Are Fifa incompetent, a bunch of crooks, or the backdrop of violence?

 

 

• I watched Germany… then fled for cover as gunshots rang out
• Innocent night out after World Cup game became a terrifying reminder of how lax US gun laws put everyone under threat
• Watch: Mexico fans tear-gassed at chaotic fan event as potential England clash looms
• Mexico fans crushed to death in chaotic World Cup celebrations
• Supporters scale fences and barge through iron gates as thousands gather to watch their side beat Ecuador at World Cup

And of course it is not just violence.  Fifa itself is run by and for the basically bonkers

• Ecuador’s Piero Hincapie sent off for covering mouth in Mexico defeat
• Arsenal defender becomes second player at World Cup to fall foul of new Fifa rules

And yet they think we should all be laughing… as with ITV shows BBC how to make the World Cup fun.   To which I would reply, “ITV this is chaos and murder – do not make it fun under any circumstances

And the question from all this which strikes me is simply: is this normal?    Is this what we normally do?  Is this how we normally behave?   Or even, Is this what football is normally all about?  Or is this just normal-for-Fifa?

What really strikes me, sitting in my house in a small English village, is that these stories don’t seem to have anything to do with the football that I watch, whether it is at the Arsenal or indeed just watching my local non-league side.

The obvious point is that no – this is nothing to do with football, for real football has never been like this.  It has been turned into this mayhem by Fifa and its demand for more and more money.

I started watching Arsenal as a child in the late 1950s, going with my father.  Later we moved to Dorset and I went to watch Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic as they then were, and our local Southern League team Poole Team.  These days I also sometimes pop along to see the clubs that are local to where I live now – such as Corby Town now in the wonderfully namked Northern Premier League Divison One Midlands (which must be about the longest name for a league anywhere in the country.)

But leaving aside the names, what I feel is that neither at Arsenal nor watching non-league football, nor indeed anything in between, do I experience anything remotely like that which is described in the newspapers or indeed on TV today.   These journalists seem to be in a different world.

And in fact I think that is quite so: they are in a different world  I can’t imagine a journalist having to get off a train at Finsbury Park and push his/her way through the crowds, nor queue up to gain admittance, and stand each time someone wants a seat further along the row.  I’ve seen the journalists’ places and they have a lot more room than I get.

And yet, despite being paid to be there (instead of paying for our tickets like the rest of us) all they can do about Arsenal is moan, moan and then moan some more.

Take for example the headline “Another member of Mikel Arteta’s inner circle leaves Arsenal”.  Now just that word “Anotehr” suggests a clubn in chaos – top staff chucking the towel in anxious to be elsehwere.   But what we might note is that there is no mention ever of how Arsenal comapres to any other club.   Do other clubs have this level of turnover, and if so why, or why not?   

In fact statemetns such as “Head of sports science and performance becomes latest figure to depart north London club amid first-team-staff shake-up” imply that Arsenal is in chaos.  No one can stand working with Arteta.  The club is falling apart.   He’s a dictator.  Arsenal more likely to be relegated than win the league again…

In reality clubs are increasingly changing their senior staff for two reasons.  From the clubs’ point of view changes in staff means cfhanges in performance and that can keep the oppositin guessing.   From the assistants point of view, they are always looking for promotion and more responsiblitiy.   So it goes – players are transferred, managers move, and so do medical staff.

So we are told “Arsenal’s summer of change among first-team staff is expected to continue” and if Arsenal don’t win the league next season it will be “summer of chaos causes Arsenal collapse” not becuase any journjalist has got any facts to back that up but because it’s the easiest headline for a sub-editor to write.

Somehow we need to get most supporters to realise that football journalists’ agendas are places where some clubs are knocked (like Arsenal) and some are left alone (like ManC) for fear of being sued.   And that’s how it goes.   It has nothing to do with what is actually going on.