Let's move the goalposts

Day -864. ‪WorldCup2018‬.

After watching The English Patient it must be my sub conscious counter emotion, that took my memory to one of the most ridiculously comical episodes at a World Cup. And it is Sunday, after all.
Bulgaria-Mexico, 1994, Chicago. The goalpost collapsed and there is surreal World Cup memory of men dismantling the remnants of it, and then running on with a replacement. All this during the match while the players stood around.
It really happened, but there is very little video evidence of it out there. It was the same match where the referee sent off a player from one team, for a reason unknown to anybody there (even the American supporters), but then quickly evened things out by sending off a player from the other team for an equally ridiculous reason.

Bulgaria had the last laugh as they went on to beat Germany in the quarter final and were terribly unlucky to lose to Italy in the semi final. Yes, imagine that. In 1994 Bulgaria were in the World Cup semi finals. Last year they drew with Malta in yet another disappointing qualifying campaign, this time for the European Championships.

Alliances

Day -865. ‪WorldCup2018‬.

A quick read through the latest news on the Fifa presidential candidates shows that there seems to be a patter emerging. The majority of the European associations are going to vote for the UEFA man, Gianni Infantino. In opposition to Infantino there is talk of an alliance between the African backers of the African candidate Tokyo Sexwale and the Asians who are hoping their man, Sheikh Salman al-Khalifa is the next president.

Overall it looks like it is going to be a repetition of the last couple of elections where Sepp Blatter campaigned (campaigned? sure we'll call it that) heavily amongst the Africans and Asians while the Europeans tried to make themselves believe that they were offering a strong alternative. Who ever even really knew, or gave it any consideration, whether anybody was a better candidate than Blatter. A few "football development" programmes and some fancy new stadiums, both with the associated revenues for anybody connected to the projects, won over any consideration of the personal attributes of Blatter, with no thought for the other candidate.

So it's the Europeans up against the probable alliance of the Asians and Africans, with the South Americans made to feel like their votes are important too (but there's not many of them anyway). And then when the powers that be figure that their candidate's potential votes need some boosting the countries of North, Central America and the Caribbean federation, and the Oceania islands will become very important players. Actually, let's take North America out of there. There’s only two of them and I somehow don't think, or I would like to believe, that the American or Canadian associations could face their members if they voted for Sheikh Salman al-Khalifa.

To take that thought a step further, I do not believe that Fifa could be asked to be taken seriously as an organisation promoting any sort of goodwill around the world if the majority of its members think that Sheikh Salman is a suitable person to lead them. The Sheikh has been accused of being involved in identifying athletes who were involved in pro-democracy demonstrations in Bahrain in 2011 and that some of those identified were imprisoned and tortured. Of course there have been official denials and reports of investigations produced to show he had no involvement. But, in response to reports of him now being the favourite to become the next Fifa president, here is, once again, the view of Nicholas McGeehan, the Gulf researcher at Human Rights Watch:

"If a member of Bahrain’s royal family is the cleanest pair of hands that Fifa can find, then the organisation would appear to have the shallowest and least ethical pool of talent in world sport."

And more from Mr McGeehan:

"At a time when Fifa is going through the biggest crisis in its history it would seem like an act of institutional suicide for it to appoint as its leader a man who was apparently responsible for sanctioning clubs who failed to show loyalty to a murderous regime.”

Late night

Day -866. ‪WorldCup2018‬.

Good night Day -866. I've got to start this doing earlier in the night....evening even....or day.

Pop the Champagne

Day -867. ‪WorldCup2018‬.

You would think that with one of Fifa's most important votes coming up in a few weeks, we would be inundated with news about the Presidential candidates. If you look for it you will find it, but there's a hardly a sense of a build up to the big day.

So here's a couple of interesting stories from today. One candidate, Jerome Champagne, was having lunch today with Noël Le Graët, President of the French Football Federation. Le Graët told Champagne that he was going to vote for UEFA's candidate, Gianni Infantino, to which Champagne responded that he would protest at the highest political level. Le Graët stood up, yelled and swore at Champagne, threw money down on the table (for the bill, no bribes here) and stormed out. It really happened. There are witnesses. So all fun over there in France.

Meanwhile, our favourite named candidate, Tokyo Sexwale has admitted he has a strategy. And it's not about him winning. It's about ensuring the winner is from Asia and Africa. So he's talking about alliances. And apparently Doha is the place to be this Saturday for those ready to discuss some serious football politics. There's a football match going on so that's always an excuse for a bit of over the top wining and dining. As if even more proof was needed that this election is all about politics. And it's the same game that's been going on at Fifa for years, with different players.

http://www.theguardian.com/…/fifa-president-candidate-tokyo…

Never ending cycle of no rest

Day -868. ‪WorldCup2018‬.

I don't have much sympathy for footballers and their complaining about how much football they have to play. Yes, I understand at their level of competitive physical activity their bodies need down time to recover. And with the incredible level of fitness of the modern footballer even in the off-season they need to keep working on staying in top shape. But it's sometimes a little hard to feel sympathy for the big earners who moan about having to play a football match once or twice and week and only get 6-8 weeks off in the summer.

This is changing and football is slowly becoming a year round sport. At the club level their are teams in Europe who finish their season at the end of May and are then back in pre-season training by mid-June, in preparation for the pre-qualifying rounds of the European competitions. And today I came across a news story about the 500 day countdown to the Confederations Cup in 2017. And when I took a look at the teams playing in that I did a quick assessment of how much they have played in the last few years and the next couple.

Take Chile and Mexico. They both played in the 2014 World Cup at the beginning of that summer. Last summer, 2015, Chile won the Copa America, with Mexico guest participants at the South American Championships. This was in June. In July, Mexico played in, and won, their continental championships, the Gold Cup. Mexico also had a team in the Pan Am Games last summer. Admittedly, this would not have had regular first team players but they may be playing this summer.

This summer, the Copa America is on again. It has had a bit of an irregular schedule over the years, happening every 2, 3 or 4 years. This year it is being held to mark 100 years since the first edition. Mexico and Chile are in it. Later this summer, Mexico will be in the Olympic football tournament. There will be some players from the first team and others who may be playing next summer....in the Confederations Cup.

After the Confederations Cup, Mexico and Chile will almost definitely be in the 2018 World Cup.
Therefore, a relaxing of my no sympathy feeling may be in order. In the cycle from 2014-2018, there will be many players who will hit the summer of 2018 going on their 5th summer of playing competitive football after a long season with their club teams, having had a very short rest between their international commitments and the start of pre-season club training the previous summer/autumn, which was preceded by another long season which was preceded by international commitments, pre-season club training the year before...and so on.

And who can we blame for all this football, which not only takes a toll on the players, but also leads to a saturation point where fans get bored of having so much to watch? Fifa, and the continental federations who want more football, more tournaments, more revenue. And along with that comes all the side effects and related revenue opportunities: construction companies to be paid to build stadiums, roads, train tracks, airports and ticketing companies to re-sell tickets and souvenirs that have to be made and sold.

And on it goes. And money makes the football world go round. And it makes some players very, very rich.

China: Part 1

Day -869. ‪WorldCup2018‬.

Corruption, bribery, corruption, fraud, corruption. These days it's almost no surprise when we hear another story about the dark side of sport. Or, as the U.S. Treasury maintain, a story about how the C word pertains to Vladimir Putin.

So Putin is accused of receiving gifts from people like Roman Abramovich and having a personal wealth of $40bn on an annual salary of $110,000 and with corrupt Fifa allegedly having come under the Putin spell in aw...arding Russia the World Cup there is a story there that could go on for a long time.

But away from the billions of Russian and Fifa dollars came another story today, a story about Chinese billions. And if ever more proof was needed of either how simply ridiculous world football has become, or how money and politics rule football here it was.

The gist of the story is that Chinese company Lerman are going to sponsor the Portuguese second division. The catch is that the proposal included the small detail that all the teams would have to include Chinese players and coaches as a way to train young Chinese players. The Portuguese players union protested and the proposal was withdrawn. Deal off? No. Instead the league board will decide on the number of Chinese players and who they play for.

One company sponsoring a whole league and deciding who plays in the league. Oh football, the football of Herbert Chapman, Billy Wright, Di Stefano, Jimmy Greaves, Zico, Maradona (at least we knew where we stood with him) I despair!

http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/35415217

Coming up...

Day -870. ‪WorldCup2018‬


I remembered today that World Cup 2 is happening this summer in France. Also known as the European Championships it's something worth looking forward to. It will be almost as interesting to see if UEFA have a President by them. Also, this year's sees the 100th edition of the Copa America. It will be interesting to see if the South American federation has fired yet another President by then.
See. There is a lot to look forward to before the big one in Russia.