Day -792. WorldCup2018
I spent a few days in Malta where the talk of corrupt politicians and footballers was incessant. Many an argument was had, or heard, about the perceptions of illegality versus the actual illegalities of a Maltese government minister having offshore accounts in Panama (or off Panama?). Along with "who's going to be next" drama of Panama Papers we also had the sadness of the young Maltese player being arrested for attempting to facilitate the bribing of Malta's U-21 team to throw their match against Montenegro. I say sad, because while it seems almost par for the course these days that senior (and I mean quite senior in age) Fifa officials are charged with widespread kickback taking and so are more senior players (more senior than U-21), there is something not quite right when a player at the start of his career is in court charged with trying to make a bit of extra money for himself by roping in the services of his fellow young players. It definitely does not augur well for the future of these players and their ability to make decisions about right or wrong.
While this was not meant to be the subject of my comeback post today (the time away was taxing on the brain) it does remind me of a story from my youth. Allow me, please.
When I watched live football growing up in Malta, many a time I would have somebody say to me: "why do you even bother going to the stadium (there really was 1 stadium), the matches are all fixed anyway". The naive youth that I was, I never believed this to be true. Or, let me say that differently. I believed that it must have happened because everybody said it did, but I sort of took it on as part of the game just like the constant smell of cigarette smoke mixed with fresh air. It was always present. I breathed it in because if I didn't I would not be watching live football on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and ignored that it could be doing some harm. The cigarette smoke, the bribery? Both.
Then Ally Dawson happened. Ally Dawson was a former Glasgow Rangers player who towards the end of his career took up a position with Luxol St. Andrews in Malta as their player manager. While on holiday back in Scotland he said in an interview to a Scottish newspaper that bribery was rife in Malta. The Malta FA was outraged. Faced with such a damning allegation by somebody so directly involved in it's competitive structure, albeit an outsider, there was only one course of action for the MFA to take: Ally Dawson was suspended (I cannot find records of the length of the suspension). How dare he say that? Nowadays the MFA is employing more resources in the battle against bribery in local football, but its' Integrity Officer has a tough job with the amount of international betting on Maltese matches. I would like to believe that if another Ally Dawson happened today then more appropriate action would be taken.
After that little detour, here's what I really was thinking about today. I reckoned I've been mentally off for a few days so I needed to make up for it and so could afford to combine two stories. But this is my World Cup one.
While I was in Malta the quirky story that got my attention came out of Syria. Now, unfortunately, quirkiness and Syria don't go together that much these days. But the Syrian Football Federation still managed it. Fresh from their qualification for the final round of qualifying for Russia 2018, an incredible achievement not only because of the tragic effects of the civil war on their player and facility resources, the Syrian Federation celebrated their team being one step closer to it's first every World Cup by sacking the team's coach. Right, there must have been a reason and a plan. Well, the plan it seemed, with history beckoning was to go big, Jose Mourinho big. The Federation wrote to Mourinho's agent offering him the job, which Mourinho, while "honoured" to be offered the job, politely declined. It seems that Manchester is a little more tempting than Damascus.
This Mourinho story sparked another memory which is maybe related in that it's character is quite the opposite to the Special One. While Mourinho prides himself on taking up the challenges of transforming under performing big cub teams into arrogantly invincible winners, Bora Milutinovic was the mercenary coach who took five different national teams to a World Cup. His last one was China in 2002, the only one of his teams that he didn't lead to the second round.
The mention of China reminded me that country recently announced that they have embarked on a long term plan to make China a football superpower. If Mourinho is up for it, the ultimate goal is for China to be World Cup winners in 2050.
While these links in my head can go on forever, I will stop and come back with Milutinovic tomorrow.
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