HERITAGE, DECENCY AND THE GREATER GOOD
What agony this last week or so has been for people who truly love football; people who care not for wealth and politicking but only for the good of the game; people who, let’s face it, are English. It has been painful for the straight-dealing folks at the original and best FA to watch Johnny-Foreigner-Come-Latelys across the globe cast the sport into the care of Sepp Blatter for another four years. What fresh hell does such a decision portend?
Will England ever again get to host a World Cup or will nasty Fifa only give it to countries chock-full of billionaires of dubious morality who have absolutely no business investing in World Cup bids when they could be bankrolling Premier League clubs instead? Frankly it is sad to see what the sacred World Cup has become, just another prize to be haggled and argued over by grubby nouveau-riche oiks, like some unfortunate beauty in a lap-dancing dive. Where is the respect? The reverence? And the fair play, darn it, for a country that gifted the game to humanity but which has not had the opportunity to stage a proper homecoming for the sport since 1966, when, of course, England registered its most glorious triumph and no one worth considering really gave a toss that African countries boycotted it because Fifa, under the leadership of England’s Sir Stanley Rous, insisted that Africans could only qualify if they first won 173 preliminary rounds and jumped seven moats.
Rous: now there was a principled man who never shied away from what he believed to be right, a stalwart who risked his reputation and legacy to champion the cause of apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia even when fellow Europeans said: “Stanley, old boy, erm, WTF?” But no one seems to care about heritage, decency and the greater good any more. It’s all about self-interest. Like when The Germans got all het up about England bidding for the World Cup in 2006, just because they were under the impression that the head of the English FA had given a gentlemanly undertaking not to do so in return for Germany’s backing for England’s successful Euro 96 bid. Always getting high-minded ideas into their heads when it suits them, the scoundrels, so goodness knows how anyone is supposed to like or trust them.
Do you think post-apartheid South Africa would have had to pay a $10m bribe to host the World Cup if someone such as Rous had still been in charge? (In fact, do you think South Africa would even have been post-apartheid if people such as Rous were still in charge?). Well that’s what the FBI alleged South Africa had to do to secure the gig in 2010, with the payment allegedly being routed to Jack Warner through a “diaspora legacy programme”. In response to media reports about who in Fifa facilitated that payment, the world governing body issued a statement this morning insisting that its powerful secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, played no role whatsoever in authorising it. So it now has some explaining to do given that, just an hour later, the Press Association announced that it had obtained a copy of a 2008 letter addressed to Valcke from the South African Football Federation and containing details of the payment. For now, Fifa appears to be sticking to its stance that the payment was signed off by the former chairman of its finance committee, Julio Grondona, who, as it happens, died last year.
Being dead doesn’t mean you can’t bear some blame for stuff, wrongly or rightly.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE TONIGHT
Fifa has gone and called a press conference for 5pm. We’ve no idea what it’s about, but Gregg Bakowski is liveblogging it manfully anyway.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“If I wanted to spit at the player I could have done it at his face, which I didn’t, because it wasn’t my intention” – far-from-contrite Malaysian midfielder Mohd Nazmi Faiz Mansor gets the funk on after being handed a six-match ban for expectorating at East Timor’s Filipe Oliveira at the Southeast Asian Games.
FIVER LETTERS
“I’m very impressed by Newcastle United’s cost-saving efforts in releasing two players (Taylor and Gutiérrez) during a single phone call. However, as the two players were out of the country at the time, I hope that the club took any possible roaming rates into account when they were making that call. I’m sure all right-minded fans will agree with me on this” – Peter McNulty.
“Regarding Rio Ferdinand’s accumulation of previous club nicknames (West Ham, Millwall, Man Utd = Iron, Lion, Devil … yesterday’s Fiver letters), surely having played for both Dirty Leeds and Manchester United would make the likes of Rio, Eric Cantona and the Emmerdale Eminem a trio of Dirty Devils? In fact, if I’m not mistaken, Leicester City have a similar threesome on their books” – Mark Henderson.
“I guess it’s just a shame Rio never turned out for FC Sion” – Chris Sandford.
• Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. And if you’ve nothing better to do you can also tweet the Fiver. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’the day is: Peter McNulty.
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BITS AND BOBS
James Milner will be handed the keys to Liverpool’s midfield and be encouraged not to drive it as erratically as $tevie Mbe has over the past few years.
Juve’s Gigi Buffon is preparing for an intergalactic battle with Barça in Saturday’s Big Cup final by lauding Leo Messi as a little green man from outer space. “Messi is an alien, that dedicates himself to playing with humans,” he David Icked.
Dedryck Boyata looked absolutely thrilled as he sloped out of Glasgow airport to sign for the Queen’s Celtic from Manchester City for £1.5m. “I thought that moving to [the Queen’s Celtic] would be a good idea,” he honked, reminding us of this.
Barcelona are making cooing sounds down the phone at Borussia Dortmund’s Ilkay Gündogan. “We are negotiating. I have not taken any decision yet but I’m open to all possibilities. We do not know where I will play,” parped the midfielder, ambling about with a for sale sign round his neck.
Nigel Adkins is set to be unveiled as Sheffield United’s new manager at a press conference today in that well-known Steel City suburb, London.
Sydney FC 0-1 Chelsea. For the love of all that is holy, why?
And Hamburg managed to avoid being relegated for the first time since the Bundesliga’s inception after a wild relegation play-off win at Karlsruhe. “Jaaaaaa … he’s still alive, he’s still alive! Ja, he’s still alive!” hyped Hamburg’s official Twitter account.
STILL WANT MORE?
This week’s Gallery on the season’s unsung heroes isn’t exactly a classic crop but, in all fairness, with the standard snake-belly low, there’s never been a better time to win. Next, we want your takes on Fifa! The lawyers are watching, mind.
Michael Ballack settles down for a cosy chat with Dominic Fifield and tells him that Barça’s biggest weakness in Big Cup final could be their tendency to be “a little bit like divas”.
How did New York Cosmos lure Pelé to a football wasteland? With big lunches, big stationery and big talk – that’s how, trumpets Michael Lewis.
The teams to beat, the players to watch and the managers about to make a name for themselves – it’s the first of our Women’s World Cup previews. And here’s the second.
Verona v Vicenza? Woof! Luca Hodges-Ramon on how one of Italian football’s great rivalries could be reborn.
Oh, and if it’s your thing … you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace.
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SAVED BY THE SHAMBLING WILLOW-WIELDERS
