To cover up its acceptance of Russia Fifa expands its powerbase even further

• Why does English football refuse to act on match fixing, when the rest of Europe takes it seriously?

by Tony Attwood

Fifa knows that by allowing delegates from Russia and Belrus to all its events, including of course the World Cup finals in Qatar, it is opening itself up to criticism.

So even before websites like this one invite readers not to watch the World Cup in Qatar at all, in order to refrain from supporting anything to do with Russia, Fifa has retaliated.

Of course Fifa knows that none of the mainstream outlets are going to criticise its actions or its very existence, but Fifa bosses have aggrandisement at the heart of their agendas, and nothing but nothing is going to hold them back.

So Fifa is now launching its own broadcasting platform.

And of course being Fifa it has done this so using phrases such as “democratizing football” while telling us about its extensive archives.   It’s new service, known as “FIFA+” is in fact nothing short of an attempt to revolutionize the distribution of broadcast matches around the world, to distract us all from its view that Russian football executives should still be treated as equals within Fifa (rather than excluded) and to start clawing back the audience of the likes of Sky.

As ever, this story is not being covered by the UK press, which will never criticise the structure and organisation of football, no matter what Fifa does, or how catastrophic the activities of the FA in England.   But it is being covered in Europe.

FIFA+ is about exclusive content, some of which is being offered free of charge as a loss leader.  Such as its documentary about Ronaldinho, acts as a loss leader for platform users.

But at the heart of its new approach is something else: the Fifa archives, which can be searched and used as the basis for research, in order to find a particular goal, an event, an incident, or film of a particular (and not necessarily well known) player.

Additionally, Fifa is offering – wait for it – 40,000 live matches per year.  Of course nothing is going to be allowed to interrupt the flow of commercial money into the likes of the Premier League clubs from its sale of matches, but in cases where there is no one willing to show games from leagues which have no contract for live matches in specific countries – these will be found 24 hours a day on Fifa+.

Alongside this, Fifa competitions that have failed to grab the public’s imagination such as the Club World Cup, will be kept as a further incentive to subscribe to Fifa+.

So let us consider this in the light of what Fifa is.   At its heart is a man who has fled Switzerland to avoid an interrogation by the forces of law and order concerning his meetings with the head of the Swiss legal system.

It is an organisation that has a long history of corrupt practices, and which has recently taken over football in Africa, replacing all the previous officials with its own nominees.

It is an organisation that has directly sought to challenge the club competitions of Uefa and the like by trying to run its own World cup every two years.

And now it is planning to bring 24 hour a day, 365 days a year football from around the planet to the televisions in your house, all the while pumping out the propaganda message that Fifa is not an organisation with a long history of appalling corruption, but a jolly decent organisation that simply wants to let you watch football when you want to watch it, in the comfort of your own home.

Plus of course it wants to distract you from thinking about its involvement with Russia, its glorification of Qatar, a country with the most appalling human rights records, and its own long history of corruption.

That is what one is supporting if one watches this winter’s world cup, or indeed any of the games that will be broadcast on Fifa+.  Corruption and the continuing sporting association with Russia through allowing its officials to attend conferences and events.