Blatter Resigning

[Waffiman]

MI5 makes a very brief appearance....

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/11/13 ... g-process/

Wassup! Where you dey since. I go return, I nor see you. How body?

[femibyte]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/liv ... probe-live

Thanks David – Tim here in New York. As David mentioned, we’re expecting Chuck Blazer’s testimony to be unsealed today – although we’re not sure when, exactly. It might come later in the week. Blazer, an American former Fifa executive nicknamed “Mr 10%”, reportedly helped investigators after being approached by authorities over large unpaid tax bills.

Read this great exposé from last year by BuzzFeed’s Ken Bensinger on Chuck Blazer: “the man who built – and bilked – American soccer.”

[Goldleaf]

For as long as decisions to host high-profile tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup rests in the hands of men, the idea of sportsmanship and fairplay will remain a fantasy because influence will be sought from voters. Man is a political animal. Claims about corruption and cleaning the system will always come from mouths of folks that have perceived themselves aggrieved.

I suppose somewhere today, the chinese and the russians (and any other country that may be so interested) must be giving serious thought to the development of an alternative international financial system that will enable the transfer of funds globally bypassing the US. If that alternative mode were in place today, the likes of Jack Warner will still be sought by the qataris, the english, the australians and any country that wants to host the FIFA World Cup. After all, if Jack Warner and his pals at FIFA had selected USA as the 2022 World Cup host, Blatter will still be drinking his latte in his Zurich office for the next 5 years.

BTW when I heard an American on TV complain about Qatar being selected to host the country despite the multiple deaths of foreign workers, suggesting that the USA will be a better host, I almost fell off my chair laughing. I asked myself where this buffoon was when the US police used black folks as shooting target practice!

U seem to be lamenting the absence of alternative mechanisms to foster corruption....

I refuse to take you seriously. You sound like the chiefs that sold slaves to the white man.

[txj]

Yujam, I have heard on the radio some of the most open honest comment of the agenda of these people as they celebrated Blatter demise. Greg Dyke, the President of the English FA actually said with a very arrogant and dismissive tone, a little rock that pops out of the ocean in the pacific somewhere should not have the same vote as Germany. That must change.

The journalists who have all come on bang on about the need to abolish the one country one vote system, they of course want more votes. One of them talked of a proportional Representation system, which was rejected in this country.

When they make comments like this, they do not mean Scotland, Northern Ireland, Gilbertra etc. There is this superiority complex that says they must be running organisations like FIFA. They resent the fact that non White countries have the same vote as them when voting for the President of FIFA. Why? They want control and they cannot get that control because they are the minority in the world. White people who run 80% plus of the world's resources are in fact the minority. They may call you a minority in their country, you are actually the majority.

They want to make FIFA like the United Nations.

That is what galls me about natives like TXJ and SlyverEagle... they just don't get it. I know what some of these guys (West) think and how they think. Blatter has been a torn in their behinds...

They probably want to institute some sort of veto power type influence.

First they will start with weighting the votes... Then they will soon relegate AFCON to a regional tourney or at best be played in the middle of European Summer. And base WC slots on a matrix that mostly favors them...

And TXJ will be saying it is left for Africans to catch up... that it was a level playing field.

As a MOD, u owe it to CE to get properly educated on serious issues here...

The real playing field in the next few months is the executive committee, not this silly lamentations of woe over equal voting. That's why I mentioned David Gill earlier...

Folks need to get educated on the real issues. The manner in which Blatter ran FIFA on the basis of a patronage system has come to an end, and we are all the better for it.

Its up to us to take advantage of the new wind to reform African football and rid it of crooks like Hayatou and Adamu...

Dude my constituency is Naijaria. NATO/USA/UEFA took out Blatter for their own self interest. Do you think they give a toss about your African behind?

Keep cheering...


PS., more than many, I am acutely aware of the issues here. Both the one publicly stated and the underlining reasons these things happen.

No sir!

Your constituency is the corrupt cabal that have repeatedly put their personal interest over the Nigerian and African interest, all the while wrapping themselves firmly in the flag.

A shiny flag that is enough to hoodwink the simple minds...

[Goldleaf]

For as long as decisions to host high-profile tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup rests in the hands of men, the idea of sportsmanship and fairplay will remain a fantasy because influence will be sought from voters. Man is a political animal. Claims about corruption and cleaning the system will always come from mouths of folks that have perceived themselves aggrieved.

I suppose somewhere today, the chinese and the russians (and any other country that may be so interested) must be giving serious thought to the development of an alternative international financial system that will enable the transfer of funds globally bypassing the US. If that alternative mode were in place today, the likes of Jack Warner will still be sought by the qataris, the english, the australians and any country that wants to host the FIFA World Cup. After all, if Jack Warner and his pals at FIFA had selected USA as the 2022 World Cup host, Blatter will still be drinking his latte in his Zurich office for the next 5 years.

BTW when I heard an American on TV complain about Qatar being selected to host the country despite the multiple deaths of foreign workers, suggesting that the USA will be a better host, I almost fell off my chair laughing. I asked myself where this buffoon was when the US police used black folks as shooting target practice!

Look at this man! What are you talking? Are you the only one who does not know that blacks are not people? Next thing now, you will be telling Amelikans to stop killing cattle for food!

Man go die for dis CE, I beg.

[txj]

For as long as decisions to host high-profile tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup rests in the hands of men, the idea of sportsmanship and fairplay will remain a fantasy because influence will be sought from voters. Man is a political animal. Claims about corruption and cleaning the system will always come from mouths of folks that have perceived themselves aggrieved.

I suppose somewhere today, the chinese and the russians (and any other country that may be so interested) must be giving serious thought to the development of an alternative international financial system that will enable the transfer of funds globally bypassing the US. If that alternative mode were in place today, the likes of Jack Warner will still be sought by the qataris, the english, the australians and any country that wants to host the FIFA World Cup. After all, if Jack Warner and his pals at FIFA had selected USA as the 2022 World Cup host, Blatter will still be drinking his latte in his Zurich office for the next 5 years.

BTW when I heard an American on TV complain about Qatar being selected to host the country despite the multiple deaths of foreign workers, suggesting that the USA will be a better host, I almost fell off my chair laughing. I asked myself where this buffoon was when the US police used black folks as shooting target practice!

U seem to be lamenting the absence of alternative mechanisms to foster corruption....

I refuse to take you seriously. You sound like the chiefs that sold slaves to the white man.

You sound like those who loudly cheered for the chief's opponent, all the while ignoring the fact he was no better than the chief!

Corruption is corruption...

[platinum]

Excellent writing from Barney Ronay. He brings home some salient issues.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... -world-cup

Such is the bloody mess left by the executive decapitation at Fifa it is almost impossible right now, even for those with their eyes fixed on the detail, to see an easy route out of the chaos. Some things, though, are clear enough. In confusing times it is often best simply to tune out the most distracting voices, just as elite football managers are said to shut out all distractions in the heat of battle, blind to anything that will not help them win. With this in mind the first thing that needs to happen, for the good of the game, is that Greg Dyke needs to stop talking. No, really Greg. That will do.

On Wednesday morning the FA chairman could be heard once again repeating with absolute, combative certainty his belief the 2022 World Cup bidding process should be reopened and Fifa itself reconstituted to a precise set of Dyke-approved rules. Never mind Dyke appears to be a little shaky on some of the details, objecting repeatedly on BBC radio that nobody (nobody!) in Blatter’s own organisation had told the president to resign, and thereby overlooking the fact the head of Dyke’s own federation had demanded exactly that last week.

The more urgent issue is that, at a moment of transformational chaos in football’s governing body, Dyke has no one within his own organisation to tell him to stop talking. Or at least to stop saying all the wrong things during an impasse that requires not squealed demands for a recount but diplomacy, tact and above all an understanding of how this looks to the rest of the world.

The war against Blatter may have been won for now. The much bigger challenge, indeed the whole point of the exercise, is to win the peace. Blatter’s exit will be irrelevant if Blatterism itself, the politics of self-interest and calculated division, is allowed to fester in the unscabbed wounds.

With this in mind what Dyke and many in Europe seem unwilling to accept is that Blatter was voted in as the Fifa president not because those who backed him are all corrupt, ill-informed, or motivated by anti-European bile (although some may be). But because many of Blatter’s supporters saw the incumbent as the lesser of two evils, a flawed but oleaginously ingratiating outreach candidate.


Post-Blatter there is a fear outside Uefa and North America of a Euro-centred power grab, a Carthaginian Peace where wrongs under Blatter are used as a moral imperative to take back and exclude – a moment of punitive opportunism for the old world.

Michel Platini is the favourite to win a re-run election. Platini may have backed Qatar as an arm of the Franco-Qatari entente cordiale but he is above all the head of Uefa, an organisation that centralises its wealth and which represents the most powerful interests in world football, the same European clubs and associations that hog the programme for the other 46 months between World Cups. Good luck, Africa, with that one.

The issue here boils down to timing and smart politics. Dyke may be right in the abstract. A World Cup in Qatar is an undesirable prospect for many reasons, not least because migrant workers will continue to die at an unprecedented rate as the infrastructure is built, just as migrant workers will continue to die all over the world while people are desperate to escape poverty and others willing to exploit them.

Football can make a powerful statement that this will not happen in its name but as a point of principle this will resonate only if it can do so with clean hands and with no hint of self-interest. The worst possible outcome now is to convey to the rest of the world that this is all about sour grapes over the award of a World Cup, rather than the objective facts of corruption and death. Europe must be seen to be fairer than fair, to set its own example of disinterested meritocracy.

For this reason calls to strip Qatar of its tournament should be muted until there is absolute, unarguable evidence of a corrupt vote, a case that makes itself. For now it is a moment to let events play themselves out. Maybe there is even something to be learnt here from Blatter’s astonishing success over 17 dictatorial years. Beyond the tawdry details here is a leader with the fine diplomatic sense to recognise a large portion of the footballing world felt overlooked and marginalised, and that by doing something he would be doing more than nothing.

Africa deserves better than Blatter (everyone deserves better than Blatter) but when Fifa members outside Europe look to the old world beyond the president there are plenty who see hypocrisy and entitlement. In Dyke they might see an FA chairman who has accepted not one but 16 watches during his own tenure, including the famous £16,000 job during the World Cup in Brazil (since returned). They might see an English FA that couldn’t even make a decent fist of de facto bribery, offering up 24 Mulberry handbags to Fifa committee members’ wives during its own bid process and thereby allowing even Jack Warner to claim the moral high ground by returning his unwanted bag with the disdain of a man palming off a Christmas cracker prize.

In this context the principles Blatter preached, if not the practice – global reach, inclusion – have a great deal to commend them. This is a moment for tact and conciliation, for reaching out. What the English FA appears to be offering is a dunk in the gunge tank, Timmy Mallet leaping up on Radio 4 and battering the rest of the world over the head with his foam-rubber hammer of righteousness.

What comes next will be the key. Russia will host the 2018 World Cup whatever any investigations uncover about the process involved. Qatar looks more vulnerable. First because of the human cost of its construction, and second because of the basic absurdity of staging a tournament there in the first place.

And yet football will go on either side of Qatar, as will Fifa in whatever shape can be crafted. If Dyke really has to say something it should be to announce England has no interest at all in staging a 2022 World Cup, and the FA believes the tournament should stay in that region whatever the outcome. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have staged plenty of global sporting events. Failing that, give it to Malaysia or China. Give it to Ghana or Greenland. Give it to anyone who hasn’t had a World Cup, anywhere that feels under-represented, and do so with a smile. A united, uncorrupted future is what is at stake here, not four weeks of pageantry in June.

Beyond this the wider fixing of Fifa will be a matter of controlled, consensual change. Ideally independent accountants would end up logging every dollar in and every dollar out, with Fifa edged closer to the unlikely dream of an independent, utterly transparent charitable administrator. How close we get to this, with the looming fudge of a Euro-takeover, the threat of split and division, depends entirely on engagement, tact and trust. It is possible to reform Fifa and to make the world see sense on Qatar. But not simply – Greg, please – by shouting it down.

[Goldleaf]

For as long as decisions to host high-profile tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup rests in the hands of men, the idea of sportsmanship and fairplay will remain a fantasy because influence will be sought from voters. Man is a political animal. Claims about corruption and cleaning the system will always come from mouths of folks that have perceived themselves aggrieved.

I suppose somewhere today, the chinese and the russians (and any other country that may be so interested) must be giving serious thought to the development of an alternative international financial system that will enable the transfer of funds globally bypassing the US. If that alternative mode were in place today, the likes of Jack Warner will still be sought by the qataris, the english, the australians and any country that wants to host the FIFA World Cup. After all, if Jack Warner and his pals at FIFA had selected USA as the 2022 World Cup host, Blatter will still be drinking his latte in his Zurich office for the next 5 years.

BTW when I heard an American on TV complain about Qatar being selected to host the country despite the multiple deaths of foreign workers, suggesting that the USA will be a better host, I almost fell off my chair laughing. I asked myself where this buffoon was when the US police used black folks as shooting target practice!

U seem to be lamenting the absence of alternative mechanisms to foster corruption....

I refuse to take you seriously. You sound like the chiefs that sold slaves to the white man.

You sound like those who loudly cheered for the chief's opponent, all the while ignoring the fact he was no better than the chief!

Corruption is corruption...

In your book, corruption is NOT corruption when FAs (including the bullish English Chairman Greg Dyke) collected wrist watches. It is not corruption when Jack Warner does not succeed to supply England with votes despite being feted. It is not corruption when arrests are "perfectly" timed to influence the result of elections in FIFA. How you can bang on without these considerations beggars belief!

[txj]

For as long as decisions to host high-profile tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup rests in the hands of men, the idea of sportsmanship and fairplay will remain a fantasy because influence will be sought from voters. Man is a political animal. Claims about corruption and cleaning the system will always come from mouths of folks that have perceived themselves aggrieved.

I suppose somewhere today, the chinese and the russians (and any other country that may be so interested) must be giving serious thought to the development of an alternative international financial system that will enable the transfer of funds globally bypassing the US. If that alternative mode were in place today, the likes of Jack Warner will still be sought by the qataris, the english, the australians and any country that wants to host the FIFA World Cup. After all, if Jack Warner and his pals at FIFA had selected USA as the 2022 World Cup host, Blatter will still be drinking his latte in his Zurich office for the next 5 years.

BTW when I heard an American on TV complain about Qatar being selected to host the country despite the multiple deaths of foreign workers, suggesting that the USA will be a better host, I almost fell off my chair laughing. I asked myself where this buffoon was when the US police used black folks as shooting target practice!

U seem to be lamenting the absence of alternative mechanisms to foster corruption....

I refuse to take you seriously. You sound like the chiefs that sold slaves to the white man.

You sound like those who loudly cheered for the chief's opponent, all the while ignoring the fact he was no better than the chief!

Corruption is corruption...

In your book, corruption is NOT corruption when FAs (including the bullish English Chairman Greg Dyke) collected wrist watches. It is not corruption when Jack Warner does not succeed to supply England with votes despite being feted. It is not corruption when arrests are "perfectly" timed to influence the result of elections in FIFA. How you can bang on without these considerations beggars belief!

And you are more concerned with the timing of arrests, than the alleged crimes behind the arrests themselves!

This is why Nigeria will never develop!

[Goldleaf]

Excellent writing from Barney Ronay. He brings home some salient issues.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... -world-cup

Such is the bloody mess left by the executive decapitation at Fifa it is almost impossible right now, even for those with their eyes fixed on the detail, to see an easy route out of the chaos. Some things, though, are clear enough. In confusing times it is often best simply to tune out the most distracting voices, just as elite football managers are said to shut out all distractions in the heat of battle, blind to anything that will not help them win. With this in mind the first thing that needs to happen, for the good of the game, is that Greg Dyke needs to stop talking. No, really Greg. That will do.

On Wednesday morning the FA chairman could be heard once again repeating with absolute, combative certainty his belief the 2022 World Cup bidding process should be reopened and Fifa itself reconstituted to a precise set of Dyke-approved rules. Never mind Dyke appears to be a little shaky on some of the details, objecting repeatedly on BBC radio that nobody (nobody!) in Blatter’s own organisation had told the president to resign, and thereby overlooking the fact the head of Dyke’s own federation had demanded exactly that last week.

The more urgent issue is that, at a moment of transformational chaos in football’s governing body, Dyke has no one within his own organisation to tell him to stop talking. Or at least to stop saying all the wrong things during an impasse that requires not squealed demands for a recount but diplomacy, tact and above all an understanding of how this looks to the rest of the world.

The war against Blatter may have been won for now. The much bigger challenge, indeed the whole point of the exercise, is to win the peace. Blatter’s exit will be irrelevant if Blatterism itself, the politics of self-interest and calculated division, is allowed to fester in the unscabbed wounds.

With this in mind what Dyke and many in Europe seem unwilling to accept is that Blatter was voted in as the Fifa president not because those who backed him are all corrupt, ill-informed, or motivated by anti-European bile (although some may be). But because many of Blatter’s supporters saw the incumbent as the lesser of two evils, a flawed but oleaginously ingratiating outreach candidate.


Post-Blatter there is a fear outside Uefa and North America of a Euro-centred power grab, a Carthaginian Peace where wrongs under Blatter are used as a moral imperative to take back and exclude – a moment of punitive opportunism for the old world.

Michel Platini is the favourite to win a re-run election. Platini may have backed Qatar as an arm of the Franco-Qatari entente cordiale but he is above all the head of Uefa, an organisation that centralises its wealth and which represents the most powerful interests in world football, the same European clubs and associations that hog the programme for the other 46 months between World Cups. Good luck, Africa, with that one.

The issue here boils down to timing and smart politics. Dyke may be right in the abstract. A World Cup in Qatar is an undesirable prospect for many reasons, not least because migrant workers will continue to die at an unprecedented rate as the infrastructure is built, just as migrant workers will continue to die all over the world while people are desperate to escape poverty and others willing to exploit them.

Football can make a powerful statement that this will not happen in its name but as a point of principle this will resonate only if it can do so with clean hands and with no hint of self-interest. The worst possible outcome now is to convey to the rest of the world that this is all about sour grapes over the award of a World Cup, rather than the objective facts of corruption and death. Europe must be seen to be fairer than fair, to set its own example of disinterested meritocracy.

For this reason calls to strip Qatar of its tournament should be muted until there is absolute, unarguable evidence of a corrupt vote, a case that makes itself. For now it is a moment to let events play themselves out. Maybe there is even something to be learnt here from Blatter’s astonishing success over 17 dictatorial years. Beyond the tawdry details here is a leader with the fine diplomatic sense to recognise a large portion of the footballing world felt overlooked and marginalised, and that by doing something he would be doing more than nothing.

Africa deserves better than Blatter (everyone deserves better than Blatter) but when Fifa members outside Europe look to the old world beyond the president there are plenty who see hypocrisy and entitlement. In Dyke they might see an FA chairman who has accepted not one but 16 watches during his own tenure, including the famous £16,000 job during the World Cup in Brazil (since returned). They might see an English FA that couldn’t even make a decent fist of de facto bribery, offering up 24 Mulberry handbags to Fifa committee members’ wives during its own bid process and thereby allowing even Jack Warner to claim the moral high ground by returning his unwanted bag with the disdain of a man palming off a Christmas cracker prize.

In this context the principles Blatter preached, if not the practice – global reach, inclusion – have a great deal to commend them. This is a moment for tact and conciliation, for reaching out. What the English FA appears to be offering is a dunk in the gunge tank, Timmy Mallet leaping up on Radio 4 and battering the rest of the world over the head with his foam-rubber hammer of righteousness.

What comes next will be the key. Russia will host the 2018 World Cup whatever any investigations uncover about the process involved. Qatar looks more vulnerable. First because of the human cost of its construction, and second because of the basic absurdity of staging a tournament there in the first place.

And yet football will go on either side of Qatar, as will Fifa in whatever shape can be crafted. If Dyke really has to say something it should be to announce England has no interest at all in staging a 2022 World Cup, and the FA believes the tournament should stay in that region whatever the outcome. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have staged plenty of global sporting events. Failing that, give it to Malaysia or China. Give it to Ghana or Greenland. Give it to anyone who hasn’t had a World Cup, anywhere that feels under-represented, and do so with a smile. A united, uncorrupted future is what is at stake here, not four weeks of pageantry in June.

Beyond this the wider fixing of Fifa will be a matter of controlled, consensual change. Ideally independent accountants would end up logging every dollar in and every dollar out, with Fifa edged closer to the unlikely dream of an independent, utterly transparent charitable administrator. How close we get to this, with the looming fudge of a Euro-takeover, the threat of split and division, depends entirely on engagement, tact and trust. It is possible to reform Fifa and to make the world see sense on Qatar. But not simply – Greg, please – by shouting it down.

Thank God. Some people in the public space do get it. It is hard to point accusatory fingers of corruption in an environment where self-interest is the name of the game. Corrupt as he was, Blatter was still re-elected by so many countries. There is a reason for that and anyone claiming to want to clean the game should as a minimum adopt Sepp Blatter's global strategy a template for FIFA'S operations. Blatter's legacy in the growth of the football game remains outstanding until someone else can outperform him.

[Goldleaf]

For as long as decisions to host high-profile tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup rests in the hands of men, the idea of sportsmanship and fairplay will remain a fantasy because influence will be sought from voters. Man is a political animal. Claims about corruption and cleaning the system will always come from mouths of folks that have perceived themselves aggrieved.

I suppose somewhere today, the chinese and the russians (and any other country that may be so interested) must be giving serious thought to the development of an alternative international financial system that will enable the transfer of funds globally bypassing the US. If that alternative mode were in place today, the likes of Jack Warner will still be sought by the qataris, the english, the australians and any country that wants to host the FIFA World Cup. After all, if Jack Warner and his pals at FIFA had selected USA as the 2022 World Cup host, Blatter will still be drinking his latte in his Zurich office for the next 5 years.

BTW when I heard an American on TV complain about Qatar being selected to host the country despite the multiple deaths of foreign workers, suggesting that the USA will be a better host, I almost fell off my chair laughing. I asked myself where this buffoon was when the US police used black folks as shooting target practice!

U seem to be lamenting the absence of alternative mechanisms to foster corruption....

I refuse to take you seriously. You sound like the chiefs that sold slaves to the white man.

You sound like those who loudly cheered for the chief's opponent, all the while ignoring the fact he was no better than the chief!

Corruption is corruption...

In your book, corruption is NOT corruption when FAs (including the bullish English Chairman Greg Dyke) collected wrist watches. It is not corruption when Jack Warner does not succeed to supply England with votes despite being feted. It is not corruption when arrests are "perfectly" timed to influence the result of elections in FIFA. How you can bang on without these considerations beggars belief!

And you are more concerned with the timing of arrests, than the alleged crimes behind the arrests themselves!

This is why Nigeria will never develop!

If that is the only thing that you have picked up so far despite the powerful arguments that have been supplied against your position, then yes, I agree with you that Nigeria will never develop....as long as arguments and positions like yours parade the corridors of power!

[txj]

Excellent writing from Barney Ronay. He brings home some salient issues.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... -world-cup

Such is the bloody mess left by the executive decapitation at Fifa it is almost impossible right now, even for those with their eyes fixed on the detail, to see an easy route out of the chaos. Some things, though, are clear enough. In confusing times it is often best simply to tune out the most distracting voices, just as elite football managers are said to shut out all distractions in the heat of battle, blind to anything that will not help them win. With this in mind the first thing that needs to happen, for the good of the game, is that Greg Dyke needs to stop talking. No, really Greg. That will do.

On Wednesday morning the FA chairman could be heard once again repeating with absolute, combative certainty his belief the 2022 World Cup bidding process should be reopened and Fifa itself reconstituted to a precise set of Dyke-approved rules. Never mind Dyke appears to be a little shaky on some of the details, objecting repeatedly on BBC radio that nobody (nobody!) in Blatter’s own organisation had told the president to resign, and thereby overlooking the fact the head of Dyke’s own federation had demanded exactly that last week.

The more urgent issue is that, at a moment of transformational chaos in football’s governing body, Dyke has no one within his own organisation to tell him to stop talking. Or at least to stop saying all the wrong things during an impasse that requires not squealed demands for a recount but diplomacy, tact and above all an understanding of how this looks to the rest of the world.

The war against Blatter may have been won for now. The much bigger challenge, indeed the whole point of the exercise, is to win the peace. Blatter’s exit will be irrelevant if Blatterism itself, the politics of self-interest and calculated division, is allowed to fester in the unscabbed wounds.

With this in mind what Dyke and many in Europe seem unwilling to accept is that Blatter was voted in as the Fifa president not because those who backed him are all corrupt, ill-informed, or motivated by anti-European bile (although some may be). But because many of Blatter’s supporters saw the incumbent as the lesser of two evils, a flawed but oleaginously ingratiating outreach candidate.


Post-Blatter there is a fear outside Uefa and North America of a Euro-centred power grab, a Carthaginian Peace where wrongs under Blatter are used as a moral imperative to take back and exclude – a moment of punitive opportunism for the old world.

Michel Platini is the favourite to win a re-run election. Platini may have backed Qatar as an arm of the Franco-Qatari entente cordiale but he is above all the head of Uefa, an organisation that centralises its wealth and which represents the most powerful interests in world football, the same European clubs and associations that hog the programme for the other 46 months between World Cups. Good luck, Africa, with that one.

The issue here boils down to timing and smart politics. Dyke may be right in the abstract. A World Cup in Qatar is an undesirable prospect for many reasons, not least because migrant workers will continue to die at an unprecedented rate as the infrastructure is built, just as migrant workers will continue to die all over the world while people are desperate to escape poverty and others willing to exploit them.

Football can make a powerful statement that this will not happen in its name but as a point of principle this will resonate only if it can do so with clean hands and with no hint of self-interest. The worst possible outcome now is to convey to the rest of the world that this is all about sour grapes over the award of a World Cup, rather than the objective facts of corruption and death. Europe must be seen to be fairer than fair, to set its own example of disinterested meritocracy.

For this reason calls to strip Qatar of its tournament should be muted until there is absolute, unarguable evidence of a corrupt vote, a case that makes itself. For now it is a moment to let events play themselves out. Maybe there is even something to be learnt here from Blatter’s astonishing success over 17 dictatorial years. Beyond the tawdry details here is a leader with the fine diplomatic sense to recognise a large portion of the footballing world felt overlooked and marginalised, and that by doing something he would be doing more than nothing.

Africa deserves better than Blatter (everyone deserves better than Blatter) but when Fifa members outside Europe look to the old world beyond the president there are plenty who see hypocrisy and entitlement. In Dyke they might see an FA chairman who has accepted not one but 16 watches during his own tenure, including the famous £16,000 job during the World Cup in Brazil (since returned). They might see an English FA that couldn’t even make a decent fist of de facto bribery, offering up 24 Mulberry handbags to Fifa committee members’ wives during its own bid process and thereby allowing even Jack Warner to claim the moral high ground by returning his unwanted bag with the disdain of a man palming off a Christmas cracker prize.

In this context the principles Blatter preached, if not the practice – global reach, inclusion – have a great deal to commend them. This is a moment for tact and conciliation, for reaching out. What the English FA appears to be offering is a dunk in the gunge tank, Timmy Mallet leaping up on Radio 4 and battering the rest of the world over the head with his foam-rubber hammer of righteousness.

What comes next will be the key. Russia will host the 2018 World Cup whatever any investigations uncover about the process involved. Qatar looks more vulnerable. First because of the human cost of its construction, and second because of the basic absurdity of staging a tournament there in the first place.

And yet football will go on either side of Qatar, as will Fifa in whatever shape can be crafted. If Dyke really has to say something it should be to announce England has no interest at all in staging a 2022 World Cup, and the FA believes the tournament should stay in that region whatever the outcome. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have staged plenty of global sporting events. Failing that, give it to Malaysia or China. Give it to Ghana or Greenland. Give it to anyone who hasn’t had a World Cup, anywhere that feels under-represented, and do so with a smile. A united, uncorrupted future is what is at stake here, not four weeks of pageantry in June.

Beyond this the wider fixing of Fifa will be a matter of controlled, consensual change. Ideally independent accountants would end up logging every dollar in and every dollar out, with Fifa edged closer to the unlikely dream of an independent, utterly transparent charitable administrator. How close we get to this, with the looming fudge of a Euro-takeover, the threat of split and division, depends entirely on engagement, tact and trust. It is possible to reform Fifa and to make the world see sense on Qatar. But not simply – Greg, please – by shouting it down.

Thank God. Some people in the public space do get it. It is hard to point accusatory fingers of corruption in an environment where self-interest is the name of the game. Corrupt as he was, Blatter was still re-elected by so many countries. There is a reason for that and anyone claiming to want to clean the game should as a minimum adopt Sepp Blatter's global strategy a template for FIFA'S operations. Blatter's legacy in the growth of the football game remains outstanding until someone else can outperform him.

There is nothing wrong with self interest. The problem is when that interest, in the public space, is defined as personal and procured by foul means.

Blatter's global strategy might have done quite some good, but it was used to perpetuate fraud. People should not ignore fraud just because some good comes from it!

It is possible to do good and do it properly.

Next thing we will be praising Adamu and Hayatou because they did some things good.

[txj]

Excellent writing from Barney Ronay. He brings home some salient issues.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... -world-cup

Such is the bloody mess left by the executive decapitation at Fifa it is almost impossible right now, even for those with their eyes fixed on the detail, to see an easy route out of the chaos. Some things, though, are clear enough. In confusing times it is often best simply to tune out the most distracting voices, just as elite football managers are said to shut out all distractions in the heat of battle, blind to anything that will not help them win. With this in mind the first thing that needs to happen, for the good of the game, is that Greg Dyke needs to stop talking. No, really Greg. That will do.

On Wednesday morning the FA chairman could be heard once again repeating with absolute, combative certainty his belief the 2022 World Cup bidding process should be reopened and Fifa itself reconstituted to a precise set of Dyke-approved rules. Never mind Dyke appears to be a little shaky on some of the details, objecting repeatedly on BBC radio that nobody (nobody!) in Blatter’s own organisation had told the president to resign, and thereby overlooking the fact the head of Dyke’s own federation had demanded exactly that last week.

The more urgent issue is that, at a moment of transformational chaos in football’s governing body, Dyke has no one within his own organisation to tell him to stop talking. Or at least to stop saying all the wrong things during an impasse that requires not squealed demands for a recount but diplomacy, tact and above all an understanding of how this looks to the rest of the world.

The war against Blatter may have been won for now. The much bigger challenge, indeed the whole point of the exercise, is to win the peace. Blatter’s exit will be irrelevant if Blatterism itself, the politics of self-interest and calculated division, is allowed to fester in the unscabbed wounds.

With this in mind what Dyke and many in Europe seem unwilling to accept is that Blatter was voted in as the Fifa president not because those who backed him are all corrupt, ill-informed, or motivated by anti-European bile (although some may be). But because many of Blatter’s supporters saw the incumbent as the lesser of two evils, a flawed but oleaginously ingratiating outreach candidate.


Post-Blatter there is a fear outside Uefa and North America of a Euro-centred power grab, a Carthaginian Peace where wrongs under Blatter are used as a moral imperative to take back and exclude – a moment of punitive opportunism for the old world.

Michel Platini is the favourite to win a re-run election. Platini may have backed Qatar as an arm of the Franco-Qatari entente cordiale but he is above all the head of Uefa, an organisation that centralises its wealth and which represents the most powerful interests in world football, the same European clubs and associations that hog the programme for the other 46 months between World Cups. Good luck, Africa, with that one.

The issue here boils down to timing and smart politics. Dyke may be right in the abstract. A World Cup in Qatar is an undesirable prospect for many reasons, not least because migrant workers will continue to die at an unprecedented rate as the infrastructure is built, just as migrant workers will continue to die all over the world while people are desperate to escape poverty and others willing to exploit them.

Football can make a powerful statement that this will not happen in its name but as a point of principle this will resonate only if it can do so with clean hands and with no hint of self-interest. The worst possible outcome now is to convey to the rest of the world that this is all about sour grapes over the award of a World Cup, rather than the objective facts of corruption and death. Europe must be seen to be fairer than fair, to set its own example of disinterested meritocracy.

For this reason calls to strip Qatar of its tournament should be muted until there is absolute, unarguable evidence of a corrupt vote, a case that makes itself. For now it is a moment to let events play themselves out. Maybe there is even something to be learnt here from Blatter’s astonishing success over 17 dictatorial years. Beyond the tawdry details here is a leader with the fine diplomatic sense to recognise a large portion of the footballing world felt overlooked and marginalised, and that by doing something he would be doing more than nothing.

Africa deserves better than Blatter (everyone deserves better than Blatter) but when Fifa members outside Europe look to the old world beyond the president there are plenty who see hypocrisy and entitlement. In Dyke they might see an FA chairman who has accepted not one but 16 watches during his own tenure, including the famous £16,000 job during the World Cup in Brazil (since returned). They might see an English FA that couldn’t even make a decent fist of de facto bribery, offering up 24 Mulberry handbags to Fifa committee members’ wives during its own bid process and thereby allowing even Jack Warner to claim the moral high ground by returning his unwanted bag with the disdain of a man palming off a Christmas cracker prize.

In this context the principles Blatter preached, if not the practice – global reach, inclusion – have a great deal to commend them. This is a moment for tact and conciliation, for reaching out. What the English FA appears to be offering is a dunk in the gunge tank, Timmy Mallet leaping up on Radio 4 and battering the rest of the world over the head with his foam-rubber hammer of righteousness.

What comes next will be the key. Russia will host the 2018 World Cup whatever any investigations uncover about the process involved. Qatar looks more vulnerable. First because of the human cost of its construction, and second because of the basic absurdity of staging a tournament there in the first place.

And yet football will go on either side of Qatar, as will Fifa in whatever shape can be crafted. If Dyke really has to say something it should be to announce England has no interest at all in staging a 2022 World Cup, and the FA believes the tournament should stay in that region whatever the outcome. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have staged plenty of global sporting events. Failing that, give it to Malaysia or China. Give it to Ghana or Greenland. Give it to anyone who hasn’t had a World Cup, anywhere that feels under-represented, and do so with a smile. A united, uncorrupted future is what is at stake here, not four weeks of pageantry in June.

Beyond this the wider fixing of Fifa will be a matter of controlled, consensual change. Ideally independent accountants would end up logging every dollar in and every dollar out, with Fifa edged closer to the unlikely dream of an independent, utterly transparent charitable administrator. How close we get to this, with the looming fudge of a Euro-takeover, the threat of split and division, depends entirely on engagement, tact and trust. It is possible to reform Fifa and to make the world see sense on Qatar. But not simply – Greg, please – by shouting it down.

Like I told Waffiman earlier, Greg Dyke is not to be taken seriously on this issue...

[juventuss]

FBI is investigating the award of the WC to Russia and Qatar. WTF !!!

Wetin consign FBI with this ? How about they investigate stuff more pertinent to US citizens

[Waffiman]

There will be changes in FIFA but to understand this will be to understand the current structure. The position of the President and the Executive Committee is up for review and the general FIFA membership voting structure. FIFA congress maybe up for review but I doubt if this will be wise course of action to take. You cannot blame Blatter for the Executive Committee (Exco) Structure. This Exco comprises of those voted by each regional confederations.

Here is the FIFA structure.

Six confederations and 209 national associations

Besides its worldwide institutions (presidency, Executive Committee, Congress, etc.) there are six confederations recognised by FIFA which oversee the game in the different continents and regions of the world. National Associations, and not the continental confederations, are members of FIFA. The continental confederations are provided for in FIFA's statutes, and membership of a confederation is a prerequisite to FIFA membership.


FIFA-member football associations are formed together into continental confederations, which organise continental national and club competitions. They are:

AFC Asian Football Confederation - 46 members + 1 associate - founded in 1954 - represents Asian nations in football. The main tournament is the Asian Cup.

CAF Confédération Africaine de Football - 54 members + 2 associate - founded in 1957 - represents African nations in football. The main tournament is the African Cup of Nations.

CONCACAF Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football - 40 members - founded in 1961 represents North American, Central American and Caribbean nations. The main tournament is the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

CONMEBOL - Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol - 10 members - founded in 1916 represents South American nations in football. The main tournament is the Copa America.

OFC - Oceania Football Confederation - 11 members + 5 associate - founded in 1966 represents Oceanian nations in football. The main tournament is the OFC Nations Cup.

UEFA Union of European Football Associations - 53 members - founded in 1954 represents European nations in football. The main tournament is the UEFA European Championship.

In total, FIFA recognises 209 national associations and their associated men's national teams as well as 129 women's national teams. FIFA has more member states than the UN as FIFA recognises 23 non-sovereign entities as distinct nations, such as the four Home Nations within the United Kingdom and politically disputed territories such as Palestine.

FIFA's supreme body is the FIFA Congress, an assembly made up of representatives from each affiliated member association. The Congress has met 66 times since 1904; it now assembles in ordinary session once every year and, additionally, extraordinary sessions have been held once a year since 1998. At the congress, decisions are made relating to FIFA's governing statutes and their method of implementation and application. Only the Congress can pass changes to FIFA's statutes. The congress approves the annual report, and decides on the acceptance of new national associations and holds elections. Congress elects the President of FIFA, its General Secretary, and the other members of FIFA's Executive Committee on the year following the FIFA World Cup. Each national football association has one vote, regardless of its size or footballing strength.

The President and General Secretary are the main officeholders of FIFA, and are in charge of its daily administration, carried out by the General Secretariat, with its staff of approximately 280 members. FIFA's Executive Committee, chaired by the President, is the main decision-making body of the organisation in the intervals of Congress. FIFA's worldwide organisational structure also consists of several other bodies, under authority of the Executive Committee or created by Congress as standing committees. Among those bodies are the Finance Committee, the Disciplinary Committee, and the Referees Committee.

The Executive Committee (Exco) consists of a President, elected by the Congress in the year following a FIFA World Cup, eight vice-presidents and 15 members, appointed by the confederations and associations. It meets at least twice a year, with the mandate for each member lasting four years, and its role includes determining the dates, locations and format of tournaments, appointing FIFA delegates to the IFAB and electing and dismissing the General Secretary on the proposal of the FIFA President. It is made up of the following representatives:

CONMEBOL: one vice-president and two members
AFC: one vice-president and three members
UEFA: two vice-presidents and five members
CAF: one vice-president and three members
CONCACAF: one vice-president and two members
OFC: one vice-president
The FA, SFA, FAW and IFA: one vice-president

Eco membership and structure

President
Sepp Blatter Switzerland

Senior Vice-President
Issa Hayatou Cameroon

Vice-Presidents
Ángel María Villar Spain
Michel Platini France
David Chung Papua New Guinea
Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa Bahrain
David Gill England
Jeffrey Webb (provisionally banned) Cayman Islands
Juan Ángel Napout Paraguay

Members
Michel D'Hooghe Belgium
Şenes Erzik Turkey
Marios Lefkaritis Cyprus
Hany Abo Rida Egypt
Vitaly Mutko Russia
Wolfgang Niersbach Germany
Marco Polo Del Nero Brazil
Sunil Gulati United States
Lydia Nsekera Burundi
Luis Bedoya Colombia
Tarek Bouchamaoui Tunisia
Constant Omari Democratic Republic of the Congo
HRH Prince Abdullah of Pahang Malaysia
Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah Kuwait
Kohzo Tashima Japan
Co-opted Members for special tasks
Moya Dodd Australia
Sonia Bien-Aime Turks and Caicos Islands

General Secretary
Jérôme Valcke France


I have heard 2 former candidates on the radio warn Europe and America that if they think they can replace FIFA will UEFA and the WC with the CL they will break up football. There is also the strong warning that Western European countries supporting America will give a kiss of death to any candidate because of the strong resentment from hostile countries in FIFA.

For me, football need a person of integrity from outside of the game but loves the game, football needs a neutral person to heal wounds and divisions, football needs a person to bring all together and unite. There is so much at stake now.

[platinum]

FBI is investigating the award of the WC to Russia and Qatar. WTF !!!

Wetin consign FBI with this ? How about they investigate stuff more pertinent to US citizens

I just read that. Hopefully their investigation sticks to their citizens and doesn't extend past that. If there is any threat to take the WC hosting rights from either Russia or Qatar, I think these guys will find very quickly that they're attempting to start a world war.

[Waffiman]

George Weah for FIFA President anyone.

[Cellular]

Excellent writing from Barney Ronay. He brings home some salient issues.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... -world-cup

Such is the bloody mess left by the executive decapitation at Fifa it is almost impossible right now, even for those with their eyes fixed on the detail, to see an easy route out of the chaos. Some things, though, are clear enough. In confusing times it is often best simply to tune out the most distracting voices, just as elite football managers are said to shut out all distractions in the heat of battle, blind to anything that will not help them win. With this in mind the first thing that needs to happen, for the good of the game, is that Greg Dyke needs to stop talking. No, really Greg. That will do.

On Wednesday morning the FA chairman could be heard once again repeating with absolute, combative certainty his belief the 2022 World Cup bidding process should be reopened and Fifa itself reconstituted to a precise set of Dyke-approved rules. Never mind Dyke appears to be a little shaky on some of the details, objecting repeatedly on BBC radio that nobody (nobody!) in Blatter’s own organisation had told the president to resign, and thereby overlooking the fact the head of Dyke’s own federation had demanded exactly that last week.

The more urgent issue is that, at a moment of transformational chaos in football’s governing body, Dyke has no one within his own organisation to tell him to stop talking. Or at least to stop saying all the wrong things during an impasse that requires not squealed demands for a recount but diplomacy, tact and above all an understanding of how this looks to the rest of the world.

The war against Blatter may have been won for now. The much bigger challenge, indeed the whole point of the exercise, is to win the peace. Blatter’s exit will be irrelevant if Blatterism itself, the politics of self-interest and calculated division, is allowed to fester in the unscabbed wounds.

With this in mind what Dyke and many in Europe seem unwilling to accept is that Blatter was voted in as the Fifa president not because those who backed him are all corrupt, ill-informed, or motivated by anti-European bile (although some may be). But because many of Blatter’s supporters saw the incumbent as the lesser of two evils, a flawed but oleaginously ingratiating outreach candidate.


Post-Blatter there is a fear outside Uefa and North America of a Euro-centred power grab, a Carthaginian Peace where wrongs under Blatter are used as a moral imperative to take back and exclude – a moment of punitive opportunism for the old world.

Michel Platini is the favourite to win a re-run election. Platini may have backed Qatar as an arm of the Franco-Qatari entente cordiale but he is above all the head of Uefa, an organisation that centralises its wealth and which represents the most powerful interests in world football, the same European clubs and associations that hog the programme for the other 46 months between World Cups. Good luck, Africa, with that one.

The issue here boils down to timing and smart politics. Dyke may be right in the abstract. A World Cup in Qatar is an undesirable prospect for many reasons, not least because migrant workers will continue to die at an unprecedented rate as the infrastructure is built, just as migrant workers will continue to die all over the world while people are desperate to escape poverty and others willing to exploit them.

Football can make a powerful statement that this will not happen in its name but as a point of principle this will resonate only if it can do so with clean hands and with no hint of self-interest. The worst possible outcome now is to convey to the rest of the world that this is all about sour grapes over the award of a World Cup, rather than the objective facts of corruption and death. Europe must be seen to be fairer than fair, to set its own example of disinterested meritocracy.

For this reason calls to strip Qatar of its tournament should be muted until there is absolute, unarguable evidence of a corrupt vote, a case that makes itself. For now it is a moment to let events play themselves out. Maybe there is even something to be learnt here from Blatter’s astonishing success over 17 dictatorial years. Beyond the tawdry details here is a leader with the fine diplomatic sense to recognise a large portion of the footballing world felt overlooked and marginalised, and that by doing something he would be doing more than nothing.

Africa deserves better than Blatter (everyone deserves better than Blatter) but when Fifa members outside Europe look to the old world beyond the president there are plenty who see hypocrisy and entitlement. In Dyke they might see an FA chairman who has accepted not one but 16 watches during his own tenure, including the famous £16,000 job during the World Cup in Brazil (since returned). They might see an English FA that couldn’t even make a decent fist of de facto bribery, offering up 24 Mulberry handbags to Fifa committee members’ wives during its own bid process and thereby allowing even Jack Warner to claim the moral high ground by returning his unwanted bag with the disdain of a man palming off a Christmas cracker prize.

In this context the principles Blatter preached, if not the practice – global reach, inclusion – have a great deal to commend them. This is a moment for tact and conciliation, for reaching out. What the English FA appears to be offering is a dunk in the gunge tank, Timmy Mallet leaping up on Radio 4 and battering the rest of the world over the head with his foam-rubber hammer of righteousness.

What comes next will be the key. Russia will host the 2018 World Cup whatever any investigations uncover about the process involved. Qatar looks more vulnerable. First because of the human cost of its construction, and second because of the basic absurdity of staging a tournament there in the first place.

And yet football will go on either side of Qatar, as will Fifa in whatever shape can be crafted. If Dyke really has to say something it should be to announce England has no interest at all in staging a 2022 World Cup, and the FA believes the tournament should stay in that region whatever the outcome. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have staged plenty of global sporting events. Failing that, give it to Malaysia or China. Give it to Ghana or Greenland. Give it to anyone who hasn’t had a World Cup, anywhere that feels under-represented, and do so with a smile. A united, uncorrupted future is what is at stake here, not four weeks of pageantry in June.

Beyond this the wider fixing of Fifa will be a matter of controlled, consensual change. Ideally independent accountants would end up logging every dollar in and every dollar out, with Fifa edged closer to the unlikely dream of an independent, utterly transparent charitable administrator. How close we get to this, with the looming fudge of a Euro-takeover, the threat of split and division, depends entirely on engagement, tact and trust. It is possible to reform Fifa and to make the world see sense on Qatar. But not simply – Greg, please – by shouting it down.

[YUJAM]

Europe has a big image problem when it comes to how people perceive their intentions with respect to how they intend to run FIFA

This article by Nyantakyi illustrates this feeling. I also do not trust the likes of Platini and Dyke. My feeling is they will give preference to the Euro agenda, the interests of their clubs, leagues and tourneys. So the best bet for the rest of the world is to form a voting bloc to make sure such a candidate does not replace Blatter



http://africanfootball.com/news/536557/ ... e-European
Nyantakyi thinks next FIFA boss won't be European
Kwesi Nyantakyi

by Ameenu Shardow

Wednesday Jun 03, 2015. 14:44
Ghana FA boss Kwesi Nyantakyi has cast doubts over the election of an European successor to Sepp Blatter as FIFA President over policies that will ‘kill football in Africa’.

Suggestions are being made all over about the best candidate suited to replace Blatter who announced he will be stepping down as FIFA President just under a week of winning a fresh four-year mandate.

The Swiss’ decision to quit the FIFA top job has been met with varied reactions with opinions still split as to whether the move is in the right direction.

While majority of member associations in Europe are rejoicing over Blatter’s imminent departure especially following the recent bribery and corruption allegations thrown at FIFA, most member associations in Africa – who stood resolutely with Blatter during the troubled congress last week – are bitterly disappointed.

Blatter remains very popular in Africa and Asia mainly for the reforms that increasingly leveled the playing field in terms of decision making and profit sharing at FIFA as against the desire of the Europe block to have a majority say due to their superior resources.

Nyantakyi in discussing the future of FIFA on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana, cited planned reforms being championed by the Europeans that according to the GFA boss will ‘kill football in Africa’ as a reason why the next FIFA President is unlikely to come from the West.

“I don’t think a candidate from Europe can have enough votes from Africa and Asia to become the next FIFA President,” he said.

“The reforms being put forward by Europe is only meant to serve their interest and will kill football in Africa.

“For instance, they made a request to the FIFA Executive Committee to play friendly matches only amongst themselves.

“They have also increasingly restricting the number of African players in their leagues where in fact African players have played integral roles in making them attractive.

“These reforms were of course not accepted and so you can see clearly attempts being made by Europe to make them more powerful by crippling the other blocks.”

Ghana country page »
African Football tournament »
Ghana`s profile »


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Essien seals move to Greek champions Panathinaikos
Essien seals move to Greek champions Panathinaikos
Bwalya: 'A sad day for football'
Bwalya: 'A sad day for football'
Outgoing Blatter wishes football to be the winner

[txj]

There is a lot of paranoia being stirred by people who are afraid to lose their pecking order in the crony patronage system that served Blatter so well.

What football needs is someone who will develop the game and not the personal interests of a few.

For instance, while it is important to expand the game to new territories, it is equally imperative that, this doesn't become a strategy by itself for self aggrandizement, and for mere perpetuation of power.

By any objective analysis, while it is noble to take the WC to the Arab world, the decision to award the WC to Qatar was flawed.

As we speak Adamu is back in the corridors of power at CAF headquarters.

[txj]

George Weah for FIFA President anyone.

Clarence Seedorf or Rabah Madjer

[YUJAM]

It is not paranoia. It is motivated by facts and current events.

There is a lot of paranoia being stirred by people who are afraid to lose their pecking order in the crony patronage system that served Blatter so well.

What football needs is someone who will develop the game and not the personal interests of a few.

For instance, while it is important to expand the game to new territories, it is equally imperative that, this doesn't become a strategy by itself for self aggrandizement, and for mere perpetuation of power.

By any objective analysis, while it is noble to take the WC to the Arab world, the decision to award the WC to Qatar was flawed.

As we speak Adamu is back in the corridors of power at CAF headquarters.

[txj]

Europe has a big image problem when it comes to how people perceive their intentions with respect to how they intend to run FIFA

This article by Nyantakyi illustrates this feeling. I also do not trust the likes of Platini and Dyke. My feeling is they will give preference to the Euro agenda, the interests of their clubs, leagues and tourneys. So the best bet for the rest of the world is to form a voting bloc to make sure such a candidate does not replace Blatter



http://africanfootball.com/news/536557/ ... e-European
Nyantakyi thinks next FIFA boss won't be European
Kwesi Nyantakyi

by Ameenu Shardow

Wednesday Jun 03, 2015. 14:44
Ghana FA boss Kwesi Nyantakyi has cast doubts over the election of an European successor to Sepp Blatter as FIFA President over policies that will ‘kill football in Africa’.

Suggestions are being made all over about the best candidate suited to replace Blatter who announced he will be stepping down as FIFA President just under a week of winning a fresh four-year mandate.

The Swiss’ decision to quit the FIFA top job has been met with varied reactions with opinions still split as to whether the move is in the right direction.

While majority of member associations in Europe are rejoicing over Blatter’s imminent departure especially following the recent bribery and corruption allegations thrown at FIFA, most member associations in Africa – who stood resolutely with Blatter during the troubled congress last week – are bitterly disappointed.

Blatter remains very popular in Africa and Asia mainly for the reforms that increasingly leveled the playing field in terms of decision making and profit sharing at FIFA as against the desire of the Europe block to have a majority say due to their superior resources.

Nyantakyi in discussing the future of FIFA on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana, cited planned reforms being championed by the Europeans that according to the GFA boss will ‘kill football in Africa’ as a reason why the next FIFA President is unlikely to come from the West.

“I don’t think a candidate from Europe can have enough votes from Africa and Asia to become the next FIFA President,” he said.

“The reforms being put forward by Europe is only meant to serve their interest and will kill football in Africa.

“For instance, they made a request to the FIFA Executive Committee to play friendly matches only amongst themselves.

“They have also increasingly restricting the number of African players in their leagues where in fact African players have played integral roles in making them attractive.

“These reforms were of course not accepted and so you can see clearly attempts being made by Europe to make them more powerful by crippling the other blocks.”

Ghana country page »
African Football tournament »
Ghana`s profile »


COMMENTS
Sign in with:

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Essien seals move to Greek champions Panathinaikos
Essien seals move to Greek champions Panathinaikos
Bwalya: 'A sad day for football'
Bwalya: 'A sad day for football'
Outgoing Blatter wishes football to be the winner

And this is what would 'kill football in Africa'?

These are the muppets who run African football!!!