Whilst I sympathise with all the siren calls to withdraw from FIFA after the loss of the world cup it does leave one with a moral conundrum. As one of those who has called on us to withdraw from FIFA or at least stick a hand up and say 'please Sepp can we stop the pillaging of relatively poor countries?' before any sort of bidding how does one associate with those who wholeheartedly 'backed the bid' and were prepared to do anything to get it because it's football and we love football?
It's not a difficult conundrum but one every real football fan comes across every day. Say you're a Villa or a Sunderland fan, how do you reconcile your love and undying support for your team with the fact that it is effectively a corporate entity? (I'm Wednesdayite so these dillemmas are but a dream.) Answer it's a mortgage of the soul one makes every day. You do it for love. The answer lies in the fact tht these teams can, as can Wednesday get close to 20,000 watching them play in the paintstripper premier. This is the point, we almost don't support a team, we support a culture. Kinks fans still go and see Ray Davies, for Sunderland memories of Bob Stokoe are confined to Football Focus, but we are all still inescapebly in love.
This is our strength, we can call out FIFA on their corruption tomorrow because there will still be 3,000 to see Chester FC, close to 10,000 to see Bradford and 40,000 for a Sheffield derby even if it was played in the dogshit shield. My point is that our game will survive whatever and that our FA should build bridges, work hard and make friends, undermine FIFA wherever possible sort out corruption and be for the good of the fans because we will support football, have its best interests in our heart World Cup or no, we've got nothing to lose. I'm not sure Qatar or Russia can say that. I back the bid to rid the game of corruption.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Here here!
ReplyDeleteFor all the complaints they have about our media, we wouldn't have it (or read/believe) it if none of us gave a shit. Let's think about what our Media have accused them of most (ignoring corruption.) Technology. For actively ignoring it, we've called them out of touch, dinosaurs, stuck in a dark age, idealistic, stupid and a number of other things that have all been accurate.
Our argument has been simple. EVERYONE wants it at the top level: the players, the fans, the managers and even the officials. One bad decision can cost a country billions, cause ill feeling for years and completely ruin the career of the player plus the official who made the wrong decision. It's low risk, much lower than putting the responsibility of making a split second heart/economy breaking decision from 25 yards on three individuals. Moreover, it's tried and tested in Tennis, Rugby, Cricket and a number of other sports who have all benefited from it.
I can see their potential argument that Russia and Qatar will open football up to new opportunities (for now, let's say that without quote marks.) But doesn't that punish the nations who have a rich history of supporting football? The reason we have all those stadiums in place already is because there is a demand for them. The reason we have all this money in the Premier League is because we pay it. Qatar isn't short of money, neither is Russia. If these huge stadiums were needed/desired they would already be there.
By then we would've forgotten anyway, if we play well.