By Sir Hardly Anyone
Would you like to be a football journalist who is paid money for writing the same thing over and over and over and … well, you get the idea. Then yes it can be done with the British media.
What you do is take any incident in European football, and “call on Uefa to act”.
Now the great thing about this approach is that you can do it and then do it again and again because Uefa never does anything, and the media treats its readership with such contempt that they truly believe ordinary football fans are so stupid they don’t notice that they are being fed the same story time after time.
For example
Boris Johnson calls on Uefa to take strong action against Bulgaria
This was in the Guardian wherein “Boris Johnson has joined demands by anti-racism campaigners for Uefa to take strong action after the racist chanting that marred England’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Bulgaria on Monday night.”
Ian Wright Calls on UEFA to Do More to Combat Racism
Bein Sports told us that “Ian Wright called on UEFA to do more to tackle racism in football after England’s players were targeted by a section of Bulgaria supporters during their 6-0 Euro 2020 qualification victory in Sofia.”
FA calls on UEFA to act against racism – Irish Times
The Irish Times gave us “The Football Association said today it was seeking urgent talks with UEFA after two Ipswich players were racially abused during a match with Yugoslav side FK Sartid.
FA calls on UEFA and FIFA for a structured campaign on dealing with racist abuse in stadiums
This from sky sports who haven’t quite got the notion that the plural of stadium is stadia.
Martin O’Neill calls on UEFA to act over Danish dispute
And just showing that the little boys can play with the big boys the Westmorland Gazette reported that Denmark are set to field a side of third-tier and indoor futsal players against Wales on Sunday.
PSG president calls on UEFA to ‘do something’ about referees …
Callum Hudson-Odoi Calls on UEFA to Take Action Against …
90min gave us the story that Callum Hudson-Odoi has called on UEFA to take ‘proper’ action against Montenegro after racist abuse.
Euro 2020 qualifiers: Roxana Maracineanu calls on UEFA to act
News1 had the story that after the draw of France against Turkey (1-1) in qualifications to Euro 2020, the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu deplored the use of military salutes by players.
Actually some of these calls to act go back quite a long way. Christos Kassimeris in 2007 in his book European Football in Black and White called on Uefa to act in relation to racism in the ground.
And here is one that really took me by surprise.
The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) called on Uefa to act following reports that thousands of dogs were being cruelly killed in the Ukraine in the lead up to the Euro 2012 football championships.
There was also a report that “England U21 defender Danny Rose has called on UEFA to ban Serbia after claiming that racist abuse” although I can’t find a date for that one.
Jose Mourinho calls on Uefa to deduct points and ‘remove titles’
That headline was in the Telegraph in September 2014 when Mourinho was Chelsea manager and he demanded firmer action against clubs that break fair play regulations. An interesting twist.
There are thousands and thousands more such calls on Uefa to act and the interesting thing is that in ploughing through maybe 100 of them I couldn’t find one where Uefa had acted in a way to resolve the matter through what one might call firm action.
The only conclusion is, calling for Uefa to act is a nice easy headline, but is pointless. Uefa doesn’t act.
So, what’s the alternative?
Call on: Billy Connolly, Fleabag, Ian Hislop, The EU, Eric Cantona, Seb Coe, The UN?
Who else other than Uefa can be ‘called on’?
Good luck with asking ANY Football body to act. The FA, UEFA and FIFA and most of the football associations of the world are made up of old men who think that lining their own pockets is more important than the integrity of the game.
PIGMOB think they are just gods who we should not question.
@Masterstroke – Ghostbusters!! 😉
Boris Johnson the racist calling on uefa to do something about racist behaviour after being racist to his own people what a hypocrite or is their a election on the way
Most say that to signal that they care about the issue, it’s virtue signalling without any commitment. Uefa does what it’s best at, issue some vacuous and insipid statement and everyone moves on.
When there is money to be had, retribution will be swift and severe
The link contained a quote, so here goes again