Sorting Out Fifa!
With the Champions League Final going on today, FIFA have missed an easy way of sorting out their problems.
At the match or even at half-time, they could have a genuine shoot-out to see who prevails. After all, FIFA needs a strong person to sort out their problems and one who could survive a shoot-out would have a genuine advantage. On the other hand an innocent spectator might get injured by a stray bullet. But I suppose there is always Paintball guns, providing the gunk inside is indelible.
The shoot-out could also be linked to the match in the event of a draw. But then who’d want dear old Sepp? And some of those involved in the hoo-hahs at FIFA, are probably so bent they couldn’t shoot straight.
FIFA In Meltdown
Hopefully! But accusations are coming thick and fast. Not even the president is immune, if this BBC report is right.
To me, Sepp Blatter lost all credibility, when he failed to back goal-line technology, which in a similar fashion works so well in rugby and tennis. Read his Wikipedia entry and make your own conclusions.
I particularly like this bit.
In the 2006 FIFA World Cup after a controversial second-round match between Portugal and the Netherlands, which saw referee Valentin Ivanov issuing a record 16 yellow cards and four red cards, Blatter was said to have lambasted the officiating referee, and said that Ivanov should have given himself a yellow card for his poor performance as a referee. However he later regretted his words and promised to officially apologise to Ivanov. This apology was never given, and the referee was removed from further officiating. Also during the 2006 FIFA World Cup final in Germany, Blatter’s absence during the prize-podium event was noted and criticized in international media. It was claimed that the reason Blatter did not attend was because he was upset that Italy won instead of France. Blatter later apologised and said the reason he had shunned the presentation ceremony was because he was afraid of being whistled.
Let’s hope that FIFA sort out all of the accusations to every real football fan’s satisfaction.
Food At Wembley Tonight
Breakfast on BBC Radio 5 Live was talking about the overpriced snacks at the stadium. Here’s a letter I sent in.
It’s not only over-priced, but as a coeliac, there’s nothing there that is gluten-free. So the last time I went I starved. Scunthorpe is much better!
I suppose UEFA have got to raise the money to fund their lifestyle someway. So they’re not as much a disgrace as FIFA, but give them time, to either sort themselves out or learn.
What Will Sepp Blatter Do Now?
Lord Triesman didn’t hold his punches when in front of a parliamentary committee, he accused four FIFA members of improper behaviour over the bidding for the 2018 World Cup.
If I was Lord Triesman, I would take a few places of the list of where I might go for a holiday.
Is This Why We Didn’t Get the 2018 World Cup?
The Sunday Times is claiming that Nicholas Leoz of Paraguay wanted a knighthood to vote for England to be given the 2018 World Cup. So how many other of the world’s bad and nasty, who have the power in FIFA did we turn down? Obviously, Russia and Qatar, put a much better case to these idiots. Probably stuffed with used euros or dollars.
What Are the Odds on England Staging the 2014 World Cup?
According to The Times today, the progress for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil is virtually non-existent, with stadia and transport links, either not planned or years late.
FIFA would never take the World Cup away from Brazil, but where will they stage it in that country? I’m told the beaches are nice, even if the stadia are crap!
There are only a handful of countries that are ready to stage an event like the World Cup tomorrow, of which England and the United States are two. But as they aren’t on Sepp Blatter’s Christmas Card list, it would be unlikely they’d be given the chance.
But then the finals will have to be played somewhere!
Bonkers FIFA
I can understand giving the World Cup to Russia for 2018, but to give it to Qatar for 2022, is probably one of the stupidest decisions they have made in recent years, amongst a whole basketfull.
I’ve been to Russia to support Ipswich and although it was a day trip, it was a pleasureable experience. Especially as Ipswich won in the Olympic Stadium, where Seb Coe and Steve Ovett won their gold medals.
My only worry about Russia is that the Russian police are not noted for being friendly. Even a few thousand Ipswich supporters, who are not noted for trouble, were treated with strong suspicion. When I went to Belarus to support England, other England fans, I said that Minsk was a really pleasureable experience compared to an earlier visit to Moscow, where the police were overly aggressive.
But that is a problem, they will have to overcome, just as they’ll have to come to terms with black players, who often don’t get the best of reception from the crowds in Russia.
When I heard Qatar had won, I thought it was a joke.
The games will be played in very high temperatures, drinking by fans will be a problem and the population of Qatar is only 1.6 million, so it must be the smallest country ever to stage a World Cup. So if they fulfil their promise of building 12 stadia, they would just about be big enough to hold the whole population of the country.
I suspect that it will be the first World Cup that will be played in an alternative venue or it might well be the least successful in terms of visitor numbers. After all, some of the cheaper options for travel and accommodation, will just not be available.
I suspect too, that we’ve not heard the last of these two World Cup bids, when a few investigative journalists get their noses into the story.
I also can’t get it out of my mind, that for 2022, the United States was one of the bidders and I suspect that their bid was strong. So did the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan mean that no-one would vote for England or the United States.
This article from the Brisbane Times is a good summary of the farce. Like England, Australia got just one vote.
This paragraph from the article quotes Henry Winter of the Daily Telegraph.
But prominent English football analyst Henry Winter, while lamenting his country’s loss, wrote in London’s Daily Telegraph that Qatar’s win was “the real scandal” and that FIFA credibility was battered by its decisions.
“Yet the real scandal in FIFA-ville was the decision to award the 2022 tournament to Qatar, a soulless, featureless, air-conditioned, cramped place with so little connection to football it required hired hands like Pep Guardiola. It was as if FIFA were saying ‘to hell with the fans’. Qatar 2022 will be a joyless experience for supporters,” Winter said.
“FIFA’s credibility was battered yesterday, not by any allegations of corruption but by the cynical game of collusion and vote-trading that patently went on in Fifa House. All the fish are soiled.”
We’ve not heard the last of this scandal.
Have the BBC Shot Themselves in the Foot?
Panorama tonight reports that members of FIFA have taken bribes in the past. I would not know if they have, but then the records of the worlds’ top sporting bodies on corruption is generally not as snow white as it should be.
But I would not like to be the man from the BBC negotiating the next set of TV rights for the World Cup. I suspect that the matches won’t be shown on the BBC.
Can FIFA be Trusted?
Yet again we’re seeing allegations abut the voting for a major sports event. In this case it’s the 2018 World Cup, with delegates from Nigeria and Tahiti being accused of being prepared to sell their votes.
FIFA seem to be taking control, but I do wonder if their voting structure makes it very difficult to get everything squeaky clean.
The Anonymous Widower 