking parts and exposition. The “action” is a dulling catalog of frictionless, uninteresting administrative scenarios captured with blandly glossy photography and slathered in a syrupy orchestral score. One scene comes tantalizingly close to providing some actual conflict. An investigative journalist confronts Blatter about rumors of financial foul play, but just before Blatter has a chance to engage, Auburtin, in an evasive flourish of breathtaking audacity, launches into a montage, incongruously scored to Talking Heads’ jaunty “Wild Wild Life,” spanning the sixteen years from World Cups Argentina ’78 to U.S.A. ’94.

It's understandable that FIFA would rather not air its dirty laundry in public, but do they really believe that United Passions will convince anyone but the most credulous viewers of its spotless ethics? Their task has been made harder by the surprising news that several FIFA officials have been arrested and will be extradited to the United States on federal corruption charges. The timing of the American release, then, couldn’t be more bitterly ironic: It was intended to commemorate the inevitable re-election of Blatter, a man so confident of securing a fifth successive term that he didn’t publish a manifesto. Instead, its shameless propaganda has been made to look even more laughable — a remarkable feat.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2015-06-03/film/united-passions-fifa-movie/