For those of us that still have an interest in international football I was interested to comments from Bernstein this morning; http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30077311 A lot of this follows my own sentiments and recognise the futility of ploughing a lone furrow without the support of other "powerful" nations. I would suggest that its not just Europe that would have nations with an interest by all accounts FIFA probably aren't too popular in USA or Australia at the moment either. Not that it means much but a quick poll on the BBC seems to suggest that people would be for the idea "We've been asking you to vote today on whether you would support a World Cup boycott - after former FA chairman David Bernstein suggested Europe's nations should band together to take such action and force Fifa reform. A total of 8,500 of you voted, and the results are in: Yes 82.65% (7,025 votes) No 17:35% (1,475 votes)" (taken from BBC) Unfortunately I can not see it happening but the sooner the FIFA empire is brough crashing down the better for all of football, not just international.
I saw this as well, agree the sentiment is spot on but surely the only countries realistically going to sign up for this are those who have limited, or absolutely no, chance of qualifying anyway ?
I can see this happening Hockdude. The German football authorities are moving in the direction of supporting a break between EUFA and FIFA which, if not healed, would lead to all EUFA nations non involvement in the next World Cup. England would definately not be alone on this - and the threat of a World Cup without Europe would devalue the tournament so much that it may force change.
I have a horrible thought that a boycott by England will never happen. It will be seen as "little" England banging on again, however just the case is, and rather than a boycott we will be expelled. There may be some quiet behind the scenes verbal support from European nations but that will be it; and these nations will not rock the FIFA boat by speaking out, not even Germany. The African and other nations will never support the old colonial power against the FIFA hand that feeds them. I suppose the concepts of fair play and sportsmanship do not have a place in the ethical behaviour of FIFA; and as soon as the FA understand this the better, you can't attack a completely corrupt and amoral institution from a position of righteous anger. After all, if FIFA can twist their own report so much even the author complains about it, shifting the pointers for corrupt behaviour from those who did to rumours of wrong doing by the FA in their bid is, without doubt, entirely possible.
If England/FA was to be expelled/resigned from Uefa/FIFA and thus cease to participate in the Champions League etc. and World Cup, I for one would not miss these tournaments in any way with their money-making, hype, media frenzy, big business involvement etc. etc. Of course it would never happen with the big English clubs preventing any such action........
To think Greg Dyke was talking about winning in 2022! Trouble is you know if we did pull out they'd only just ban us for further tournaments although would that be a great loss with our record in them! Guess something will have to be done if loads decide to back us up!
I heard that as well Cologne. It will be interesting to see how Germany intends to persuade UEFA to break away in order to boycott a World Cup being held in one of its member countries!
The present set up is a complete shambles.... as is our own countries approach to Internationals... all a big yawn
I think Europe pulling out of FIFA would be a good thing. But not to set up a World Football Federation or International Soccer Association i.e. going down the route of boxing. Pull out of FIFA, bring it down. Then set up alternative or sort out FIFA. Unfortunately I think the former is probably the best choice.
I am not sure that it is the notion of having a world governing body that is wrong, more a case of the individuals who run it. Get shot of it and it will be replaced, then people will gradually start to take over and we will be calling for that to be disbanded. The current system is all about making money ahead of the football. There is quite enough coming in to call a halt, and for that money to be distributed among the grass roots and poorer countries. I suspect that there is a lot of noise from different countries hoping that it will send a few ripples in the pond, but doubt at the end of the day much will change.
I'm guessing you can be a member of UEFA and not FIFA as is currently the case with Gibraltar so wouldn't English clubs still be able to perform in Champions League? Literally the only competitions lost would be World Cup and World Club Cup.
I had hope from your first paragraph, I was uplifted at the thought of a distribution of wealth to improve football at grass roots in this country and developing countries. Great. Then I read the second paragraph...
If the home nations, or even just England, left FIFA they would never be allowed to rejoin as separate countries. If a new international football organisation were to be created the same result may occur. I have no problem with Team UK but many others would object. Another consequence of that would be to force Scottish and Northern Irish teams to join the current FA league pyramid.
If Germany wants to do the running on this I would be inclined to let it do so. With a league model that supporters in many major football countries are casting covetous glances at and a bucket load of goodwill following the world cup win by a team playing vibrant exciting football it may be able to cause some serious ripples on its own. If we get involved too early it will just be passed off as sour grapes. I would love to be slightly more optimistic than OFH - but fear that he has it spot on.
To force EUFA's hand on this, Germany and England would probably just need to get Spain (and maybe Italy) on board, and threaten to pull out of the Champions League. Without clubs from these leagues, sponsors would pull out pretty quickly, and most other European nations would follow suit just as quick FIFA is pretty rotten from top-down. They need new leadership, more accountability and to be policed by someone externally! I think their rules, especially when hosting tournaments, need to be pretty much rewritten as well. They think they have become almost untouchable... that thinking needs changing if they want any real respect
Up to date the president of the German Football League has warned UEFA that if the report into the bidding processes for 2018 & 2022 is not published in full that UEFA could leave FIFA. There are no comments as to what Germany would do if this does not happen. Also the consequences of such a split are unclear so I think that he is playing poker here. Whilst the Germans are no friends to either FIFA or Blatter, there is scarcely anyone here who could seriously consider the possibility of Germany not defending it's title in 4 years time - the World Cup is too much of a religion here. The dangers of a power struggle between UEFA and FIFA are all too clear. With no affiliation between them then Uefa members could not be officially invited to a FIFA World Cup - however, FIFA would try to entice individual nations to break ranks (Russia could hardly be expected to boycott it's own World Cup!).
An interesting view by someone who was interviewed on BBC Global News (the only channel in English I could get in the hotel in Tunisia) who said that football needs someone to do a footballing equivalent of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket and they made the point that with some of the billionaire owners that have come into the game why shouldn't someone do that.
