There are concerns about the way FIFA is run and if they are not resolved I arrive at the question: do we need FIFA. I guess England (or any country resigning) would not be able to enter the World Cup. Is that such a big loss to the FA concerned? Is it a bigger loss to FIFA (loss of tv revenue) if a significant number of countries resigned and did not participate? What are the complications with regard to player registrations and any FIFA rules that might be in place to restrict the movement of players from FIFA member countries to non FIFA countries and vice versa? Could any such rules be counter to EEC law? Information on the regulations and your views would be appreciated.
I have to say I think that is unlikely but it is an interesting prospect. I do doubt whether FIFA can clean up its act and belief it would take something catyclysmic like UEFA breaking away to bring it to its knees otherwise it will be the same old faces up to the same old tricks.
Lets be honest, FIFA presides over the biggest sport by miles, and the biggest event by miles. At the same time it has expanded the frontiers if the sport. It has generally sreved teh game well, up to about 1994, though teh 1986 WC going to MExico was dodgy. If we didn' have FIFA we'd end up like boxing where no one knows who is the world champion at any one time. FIFA needs reform, and it needs to give the games, especially teh World Cup back to the people by giving priority to poorer supporters over corporates, but it would kill football to break apart from FIFA.
Would it really kill football to break away? It would be a temporary disaster for the national team if England were to break away on thier own, but if the whole of UEFA were to break away giving a clear message they had no faith due to the alleged corruption it would be a massive wake up call for FIFA. European teams probably wouldn't even need to miss one world cup, the threat of not having Spain the reigning world champions in the next world cup would be massive bartering power for e.g. Blatter's resignation and an independent review being commisioned.
You saw what happened when the F.A. tried to make a stand against the elections. Hardly any backing from the other delegates and instead contempt. I can't see that any country would have the balls to break off apart from ourselves, and if we did nobody would follow suit. In short, we are screwed either way.
We can all see that FIFA is rotten to the core and has been for too long now. Credit to the FA for challenging this in various ways but if nothing changes, threaten to leave on principle and see what happens. Put a time limit on it, say, immediately after the next WC. That would keep the issue live for three years during which time all FIFA antics would be kept in the media spotlight. Got to up the ante and stand firm (alone if necessary). Fact is without pressure, nothing will change.
There was an interesting piece from Tim Vickery of Radio 5 Live on the view of FIFA from the rest of the world. His general points were: 1. It is right and proper to hold FIFA to account for alleged corruption 2. FIFA has actually been extremely successful in promoting the game into the one true global sport, which has meant it attacts huge sponsorship and money 3. FIFA has invested huge amounts of money in developing football all over the world - a result of it's successfully having promoted the game world wide 4. Prior to 1974 there was a feeling amonsgt the rest of the world that FIFA was too Euro-centric, not bothered about developing the game across the wider world. 5. In 1966 around 50% of FIFA member associations were European but 1998 it was less than 1/3. 6. The result of all this is that by enlarge FIFA is popular amongst most of its members. 7. Even in Europe there isn't much of a clamour against FIFA. My own additions: 8. Even the Welsh FA didn;t support our FA yesterday (but they can still play in our leagues). 9. The reason our FA has no freinds is because it renaged on an agreement to support Germany's 2006 bid in return for Germany supporting our Euro 96 bid. The FA were surprised by teh success of Euro 96 and "Footballs COming Home" and thought they could do teh dirty on Germany. That has left a lot of bad blood, and may have been a big reason why we never get any suppoert from Europe now.
The FA have made English football vert top heavy with most of the money going to a small amount of teams at the top. FIFA try to spread money around and give small nations a chance to stage Under-21, Under-17 tournaments. Other associations see the English as wanting the power and all the money there way. The arrogance of the English makes us disliked by many. Pulling away from FIFA would mean resigning from Uefa I presume. This would mean no national football for England, no champions league for English clubs. Maybe playing in a non-affilated league would mean foreign players not being able to represent their own country. Without high profile champions league many top overseas stars would not join EPL teams. This making the EPL less attractive. Which in turn would devalue to TV rights in Asia which is now the main cash cow for the EPL. Therefore can you see the FA pulling out and losiing all tha money?? The Welsh FA are supported by FIFA to run the Welsh League, something FIFA pushed for. Why would they vote against FIFA? One thing that I don't understand is they say Jack Warner is corrupt by asking the English FA (One of the wealthest in the world) to pay for screens for people in haiti to watch the last World Cup on, following the devastating earthquake there. If Bob Geldof had suggested this, he would have been knighted! So Mr Valcke said in an e-mail Qater bought the world cup. Don't we often hear how Chelsea "bought" the league? I don't think anyone means they bribed their way to it only that they have so much money to buy players. the same I think as Qater, paying to entertain, have the best people to sell their country. (Although I think it is a bad decision to hold the WC there). The media has sturred this into a frenzy and as a consequence our privalage of having a home nation representative on the FIFA board may now be lost. We may have the best, most watched league in the stadiums and on TV in the world. It my make the most money, but where is the money going. It's not going to grass roots football. My son is charged to pay GBP 6.00 to train for 90 mins with a development system of a Championship team. Our town of over 12,000 people only has one pitch with changing facilities. At least FIFA are probably trying to pay for some changing rooms in Haiti or Nepal.
The driving force behind FIFA is money, allegedly £1.5 billion in the bank. We can't take that money off them but we can put pressure on their future earnings. The sponsors can force changes within FIFA, they may choose to ignore it at the moment. However they also need to know that we the consumers of their products are not happy and will boycott them until changes are made. Informing Coca Cola, McDonald's etc, that we will be taking our custom elsewhere will very quickly focus there corporate minds. It happened to the Olympic organisation in the 1980's where many changes were forthcoming. Money is the weapon to force change and maybe your 1 bottle of coke and burger seems irrelevant but multiply that by 10,000's around the world and change will happen very quickly.
why would the whole of UEFA break away with England? The English tried to screw Germany in voting for wc 2006. the English FA's push to delay the vote for president was not supported by most UEFA members. the England bid for wc 2018 fully took part in any 'inducements' that where being offered and to cry scandal after this is terrible hypocracy. the English world cup bid was not as strong as you all thought-all but 2 of your stadiums do not comply with world cup standards, for example. Even your slogan "England united, the world invited", to us foreigners, sounds highly arrogant and condescending. FIFA is corrupt?, ooh what a expose that is! Also, this current FIFA president is not as corrupt and disgusting as the one they had in 1966.
