I suppose that is not nearly specific enough, as a headline. First question is, “Which scandal?”

In this case … talking about today’s.

What happened?

Fifa has suspended two of its six continental federation chairmen (and executive committee members) as the ethics committee prepares for a full investigation into charges of bribery … and one of those guys was running against Sepp Blatter for president, until early today … and that same guy was marketing himself as the candidate for change and honesty and transparency and now Fifa is saying he’s a cheat.

But what really happened?

As in all things Fifa, we just take a guess.

The gist of it: Mohamed bin Hammam, presidential candidate until early this morning and president of the Asian Football Confederation, was suspended indefinitely from “all football activities,” as was Jack Warner, president of the North American federation (Concacaf, which I am not going to write out).

Sepp Blatter, the Fifa prez, had been charged by bin Hammam with failure to report alleged unethical activites involving him, bin Hammam, which always seemed strange (“When I was buying votes, you knew about it but didn’t report it.” What? But there you go.) That was back during the tit-for-tat  phase of the “campaign.”

So, our options, as I see them.

–Bin Hammam is a crook (a depressing thought) and Jack Warner is a crook (as we long suspected). Sepp Blatter is the guy who enabled them and leaned on them for years, by the way; until about 10 minutes ago, both had been described for more than a decade as “close allies” of Blatter who helped get him elected in 1998 and reelected in 2002.

–Bin Hammam and Warner have been railroaded by Sepp Blatter and his cronies. Bin Hammam was about to win the presidential election, and he was just having a friendly chat in Trinidad with Warner, and Blatter had Chuck Blazer, Warner’s No. 2, invent evidence charging them with bribery to get Hammam out of the way in the election and maybe get Warner out of the way for Blazer to take over Concacaf.

Must be other permutations here, but those are the most obvious two. (Thing to keep in mind is, these guys are behaving rather like mobsters maneuvering for advantage — I whack you before you can whack me.)

Bin Hammam had quit the president’s race in the wee hours today, presumably to give him half a day to have his message out there, before the ethics committee came in and said they believed they had enough evidence to suspend bin Hammam and Warner provisionally and call for a thorough investigation — which could result in life bans for both guys.

That saved Fifa the embarrassment of having to kick out one of its presidential candidates. But it’s not like it would have been much less embarrasing than what did go on.

Bin Hammam must have seen this coming; he must know they play rough at Fifa. Otherwise, if he thought his innocence was obvious to all, wouldn’t he keep up his fight for the presidency, especially when pressured by Blatter? He talked about how he didn’t want to see Fifa dragged down by the spectacle … but Fifa already is covered in mud, and if he really is the only agent of change in the election, shouldn’t he fight till the end? Instead, he quit.

It would have been better to make Fifa throw him out, and then say something about how “this is how Fifa acts when a real candidate for progress comes forward.”

Jack Warner has gone all loose cannon, charging that Jerome Valcke, Blatter’s right-hand man in Zurich, told him (Warner) that Qatar “bought” the 2022 World Cup … as if that somehow makes Fifa look any better. (Thanks, Jack.) Warner clearly now is just striking at any opponent he can find, but the man did warn of a “tsunami” if Fifa tried to mess with him.

What happens next?

Blatter will be reelected on Wednesday to another four-year term. (During the campaign, he promised it would be his last.) And if he is really going out of soccer after this, isn’t this the time to clean house at Fifa — if he has the slightest notion ever of doing so? It’s not like he can tick off people and ruin his chances at the next election. He’s not running again, remember?

Blatter apparently will put forward his “Zero Tolerance” plan for corruption at the Fifa Congress on Wednesday. Be interesting to see if it has any teeth, and if he and Fifa are even vaguely committed to it. I’m going to guess “no.”

As before, I would suggest blowing up the whole organization and starting over … if only I could figure out a way to make it happen.