NFR - How did we let our game to be kidnapped

[FC Silver Fox]

Crisis ?  What's a crisis?  Sepp Blatter does have a point in a strange sort of way. No, wait a minute, listen....

Take the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, for example.  FIFA made close to 1.2M$ on this event (figures taken from the official FIFA 2010 finance report).  South Africa is still struggling to pay the 3.5 billion dollars it cost them to host the event (BBC report : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8718696.stm)

So Blatter is basically saying: "We're doing all right getting money from all different sources and spending it as we see fit. To hell with everyone else involved in football, from the roots up. We'll pay lip service to it, of course. Crisis?  What's a crisis?"

[Lighthouse]

Our game was taken from us years ago. It is the same with Government. When it became acceptable to lie and cheat, some fans said "Oh well, we would do the same in their shoes". Warnings were there, it was an open secret. But we were all too busy to care enough. We alow wars to start in our name, people to call us brother, while stabbing us in the back and the crimminal to run the game of football. All that will happen is the cheats will move on to be replaced by other cheats.

We allow it to happen. Well I don't because I have just mentioned it  079.gif but the rest of society does.

[The Equalizer]

If we pulled out of FIFA,we would need the Germans(might come) the Yanks,the Aussies,the Belgians ( they might be little but they never run away from a scrap) maybe Holland and a couple more.FIFA would then be powerless and we could bin the boad and start again,it needs a rebuild from the ground up but it will never happen,when tiny countries (Luxembourg)have the same voting rights as Germany,the USA ect-too much power to give up.

If England, Spain, Germany and Italy pulled out the rest would follow. Yesterday an interview with former FA chief, Mark Palios, brought up a couple of eye openers. He said that there are 208 member associations in FIFA and that a member the size of the Faroe Islands or San Marino (bloody miniature) have the same voting rights as the FA (fecking huge). The smaller members don't seem to give a flying toss who is in charge of the FA as they're basically glorified pub sides, so they just keep voting for Blatter and change will never happen.

Twisted and evil.

[finnster01]

Blatter wouldn't have lasted long in my local pub.  096.gig

[sipwell]

If we pulled out of FIFA,we would need the Germans(might come) the Yanks,the Aussies,the Belgians ( they might be little but they never run away from a scrap) maybe Holland and a couple more.FIFA would then be powerless and we could bin the boad and start again,it needs a rebuild from the ground up but it will never happen,when tiny countries (Luxembourg)have the same voting rights as Germany,the USA ect-too much power to give up.

If England, Spain, Germany and Italy pulled out the rest would follow. Yesterday an interview with former FA chief, Mark Palios, brought up a couple of eye openers. He said that there are 208 member associations in FIFA and that a member the size of the Faroe Islands or San Marino (bloody miniature) have the same voting rights as the FA (fecking huge). The smaller members don't seem to give a flying toss who is in charge of the FA as they're basically glorified pub sides, so they just keep voting for Blatter and change will never happen.

Twisted and evil.

That's democracy  :022:

The problem is not so much the votes from small countries, but the fact that the functioning of FIFA lacks any transparency. I don't think the public should know all the discussions regarding the sponsoring of world cups (how much a company pays, for what exactly) but all other decisions should be made in the open. The idea that the vote for a world cup should be closed is ridiculous. If you have nothing to hide, why would you be afraid to raise your hand or press a button with the country/countries you are honestly convinced deserve it best? Surely the representative is mandated by his national federation and works on the basis of instructions. The same counts for all minor decisions, such as allocation of funding to specific programs and such... That would make a "politique politicienne" figure as Blatter completely unacceptable and would lead to, as always, a Belgian taking over  :011:

[ImperialWhite]

If we pulled out of FIFA,we would need the Germans(might come) the Yanks,the Aussies,the Belgians ( they might be little but they never run away from a scrap) maybe Holland and a couple more.FIFA would then be powerless and we could bin the boad and start again,it needs a rebuild from the ground up but it will never happen,when tiny countries (Luxembourg)have the same voting rights as Germany,the USA ect-too much power to give up.

If England, Spain, Germany and Italy pulled out the rest would follow. Yesterday an interview with former FA chief, Mark Palios, brought up a couple of eye openers. He said that there are 208 member associations in FIFA and that a member the size of the Faroe Islands or San Marino (bloody miniature) have the same voting rights as the FA (fecking huge). The smaller members don't seem to give a flying toss who is in charge of the FA as they're basically glorified pub sides, so they just keep voting for Blatter and change will never happen.

Twisted and evil. 

That's democracy  :022:

The problem is not so much the votes from small countries, but the fact that the functioning of FIFA lacks any transparency. I don't think the public should know all the discussions regarding the sponsoring of world cups (how much a company pays, for what exactly) but all other decisions should be made in the open. The idea that the vote for a world cup should be closed is ridiculous. If you have nothing to hide, why would you be afraid to raise your hand or press a button with the country/countries you are honestly convinced deserve it best? Surely the representative is mandated by his national federation and works on the basis of instructions. The same counts for all minor decisions, such as allocation of funding to specific programs and such... That would make a "politique politicienne" figure as Blatter completely unacceptable and would lead to, as always, a Belgian taking over  :011:

How is that democracy? Constituencies should be of the same 'size'.

The Faroe Islands FA (just ten teams, 50th in the UEFA coefficient) has the same voting rights as everyone else - it's a rotten borough.

[Peabody]

Another problem is that if Blatter were to resign, who would take his place. One name I have heard mentioned is Chuck Blazer, the US representative and I really do not have a scoobey doo about him. Do any of our Americans know anything about him?

[richie17]

Blazer has been near enough to Jack Warner for years for there to be some smell attached to him too. It's hard to judge all this - has he, for instance, merely been keeping his head down because doing so and maintaining the status quo is best for American football? - but the fact that almost everyone on the committee has kept quiet for so long in the interests of preserving their perks is not great.

The thing that irks me most is how someone like Warner can get so powerful. As head of the Trinidadian FA there's no way he should have such influence, but that's how things have got.  The executive committee seems to be put together from people who - with all due respect (What a horrible phrase) are not from football's top countries.  For years they've taken the handouts, the expense allowances, and kept their heads down, but it has to stop. I think the IOC eventually opened up the committee to one member/one vote and introduced maximum terms on the committee, and the corruption stopped immediately. 

[richie17]

Blazer wouldn't be a consideration for leadership I don't think. You'd need someone who is seen as above the hurly burly of the current regime and all its trappings. 

Franz Beckenbauer has taken a step back to spend more time with his family, but as an independently wealthy former superstar would not be tainted with the greediness of the current climbing wannabies.

Michel Platini is not quite so pure but would have the same aura and more drive.

Someone like Lennart Johannsson (as a guess) was chief of UEFA and was held in fairly high esteem there.  I believe he wanted a run at Blatter but was maneuvered out of the way (details escape me).

[The Equalizer]

I vote Ron Atkinson for FIFA president.

[AlFayedsChequebook]

The FA are fantastic - remember the whole thing about the Panorama investigation being classed as 'unpatriotic'.... if anything, this is the only thing that allows the UK to save some face.

The thing with FIFA is that it has very little to do with football, it is all politics. And as soon as politics is involved, everything gets messy.

I don't know what the answer to the current problems are, but it has to start with a complete clearout of the current people involved at the highest level.

They should also move FIFA from Switzerland which did not have bribery laws until a few years ago and who have terrible regulatory powers.

[finnster01]

Which is exactly why FIFA has its HQ in Switzerland

[epsomraver]

One thing not mentioned is that in  large parts of the FIFA globe back handers and bribes are accepted business practice and it is open, other parts not so open but still goes on under the counter, the IOC was as FIFA for years but hopefully now has cleaned it's act up.

[sipwell]

How is that democracy? Constituencies should be of the same 'size'.

The Faroe Islands FA (just ten teams, 50th in the UEFA coefficient) has the same voting rights as everyone else - it's a rotten borough.

Don't all states in the American Senates have 2 votes, regardless of size and population? I think the current system is momentarily sub-optimal but a representation based on the number of football clubs/population/number of listed players would be sub-optimal too. It would distort the balance as big countries (like Brazil or England) would become all-dominant.

[finnster01]

the problem isn't the fact all 208 countries (or whatever the number is) has 1 single vote. They have no power anyway. The FIFA Congress only elect officials and get to go on a jolly or two all expenses paid every year.

The problem is the organization of the Executive Committee which really decides everything and is a list that includes some very dodgy nations that has a less than stellar record on the topic of corruption in general. Here is a list of the lot, including the "provisionally" suspended ones directly from the FIFA website: http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/federation/bodies/exco.html

[epsomraver]

Confirms what I just posted Finn, where you have a "bung culture" they will say " what have we done wrong ?" the problem here in the UK is we judge every nation on our standards rightly or wrongly.

[Burt]

Nothing short of what happened to the IOC will be good enough to get rid of the problems within FIFA.

The IOC kicked out a load of corrupt delegates, and was then re-constituted.

It's still not a perfect organisation, by any stretch. And I guess that when it comes to arranging a global event like the Olympics, World Cup, etc. there will always be politics surrounding the process. But at least the IOC realised that there was a perception problem, and took large steps to combat these.

Blatter just buries his head in the sands. He just doesn't get it. Even if there is not as much corruption as is being alleged, perception is as strong as reality and that needs acknowledging and dealing with.

So to the Congress that is gathering - a big

096.gig

to you all.

[timmyg]

I love Valcke's saying Qatar "bought" WC 2022 through their financial muscle, not by bribes. Is that like Whoopi Goldberg saying Roman Polanski didn't commit "rape-rape"?

And also, MbH getting suspended for clearly bribing CFU officials, but no further inquiries into the WC2022 bid process will be made. It's like a Prosecutor going after a drug dealer solely for possessing drugs, but refusing to investigate his $60k Lexus with illegal plates, or the unlicensed hand gun on him, or his involvement with other dealers...