The ways in which FIFA are killing football

[Tails]

General thread for good old fashioned FIFA hating.

I see that their decision to reward Russian Football has been vindicated with yet another episode of racial hatred, this time directed at one of the greatest left backs ever to grace the game.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13906779.stm

[Wax Jacket]

they've spent millions all over the world some of the poorest countries to pay for various football academies, supporting poor nations with costs for getting to matches etc. a bit like the last Labour govt no-one ever bothers to look for the good stuff

[Tails]

The work of the people on the ground doing the good work IMO - not those at the top of the tree.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

In 2003, many English fans saw no wrong in singing "I'd rather be a Paki than a Turk" when we played Turkey.

Even comfortable middle class Reading fans used to regularly taunt Bradford with "You've gone a town full of Pakis" from the southbank when they came to town.


There are bad problems with racism in Russia, and much of eastern europe in general, but people are very quick to forget such actions aren't that much of a distant memory here too.

[From Despair To Where?]

they've spent millions all over the world some of the poorest countries to pay for various football academies, supporting poor nations with costs for getting to matches etc. a bit like the last Labour govt no-one ever bothers to look for the good stuff

Let's be honest, FIFa have done 100 times more for grass roots football and smaller associations round the world than the FA have ever done for Grass roots football and smaller organisations in England. A case of the pot and the kettle from the FA

And they wonder why no one in a developing nation voted for the 2018 bid whilst they persist with their usual self important bullshit like "Game 39". There's only so long you can live off the good will of the "we invented the game" mantra whist you are shitting on everyone else for your own gain.

[soggy biscuit]

General thread for good old fashioned FIFA hating.

I see that their decision to reward Russian Football has been vindicated with yet another episode of racial hatred, this time directed at one of the greatest left backs ever to grace the game.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13906779.stm

reckon something like the World Cup could do an awful lot of good in Russia to help sort these things out then.

[soggy biscuit]

Listened to a programme on the radio around the time of the Blatter election and they were basically saying that England stands almost alone in thinking FIFA are so bad.

They have done an awful lot of good work in developing countries

[papereyes]

Listened to a programme on the radio around the time of the Blatter election and they were basically saying that England stands almost alone in thinking FIFA are so bad.

They have done an awful lot of good work in developing countries

I would imagine a lot of that stems from the big change in FIFA a way back where the presidency (not Blatter but the one before that - a quick wiki shows that Havalange succeeded Rous (a dubiously titled Englander)) was won by assiduously courting the smaller nations at the expense of the major nations.

That FIFA has then gone onto bring the developing nations up at the sometime expense of the more major nations is hardly surprising.

IIRC, Havalange was utterly, irredeemably corrupt.

[Ian Royal]

they've spent millions all over the world some of the poorest countries to pay for various football academies, supporting poor nations with costs for getting to matches etc. a bit like the last Labour govt no-one ever bothers to look for the good stuff

Let's be honest, FIFa have done 100 times more for grass roots football and smaller associations round the world than the FA have ever done for Grass roots football and smaller organisations in England. A case of the pot and the kettle from the FA

And they wonder why no one in a developing nation voted for the 2018 bid whilst they persist with their usual self important bullshit like "Game 39". There's only so long you can live off the good will of the "we invented the game" mantra whist you are shitting on everyone else for your own gain.

Pretty sure Game 39 was the Premier League and had nothing to do with the FA, or FL for that matter.

PS not defending FIFA - top dogs are scummers.

[From Despair To Where?]

But The Premier League comes under the auspices of the FA. Can the FA be blamed for it's own lumbering bastard offsping pissing off half the planet with it's scheming obsession for making money out of old rope? Possibly not. Should a governing body grow a pair and try to reign in the excesses of an organisation that comes under its auspices yet causes considerable damage to its worldwide reputation through its rampant absession with making money? Most definitely.

[Ian Royal]

Fair point.

[Hoop Blah]

Let's be honest, FIFa have done 100 times more for grass roots football and smaller associations round the world than the FA have ever done for Grass roots football and smaller organisations in England. A case of the pot and the kettle from the FA.

So what have or haven't the FA done for grassroots football in England which you think is so bad?

[From Despair To Where?]

Where did I say the FA had dome anything bad. Just that FIFA does a lot more throughout the World. The FA complains that FIFA is corrupt yet due to the finger-in-the-pie antics of the likes of Ken Bates, they can't build a stadium anywhere near to budget or on time. They complain about ticket allocations at World Cups yet only allocate 40% of FA Cup final tickets to competing teams. They complain about sleaze at FIFA yet, due employ a revolving door policy to the chairman's office. All I'm saying is that for every argument against FIFA, you can have an equally valid one against the FA

[Hoop Blah]

So what's that got to do with the FA not doing much for grassroots football then?

Just seemed an odd thing to throw at the FA when they support the game pretty well, especially against the might of the professional game. It's their stewardship of the grassroots level and the involvement of it's representatives alongside those from the professional ranks that often gets criticised by the pros and media.

The FA are by no means a perfect organisation, and they're fighting a tough battle against the all powerful Premier League (largely of their own making if you ask me) and the money brokers within it but I think their hearts in the right place, especially where grassroots football is involved.

[From Despair To Where?]

So what's that got to do with the FA not doing much for grassroots football then?

Just seemed an odd thing to throw at the FA when they support the game pretty well, especially against the might of the professional game. It's their stewardship of the grassroots level and the involvement of it's representatives alongside those from the professional ranks that often gets criticised by the pros and media.

The FA are by no means a perfect organisation, and they're fighting a tough battle against the all powerful Premier League (largely of their own making if you ask me) and the money brokers within it but I think their hearts in the right place, especially where grassroots football is involved.

At no point did I say that the FA don't do much for grass roots football. I was agreeing with Wax Jacket's assertion that FIFA has done a lot of good for the World game and suggesting that this is on a scale significantly greater than the FA ever has or ever will, that is it's role after all, to look after the grass roots of football throughout the world. However, all we hear is an Anglocentric view of FIFA as a bad, corrupt organisation a view shared by practically no other Football Association in the world bar the footballing giants of Scotland and Australia.

A thread titled "the ways in which FIFA are killing football" does wind me up when the the commonly held belief throughout the world is that FIFA is a power for good and English football is a negative influence on the development of domestic football. FIFA will always make decisions that benefit some more than others. It's the constant bleating that highlights the bad and ignores the good, something the FA seems to be a prominant flagbearer for and the media lap it up as if it's gospel.

By all means throw accusations about, but at least make sure the same accusations cannot be thrown back at you. The FA have an uncanny knack of rubbing up the whole footballing world the wrong way. A hell of a lot of goodwill within UEFA was lost by going back on a deal with the DFB to not compete with for WC2006 in exchange for getting Euro 96, the very same type of reneged gentleman's agreement that the FA bemoaned with regard to the 2018 bid. Whilst the majority benefit from the way FIFA is run, nothing will ever change. It's all about the winning of hearts and minds, something that Blatter and the people who run FIFA are very good at.

[Hoop Blah]

Fair enough. I read the following quote as having a dig at the FA's work for and with grass roots football here in England. Obviously the FA can't really compete with the volume of work FIFA can do or effect all over the world when it's remit is predominantly just within the confines of the UK.

FIFa have done 100 times more for grass roots football and smaller associations round the world than the FA have ever done for Grass roots football and smaller organisations in England.

If that wasn't intended as a dig at the FA's effectiveness and good work then just ignore me!

I'd agree that the demonisation of FIFA is a bit wide of the mark in many respects but it is an organisation with serious problems at the top of it's chain of command, more so that the FA where lots of good people have walked away because of frustrations with speed of change etc, whereas at FIFA there aren't those 'good people' and there isn't any appetite for change because the corruption and self interest is so paramount.

I often wonder why we seem so hell bent on cleaning up corruption in organisations such as FIFA and the IOC. Large parts of the world do a hell of a lot of business through backhanders, bribes, gifts, call it what you will, so why should such organisations pander to the likes of us and the USA in trying to do things as we consider to be above board (apart from it's the large corps from USA and Western Europe that provide the lions share of both organisations revenues).

[From Despair To Where?]

I appreciate that may have come across as dismissive of the FA's role in grass roots football. It was meant to be an affirmative statement of what FIFA actually do.

The prevailing portrayal of FIFA in this country is such that it would be akin to claiming that all the FA do is run the FA Cup and put out a representative team every 2 months. It goes much deeper but you rarely hear about it.

With over 200 members, it is not unreasonable to siphon development funds towards countries without the finances and infrastructure to do it for themselves. As you say, the business culture in a lot of the world is unorthodox by our terms. It's neither right or wrong, it's just how it is. I'm sure if FIFA had contributed towards the £400m overspend on Wembley, or the FA's move away from Lancaster Gate, you'd hear nothing but good words to say about FIFA and would result in favourable voting by the FA. I don't see it as inherantly wrong that someone has voted favourably within FIFA after receiving funds for his association to provide usable, safe facilities with good coaching.

[SpaceCruiser]

A hell of a lot of goodwill within UEFA was lost by going back on a deal with the DFB to not compete with for WC2006 in exchange for getting Euro 96,

Maybe, just maybe, the FA were pissed off with Germany for winning Euro 96....

[Ian Royal]

A hell of a lot of goodwill within UEFA was lost by going back on a deal with the DFB to not compete with for WC2006 in exchange for getting Euro 96,

Maybe, just maybe, the FA were pissed off with Germany for winning Euro 96....

What the feck's that got to do with anything? And why should we be pissed off that the best team won the tournament because we choked yet again?

[Svlad Cjelli]

A hell of a lot of goodwill within UEFA was lost by going back on a deal with the DFB to not compete with for WC2006 in exchange for getting Euro 96,

Maybe, just maybe, the FA were pissed off with Germany for winning Euro 96....

As if that would be relevant - what goes on in the dark corridors of teh FA and what goes on on the pitch are millions of miles apart.

All around the world local FAs hate the way the English game is organised and marketed - they hate having the commercial juggernaut of the Premier League more popular and more available than their own local leagues, and the worldwide TV a media coverage and of the PL does act as a disincentive to local leagues succeeding. People will spend their money on satellite subscriptions and replica shirts with Gerrard, Lampard, Fabregas and Tevez on rather than spend it going to watch their own local clubs. Understandably, FAs around the world resent this - and weren't best pleased when teh idea of Gam£ 39 was landed on them with no prior consultation.

Add to this resentment in Europe where many clubs and their respective FAs resent that fact that English PL clubs have been successful in European competition on a mountain of debt, which they don't have access too.

Lastly, though, the thread title might have been more accurate to be "The ways in which FIFA are diminishing European influence on football and increasing it across the rest of the world." - although that'd never fit into the box. But whether the people who put money into world football, and how FIFA distribute their money across the world, another debate.