By Tony Attwood
With each passing outrage from Fifa Untold has raised the issue of the sponsors of the dictatorship, and suggested that the sponsors should take a good look at what is going on in their name.
Of course we can’t expect much to happen, not least when the Football Association in England, always poncing about saying that they are concerned with the nation’s health, take money from Macdonalds.
But still it is just possible that things are moving along. Castrol, Continental and Johnson & Johnson have decided to pull out of Fifa. Earlier, Sony and Emirates had also decided not to stay in league with corruption and insanity, and dropped out of Fifa.
But of course there are always plenty of corporations around who don’t care who they get into bed with. I have a feeling Visa is still in there, but they are very upset with Fifa, I’ve been told, and their pulling out would be a big loss – unless Mastercard do the dishonourable thing and replace their rivals.
As has been said many times, the problem with trying to reform FIFA is that it is unaccountable. Most of the Fifa associations are dependent on Fifa hand outs, so they don’t try to change anything.
But the move by Switzerland to end the immunity they previously granted to Fifa no matter how corrupt it might appear, allied to the loss of sponsors, could be the leverage many of us have been looking for.
Fifa sponsors include Adidas, Coca Cola, Hyundai, Visa, Budweiser, and McDonalds.
And there is a Boycott FIFA Sponsors | Facebook website… Unfortunately that web site allows promotions from the New Fifa group which is made up of people who have been tainted by the FA and old Fifa group.
It is going to take something very dramatic to stop Fifa – and the two options still on the horizon are
a) Uefa pulling out of Fifa
b) The FBI taking on Fifa in relation to corruption crimes committed within the United States.
Certainly the EU is exercising its right to speak on the matter noting that the decision to assign the 2022 World Cup to Qatar was “radically flawed” by illegal payments (that according to a committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe – PACE).
The PACE complaint is that “Large sums of money” paid to over 30 senior African football officials or their national associations by FIFA’s Qatari Vice-President Mohammed bin Hammam ensured that Qatar received the votes of the African Football Confederation representatives at a key meeting on 2 December 2010.
This in turn enabled Qatar to remove a number of other Asian bidding countries such as Australia, Japan and Korea whose votes ultimately ensured it would win the bid to host the Cup.
The procedure was so “fundamentally undermined by illegality” that it should be re-run using fairer procedures, PACE argued.
The report’s author Michael Connarty said he had been able to examine the documents obtained by the Sunday Times in detail and found the evidence of illegal payments unequivocal.
“Given the structured action of this scale and the sums involved, there can be no doubt that that there was a ‘direct correlation’ between these flagrant irregularities and the outcome of the vote,” he said.
The report also called on Qatar to respect the basic rights of foreign migrant workers and urged Fifa to do something about the situation.
The report is to be debated in plenary at the assembly’s April session (20-24 April 2015). Sepp Blatter will be invited, but will either not attend, or simply grin and walk away afterwards.
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Anniversary of the Day. Ever got bored by Tiny Totts telling you that Arsenal bought their way into the 1st division in 1919? We’ve covered that in great detail on the Arsenal History Site, to prove it is totally false, but the anniversary of the day is one of the classic moments…
31 January 1919: “The Sportsman” reports Tottenham’s letter to league clubs which admits that there are no league rules for deciding on how the league should be expanded for the 1919/20 season.
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What criminal acts will BBC football pundits suggest should be used against talented footballers tonight? Find out on Match of the Day at 10.30pm on BBC1.
Christ, when you’ve even got the oil and pharmaceutical companies walking away you just know the cat is desperately trying to let itself out of the bag!
Things are moving against FIFA as they are now, and will surely soon reach a tipping point. Can see Blatter stepping down a year or so into the next tenure , he is getting on and have a feeling he only stays on in the hope of covering his tracks and perhaps avoiding the consequences. But the net is closing in , Switzerland have changed their policy and the US , and potentially our own SFO are gunning for him and FIFA.
If things do not change, can see a UEFA breakaway, their nations tournament will be their flagship event and will take over from FIFAs World Cup? There problem with UEFA….Platini, a liability over his cheerleading for Qatar. A serious UEFA breakaway needs a credible head, they do not have one at the moment.
The time has come for FIFA to be told that its days of corrupt control of world football must end.
We must never forget that in 1215 in England, an uprising of barons, with Magna Carta, similarly brought an end to the absolute and cruel rule of an English monarch.
If nothing is done to correct FIFA, did Magna die in vain?
Canada is in the process of “strengthening” its security laws, and in the process almost declaring every Canadian (except those in office) to be terrorists. The language is ambiguous enough, that you could end up in jail for 5 years for what you wrote Nicky. And I don’t think you are Canadian or in Canada.
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Do you remember Vic Groves?
@Gord,
Not too good at maths at School, so I hope I haven’t offended anyone.
I not only remember Vic Groves, but I vaguely recall Herbert Chapman.
(except I called him Mr Chapman). 😉
> Do you remember Vic Groves?
Then you seen that he passed away?
Any stories about him?
@Gord,
Hadn’t realised that Vic Groves had sadly passed away last week.
A useful attacking forward at Arsenal although I never saw him play.
It is kind of a small notice at Arsenal.com, it’s easy to miss it. I had heard of Perry, but not Vic.
I wonder if there have been many other families come through Arsenal since then?
I’ll get some exercise today, it’s snowing again here. We had about 3 weeks of warmish weather, which got rid of most of the snow. But we could still have 2 or 3 months of winter yet. I hope the weather is nice on that side of the pond.
Good to see the money men pulling out of Fifa and I would love to see Blatter and his cronies jailed, but the sad fact is that there will always be corruption in professional sport. The World Handball Championship is currently being hosted in Qatar. Todays final will see Qatar, without one single player from Qatar, compete against Quatar. Football is going this direction and will follow the money. How long before all the best players in the world, even clubs, are playing in the Middle East? I don’t think Stan or any of the other owners would have any problem moving if it meant megabucks.
Apologies, Qatar will compete against France in the handball, but my point is the same!
ThomB,
Grassroots clubs can make it into league football, given time and commitment. AFC Wimbledon are the living proof of that. They were formed by disgusted supporters after the owners of Wimbledon decamped to Milton Keynes and changed the club to MK Dons. If the top clubs do decamp to other parts that will become the pattern.
Andrew, I am fully aware of that. However the standard of football will massively drop. I guess how you feel about it depends on your reasons for watching football and supporting a club.Will out global fanbase, many of whom use this verty site, support FC Arsenal who would not be able to afford their own ground in London, or Arsenal FC in Qatar?
Hey Vicky, are you the Vicky Losada?
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150122/vicky-losada-signs-for-arsenal-ladies
If so, it is an honour to have you here, on Untold and at Arsenal 😀
Getting back to the topic (ahem), I’m surprised to see the EU taking a stance against Qatar, they must feel their ties to the other oil nations to be strong enough, the Saudis, UAE, etc., although my knowledge on political relations with Qatar is a bit sketchy. Omgarsenal seems to be quite clued up on these things, hopefully he can add a word or two.
I suspect the most that will happen is the 2022 World Cup will be moved to the winter, which will lessen some of the grumbling, but if things go bad, Septic Bladder will shuffle off quietly, and we will resume with business as usual. Ever the optimist, I am.
As for UEFA, hasn’t Germany been the only FA to hint that they could break away?
Gord :-Vic Groves was a left half what we would now call a midfield player , he was not the quickest but had a very accurate left foot and was a good passer of the ball and read the game well. I only saw him as a child I was about 12 /13 years old when he drifted out of the team but he was a player that I tried to emulate along with Jimmy Bloomfield and then George Eastham and latterly Alan Ball. I am sure that there will be others that can tell you more but that’s as good as I can do.
On whether we’ll sign another player this window:
“If I wake up in the morning and somebody’s stood in front of my door who is an exceptional player, I will open the door,” he said. “It looks very unlikely now. I can give you my address if you want!”
😀 😀 😀
Ah, how we’ll miss Wenger’s humour and skill with the hacks when he’s gone.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150130/-campbell-needs-top-level-experience-
So true Quincy. So true. Reminds me of a Savage Garden song..”Affirmation” – You don’t know what you’ve got until you say goodbye.
Yea, sad that corruption will always be there, but in reality it only serves the purpose of letting honest people know the goal to strive towards.
Fi Fi Fo Fum
the FIFA is falling down.(perhaps).
I think there should be proper regulations and policies about general economy for everyone. The objective is not to surpress freedom but to create a better practice in creating and boosting economy. You can’t really expect a greedy, uneducated or selfish man to create fair economy environment because he won’t. As far as I know, there’s more than enough resources in the world for everyone, so putting responsible and righteous people in strong positions to create and enforce world economy should be priority. Taking AW as a template or platform is a great start. Maybe after he retires from football, people should urge him to work with UN. This great man got more to offer than in football. We all should at least try.