FIFA Fiasco

Time for CollinsBeans’ two pence on the World Cup bid

Plenty of frustration has been aired following yesterday afternoon’s FIFA voting on the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. And I don’t think anyone can proclaim to know the full picture. Certainly England’s bid looked strong and whatever your personal and political persuasions, it was hard to argue with the impressive and heavyweight presentation line-up of David Beckham, David Cameron and Prince William. Yet it seemed to count for nothing, and the suggestion is that votes were traded for different bids.

What seems to be clear is that FIFA, certainly in this country, has come out of this with yet more damage to its reputation. I have no real idea of what goes on in that organisation, but Sepp Blatter, Jack Warner and company don’t fill me with any sort of confidence. Untrustworthy is a polite way of putting it.

On the surface of things, I can see the thinking behind the decision to give Russia the 2018 tournament. However, the Qatar choice baffles me. I know one or two people who have spent time in the area, and the reports aren’t great. 45 degree heat, air conditioned stadiums and training complexes never to be used again, no interest in the game, no passion and high costs. It doesn’t necessarily raise the hopes of a great tournament, and the petty, bitter and frustrated side of me quite wants the whole thing to be a disaster, in the vain hope it might shake up FIFA a bit.

As is often the case, Henry Winter has written an informative article on the subject which is copied below. As he points out, while FIFA is deplorable it might also be time to have a long, hard look at what exactly is going on with football in this country. It’s definitely not been a great week for the “home” of the game…

Henry Winter: Fifa should be ashamed while the FA must reflect following the World Cup 2018 vote

Deep into the darkest, coldest, cruellest Swiss night, the shock over England’s 2018 World Cup humiliation slowly subsided but the raging at Fifa remained.

“We were stitched up,” confided a member of the England bid team. “The Prime Minister was stitched up. He thought he had a number of votes locked down.”

He didn’t. For all the hours put in by David Cameron, for all the glad-handing by David Beckham and Prince William, England managed just one vote, along with that of Geoff Thompson.

England went out in the first round; even Fabio Capello’s side reached the second World Cup stage in the summer. The annus horribilis was complete.

Recriminations abounded on a day of dismay for England and shame for Fifa. Some within the England team pointed to Fifa’s ire over Monday night’s Panorama, believing it to be the reason why the accused Jack Warner turned against them.

Others just fulminated privately about Fifa, about the decision to go for Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.

Some logic can be detected in Fifa thinking over the land of the Great Bear, which has never hosted the World Cup and boasts a past footballing pedigree in Lev Yashin and current stars like Andrei Arshavin, whose emotional speech here on Thursday was genuinely moving.

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 was saying “to hell with the fans”. Qatar 2022 will be a joyless experience for supporters.

“Russia and Qatar are the new frontiers, I guess,” reflected a rueful Paul Elliott of the England bid team. “We just believed we were a great pair of hands; we were just about giving to the world, not taking.”

Giving and taking. Fifa’s credibility was battered on Thursday, 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.

The sense of anger within the England team was inescapable.

“We need to lay the ghost of losing this World Cup bid by winning the World Cup on the pitch in 2014 or 2018, especially 2018 in Russia,” said Richard Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive.

“We are bringing good players through our youth development at academies.”

The likes of Jack Wilshere, Jack Rodwell, Josh McEachran, Wayne Rooney, Adam Johnson, Joe Hart, Kieran Gibbs and Andy Carroll, among others, give Scudamore some hope for the future.

“Winning the World Cup is the only way we can restore the balance after this disappointment,” he added.

It will not be easy. Brazil 2014 will be played in the type of hot conditions that traditionally trouble English players, particularly at the end of a long season.

“It’s always going to be more difficult when you are playing in another country,” said Alan Shearer. “It might have been easier if it had been in England.”

A feeling of injustice coursed through England as if they had been denied by another Hand of God.

Shearer was “numbed ... angry”. Scudamore sighed about Fifa politics.

“Our bid team did a fantastic job,” continued Scudamore. “You won’t see a better presentation. Look at David Cameron. Look at Eddie Afekafe. They do all that brilliantly and then for the Fifa family saying it all counts for nothing is so disappointing. We have to address the politics.” Both FA and Fifa.

On and off the pitch, England have gone backwards over the past decade; having gained five votes in the failed, vilified bid for the 2006 World Cup, England received only two this time. Two! Thompson and one another.

So England, home to the world’s most popular league, boasts only one friend in world football.

The FA needs a more assertive character working the breakfast-rooms frequented by Fifa. “We’ve got Mohammed Bin Hammam,” said a Qatari source of its dynamic exco member. “You’ve got Geoff Thompson. That’s the difference.”

Of the four 2018 bids, England’s was the only one that did not use their exco member on stage. Uncle Albert, as Thompson is known in the FA, is no leader. Time to go.

The FA has a chance to change. A new chairman is about to be appointed in Roger Burden, the low-key man from the Cheltenham and Gloucester.

The Premier League would like to see the FA have an international president, somebody such as David Dein, to travel the world, building up relations.

Uncle Albert out, Five Agendas in. With Jim Boyce of Northern Ireland replacing Thompson on Fifa’s ExCo, England need the energetic Dein even more.

Just as Fifa’s credibility has taken a hammering, so has the FA’s.

Pushed on the matter, Hugh Robertson, the Sports Minister, stressed that an English wake was not the ideal time to discuss whether Government should become involved but added there might be movement “next week”.

An impressive figure, Robertson looked in the mood for intervention.

The FA needs outside assistance because problems beset the game, from the early signs of a return of hooliganism with England, to grass-roots issues, to dissent, to a national team failing to keep possession.

Maybe Panorama would care to investigate those serious concerns. Don’t hold your breath.

The FA must also absorb more knowledge from the professional ranks. “Sir Trevor [Brooking] has done a fantastic job at the FA and he’s a great man,” reflected Elliott, the former England B defender.

“But we’ve got to increase that participation of former players at the FA.”
Elliott, a prominent anti-racism campaigner, voiced concerns over a World Cup in Russia.

“For the sake of world football, I hope the Russians can make the same progress as we have done with Kick It Out and look to guidance on how to deal with it,” continued Elliott.

“I would say to the Russians look at the fabulous work we’ve done in England to make it a very diverse, multi-racial community.”

The fallout from Fifa’s day of shame will continue.