By Tony Attwood
As you will know if you are a regular reader of Untold, there is a major crisis facing Fifa through the trial happening in Switzerland which pitches Infantino, the head of Fifa against the Swiss state.
Now we have had the court decisions in Trinidad and Tobago in which for the first time ever a national court has taken on Fifa and challenged their rule that Fifa is above the law of individual countries.
Of course UK journalists are not reporting any of this for the simple reason that they have a massive invested interest in Fifa keeping going in its present form. These journalists care more about their jollies that the world cup matches mean; a trip to an interesting foreign country, lots of expenses, nice hotels, free access to big time football matches. To be fair, would you expose the mega corruption of the organisation running the show if it meant that you would stop having all those freebies?
Maybe you would, especially if we add to the mix the fact that the next World Cup will be held in stadia that have been built using slave labour, as we have discussed in numerous articles. Of course we are just a little blog doing our own thing, but if you want verification try this article, or this one from a different source. There are many more – just type “Slave labour Qatar” into a search engine. You’ll see what football journalists are deliberately ignoring.
But what this implies is that if you can’t trust the football journalists over their reporting of Fifa organised games, how can you trust them when it comes to anything else?
Meanwhile on a different front the Sun (yes, I know, even the Sun) has recently run the headline “Man Utd and Liverpool in talks over creating £4.6bn European Premier League with Fifa after failed Project Big Picture.”
That is worrying because of late we’ve seen Uefa as the last bastion against Fifa and its huge levels of corruption, that is left within football. OK I know Uefa screwed up the fight against Manchester City by not getting the case heard in time. But hopefully they are now re-writing their rules so that where information comes into the public domain late, they are still able to take action. But otherwise, the number of people working with Uefa who have been found to be corrupt since Infantino left to head up Fifa, has been small, if not any.
On the other hand the number of people involved in corruption since Infantino went to Fifa seems to have multiplied endlessly. Which suggests that if Fifa pushes Uefa aside and takes over the running of a European Premier League, we could have the people who are being brought to the fore in corruption trials relating to Fifa, gaining full control over yet another competition. In such circumstances would you trust Fifa appointed referees?
Given the way that the Football Association in England (itself with a long history of dubious dealings, ranging from sucking up to Fifa in a desperate attempt to get another world cup in England, through to being severely reprimanded and rebuked by everyone in England from the Charities Commission to Sport England, while ceaselessly accepting PGMO as the arbiter of good refereeing) behave, we may imagine that they will welcome the Fifa backed European Premier League.
The announcement of this league comes just at a time that news is leaking out that the owners of Liverpool have looked at the model developed by the City Football Group (owners of Manchester City New York City, Melbourne City, and goodness knows how many others) and at the Red Bull sports clubs (RB Leipzig, New York Red Bulls, FC Red Bull Salzburg etc etc etc), and are now planning their own group.
Will Arsenal have a chance to survive with a third megagroup of clubs out there? Almost certainly yes, but will Arsenal have a chance to win anything against this kind of competition? Probably not. We’ve already seen how Manchester City behave, and the Red Bull rebranding of the clubs they take over. None of this has nothing to do with Arsenal’s traditions.
Of course Arsenal could resist, but given that the media in this country kowtows to the antics of Fifa by refusing to comment on the ongoing corruption trials in Switzerland, and sees nothing of interest in one small country finally standing up to Fifa, and has always refused to take the mega-issues surrounding PGMO seriously, I suspect not.
The slippery slope has arrived. The problem is that because the media is not reporting it, most fans won’t realise what has happened to their clubs until it is far, far, far too late.
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- Fifa, “Guilty As Charged.” This MUST be the turning point for Fifa and CAS
- It’s all gone wrong, and we need to tell them NOW!
- The referees decision is final except for VAR. VAR is final except for
Talking of how the media manage themselves I have noted of late there there are still numerous articles being published on seemingly a daily basis about how terrible the injury is to van Dijk and the club. This despite the fact this type of injury is not uncommon indeed not too recently both Bellerin and Chambers have suffered from the same as has Holding and many, many other footballers. Why then is this van Dijk’s injury still headline news in many areas. However, all we saw with the far more serious injuries to Eduardo and Ramsey were articles showing sympathy for the perpetrators. All we’re seeing now is how terrible this all is for the player and the club.
It was unfortunate for both the player and the club and it was the clumsiest of ‘tackles’ but far less severe in every way to the assaults on Eduardo and Ramsey. But that’s the media for you…………same old same old.
In fact when we hear talk of a European Premier League to involve Liverpool not one outlet I’ve seen has even questioned why a team that has taken 30 years to win its own domestic title is talked about as a member of said league. Strange that.
Mikey
I don’t know if you saw it but I did point out this radically different and sympathetic reaction to the Van Dyke incident compared to there reaction to the incidents you mentioned, and others, in a reply to a Liverpool poster named Ben who suggested Tony was being ‘Churlish’ in his article I’ve linked bellow.
Anyway for those that missed it, which includes Ben it seems, as he has disappeared. Funny that.
-Diaby
Press: The towering central midfielder could make only 124 appearances for Arsenal in the 9 years that he spent at the club. Diaby suffered a severe ankle fracture early in his Arsenal career that many have said paved the way for future injuries and ruined his career.
-Wilshere
Received endless assaults, but not only did referees fail to protect him from them, he was actually told it was all his own fault.
-Eduardo
With three minutes gone, the Croatian received a pass from Clichy on the half turn. As he nudged the ball towards a teammate, Birmingham defender Martin Taylor lunged for the ball. He found Eduardo’s leg instead.
His tibia and fibula fractured instantly, the shattered bones rupturing the tissue of his standing leg as the force of impact dislocated his ankle. At first, the extent of the injury wasn’t obvious. It was only when Cesc Fàbregas started urging towards the bench that a sickening realisation spread throughout the ground, the Spaniard visibly shaken as the nauseating scene unfolded. Alexander Hleb turned away, putting his hand to his mouth as though he were about to be sick. Mathieu Flamini raged at the referee, whilst Emanuel Adebayor shook his head in quiet, disbelieving horror. “I’m told the injury is so disturbing we cannot show pictures of it,” said the scandalised BBC commentator Jonathan Pearce. “Rarely have I seen such collective anguish amongst football players.” Wenger “I think this guy should never play football again,” said a visibly upset Wenger after the game. “What is he [Taylor] doing on the football pitch?” When asked if Eduardo’s season was over, Wenger’s reply was sullenly prophetic. “More than his season is over.”
This is what Birmingham manager Alec McLeish told Sky Sports News the next day. “I don’t think it would’ve been the tackle itself. It was a mistimed tackle, almost like a trip.” Really ???
And they let him get away with claiming that, and what’s more, quite unbelievably it was Arsenal, and Gallas in particular, that received the criticism for our and his reaction at the end of the match.
-Ramsey
Famously had his leg broken by Ryan Shawcross but ended up being made to feel he was the guilty party because apparently Shawcrosss is a nice guy and didn’t mean it and apparently Ramsey made his mum cry. The lovely Stoke City fans even had a nice little song to sing at him every time he went to the potteries.
There are more but I cant be arsed.
It was actually on the back of these horrendous assaults that we earned the reputation for being soft. We didn’t receive an ounce of sympathy.
As for the Van Dyke incident I agree it was a very poor challange, but that is not the point here, the point is about the sympathetic way you get treated by the media, and more the way your club tries to run the game. Yes the referee and VAR were poor and yes you deserved to win, but as we kept getting told, man up, take it on the chin, it’s football, and anyway, as Wilshere endlessly got told, it was probably Van Dykes own fault anyway.
And here is a more in depth analysis of the disgraceful match 49 starting with Gary Neville’s rather sanitised version of it:
How did we beat Wenger’s Arsenal? By bullying them!
UPDATED: 00:09, 28 August 2011
“It’s the only match when I’ve ever been accused of brutalising an opponent. So let me first make it clear that in almost 20 years at United the manager never asked me to kick anyone. I’ve no idea if other managers have issued instructions to ‘take out’ a player but I can promise you that wasn’t our boss’s style. But did he tell us to get tight, put a foot in and let Arsenal know they were in for a battle? Of course, he did.”
What a crock of shite. I challange anyone who has seen that match to class that as ‘bullying’. It was an assault, and an assault the referee was culpable in by allowing it to happen. You can only be a ‘bully’ or an assailant if the referee allows it to happen. And who was the ref? Mike Riley.
The match is still on line if anyone thinks I’m exaggerating.
Neville asked: I’ve no idea if other managers have issued instructions to ‘take out’ a player?
Well I think we know the answer to that don’t we Gary:
Tony Pulis was ‘out of control’ before Stoke’s infamous clash with Arsenal which saw Ryan Shawcross break Aaron Ramsey’s leg, says Dave Kitson: ‘It crossed the line and went too far’. Tony Pulis ‘despised’ Arsene Wenger and wound his players up to such an extent it contributed to Ryan Shawcross breaking Aaron Ramsey’s leg, former Stoke striker Dave Kitson has claimed. The ugly incident came back in February 2010 when the Stoke defender clattered into the Wales international, who sustained fractures to the tibia and fibula in his right leg. It was a reckless and full-blooded challenge from Shawcross and Kitson, now retired, has shed light on just why the Potters were so fired up for the clash.
So Ben, before you get your knickers in a twist over a marginal offside and one poor challange, know some facts.
No other team, and I mean no other team has had to put up with the brutal assaults we have, and as has been said earlier all we ever got for our trouble was accusations of being soft.
You can apologise for your ignorance if you like or you can disappear back into your cosy little ‘Liverpool are always so hard done by bubble’ you all seem to live in at Anfield, personally I couldn’t give a ****
Anyway Mikey, as expected Ben has as yet failed to re engage.
https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/83647
As an aside, the referee involved in the Shawcross/Ramsey incident said on United states TV that he did not think the tackle itself was a foul until he saw Ramsey’s leg.
One thing I do not hear anybody mention is that the rules FIFA keep changing are really only for the Top Leagues.
I suggest that 99.9% of the people who play football in England do NOT play in the premier league. They do not use VAR, or have a time clock to know when it is 5 minutes to the end of the match, so thro ins can now be kicked. How many clubs have goal line technology even.
Will the EFL clubs and the National league clubs use 5 substitutes in their matches, as the Europa League allows.
A
I am in total agreement with you that FIFA has been bought and paid for by the US!
So the world cup, when played in the USA, will have many more teams involved (more TV revenue).
It could have 4 15 minute quarters, watched over by a time-keeper.
Throw-ins will replaced by kick-ins.
VAR will be front and center, and Managers will have 3 flags by which they can challenge a decision on the field.
There will certainly be at least 5 substitutes allowed, but we might have reached the point of any number of substitutes by then.
This is what will be rammed down our throat, and we will accept it because England will be involved.
@ Nitram
I did read your comments (despite being very busy of late I never miss UA [or your comments!] but sometimes end up reading half a dozen articles in one sitting so don’t comment on the older ones).
Irrespective, I agree with everything you say above. It also reminded me of a matter I complained to the BBC about some time ago but got absolutely nowhere with which also underlines the sort of tactics Ferguson encouraged from his players and Riley and his ilk allowed.
It was an incident where Rosicky assited a splendid goal by markedly looking left as he was about to pass fooling all the defence but flicking the ball right for a player to score. Rather than salute the sublime way he did this the MotD pundits mocked Rosicky and when asked how he would have dealt with such a situation, Phil Neville replied, “I’d have done him”. So by his own public admission, if Neville had have been fooled by such clever bit of football he would have set out to injure the opposition player responsible. There was no doubt or ambiguity in what he had said. The BBC, however, steadfastly defended his statement as having been said “in jest”. Strangely nobody laughed including Neville; he meant it.
And the media thought this was completely fine. I wonder what they’d have thought if Rashford had done it and Keown had stated that as a result he would have deliberately injured him.
It was the Man Utd way, encouraged by Ferguson and made permissible by the implicit support of referees.
Micky
That’s not the only time he’s admitted it. It was on SKY SPORTS during the build up to an Arsenal Man Utd game at the Em’s. It was one of those cosy little chats between himself and Souness.
The conversation went along these lines:
GS – So how did you deal with them in your day?
GN – we always knew the best way to beat Arsenal was to get in their faces.
GS – You mean kick em !
GN – (under stifled giggles) Well you said that not me.
Much hilarity.
Another shameful example was during a bbc radio commentary during a match against Villa. They were committing foul after foul. The commentator eventually said ‘that has to be a booking’ to which co commentator John Hartson said: “no that’s his first” to which the commentator said, “they’re sharing it around” Hartson said through laughter “ you know that’s really clever”.
Again laughing about Arsenal being kicked off the park.