- We all make mistakes, but some mistakes are just too big to ignore
- Fifa teeters on the edge; punishment is not agreed; Infantino wants football cut in two.
By Tony Attwood
When something goes wrong in a big corporation, the answers are always the same.
First they say, “Oh you don’t understand” treating us mere mortals as if we are little children who want a toy back. The greater good (such as eating lunch or gong to granny’s house) overcomes your desire to play now. But of course you are too young to understand that.
Second they say, “We’re taking it away anyway, whatever you think.”
And then third they blame misreporting by the media, who, it seems, “don’t understand”.
Thus we have the Fifa response to objections to their plans – and we can see their bemusement in every step they take, for they have had the media on their side for so long, obeying their every whim, they can’t actually understand how such a process could go wrong.
Now we should not be misled into thinking that the media has lost its grip on controlling football, but we should remember there are still enough football people around who can think, who can call out a really bad idea when they see it.
So, what we have in the media today are headlines such as, “Fifa to push ahead with consultation plan despite backlash and insists ‘nobody is selling football’ Put another way this says, “Don’t worry about it children, it will all be fine. We’re looking after you.”
But we should have no doubt that the threat of a World Cup boycott scared Fifa stupid. And the fact that is main line of response was “process disrupted by incorrect media reports” shows the enormous weakness of Fifa. Of course the media mis-report. That is what they do!
The responses from the media and the rest of football came as a direct response to Fifa’s statements. If anyone didn’t understand what Fifa was saying (and I think they understood very well) it was because Fifa were completely incapable of expressing their views clearly.
Simplistic statements from Fifa that “nobody is selling football” shows just how weak Fifa’s position is, and how much they take for granted. And as the Guardian said, Fifa “stopped short of withdrawing the plans, instead reaffirming its commitment to push ahead with the consultation process.”
So we are now asked to believe that everything is fine and Fifa’s “planned consultation process was disrupted by incorrect media reports. We will proceed with this consultation process to ensure that each member association has the ability to express its vote based on facts.”
“Incorrect media reports” is of course something that Untold has complained about for years and is something that is based around taking one tiny element of a football story and make it the only issue, rather than part of the whole. Fifa has benefitted from “incorrect media reports” for years, and it is rather rich that it is now complaining about a mechanism it has constantly used.
If we need one simple point to show exactly what it is wrong with Fifa it is the simple fact that none of the elements within Fifa were consulted before the announcement of plans to sell chunks of the World Cup to US-based private investment organisations.
What we can be grateful for is the fact that major chunks of Fifa membership have said “no”, and not that they have said “we don’t like some of this”. For this now makes it possible that the whole top layer of Fifa could be overthrown, and its whole structure challenged. This in turn could lead to a genuine discussion of what Fifa is for. Is it a way to make more money for Fifa, or a way to keep football enterprise under strict control by a few people who claim to know it all? Or is it a way for all countries to come together and ensure that the direction of football is one that everyone wants?
Now Fifa’s response was both frightening and anticipated. It read…
“We respect the feedback and concern aired in public and reaffirm our commitment to an open and democratic consultation,” the statement read. “Our planned consultation process was disrupted by incorrect media reports. We will proceed with this consultation process to ensure that each member association has the ability to express its vote based on facts.”
Which is a long winded way of saying, “we’ve used divide and rule since we were founded in 1904, and we are not going to let influence us now.”
At the heart of the problem is Fifa Forrward Enterprieses of which Fifa itself said, “FFE has been proposed solely to ensure that all Fifa member associations have the opportunity to take meaningful ownership of the commercial opportunity of football in their respective countries, and that this does not come at the cost of either the spirit or the governance of Fifa or football itself.”
The problem for Fifa is that some countries don’t believe them.
