It has become increasingly clear that the venue for this tournament is completely inappropriate; in fact I would go further and state that any country previously located behind the iron curtain-let's not name names, they know who they are-should be permanently excluded from hosting any type of international contest for the foreseeable future, and after several decades of reflection maybe they could begin to be considered for a less contentious sport, like scrabble. That just leaves Turkey, Greece and Israel in that part of the continent and I don't think I need to elaborate when I give them a definite no thank you; the mind shudders at the very notion. So we're left with the original Western Europe, safe and competent at staging these types of events I hear you say. But let's delve a little deeper. Germany has so many issues with it's neighbours from a historical and bailout perspective-mean tossers one and all-that they should be the first to be excluded. Throw England into that pot along with the French, Irish (no stadiums) Dutch and Italians (match-fixing) Iberians-but NOT Andorra- and it's hard to find any suitable contender in that region. The Scandinavians should be excluded based purely on their history of Eurovision Song crimes, and who are we left with? I've got it, the Iceland and Andorran perpetual Trophy; problem solved.
And there would be hooliganism /fighting in Iceland and Andora as well! Better planning could have reduced the scale of last night's violence, but I don't believe better police planning in Germany, England or anywhere will stop it altogether. It hasn't before, and doesn't now. Best way of reducing this is to foster contacts between us all - across nationality, racial background, religion, sexual preference etc. For that reason perhaps it is not such a bad idea to hold these Championships in Poland and Ukraine. TV here in Norway showed film not just of the violence before the game, but also of Russian and Polish fans hugging each other after the game - how much of that there was I don't know, but it is progress anyway.
Well said that man. I turned on Keys and Gray earlier and all I hear is complaining about there not being any reporting of the violence outside of England. Every time I turn on the radio or TV here there's nothing. When I turn on the British media its everywhere. Again, not saying one is right and one is wrong but I just find it so bizarre! I have noticed an undercurrent of bitterness at being felt to have been wrongly targeted by UEFA for wrongdoings in the past. Nines said it last night and Keys said the very same thing this morning: If this were England fans, UEFA would be all over it. Pre-Tournament I put it down to not being awarded the World Cup but I was wrong. It seems the antipathy towards UEFA & FIFA runs far deeper. I don't know the rights and wrongs of it, just looking in from a neutral standpoint, it all seems very strange to say the least. Some very good, thought provoking posts on this thread it must be said. Staines in particular makes a compelling case.
The answer is simple - offer England first refusal for all future FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championships after all we invented the game and gave it to the world. That would negate all of this Quatar nonsense; I don't for one minute believe in this 'outreach' spin either. Alternatively the nine football 'overlords' (England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay) should have the majority share of the votes - say 10% voting rights each - with the remainder shared out between all the other footballing nations, insisting that the World Cup Tournament is hosted in Western Europe every 8-years and 'on the road' across the globe every tournament between. (Thus tipping the hat to 'outreach' and bringing football into other global markets). They should also force the ACON to be played every 4 years and be scheduled immediately after the UEFA European Championships - the big league bosses would love that suggestion. It would also increase the transfer value of African players as they would not miss crucial domestic and champions league matches. I can't understand why the 'big nine' (detailed above) don't do what happened in the darts world and create their own non-FIFA tournament and leave the minnows to fight over bragging rights. Just need a new World Cup - and it's about time for another trophy - a few global sponsors with TV deal tied in! Then it is bye bye Blatter and Platini! Simples!
The silence from UEFA is deafening, double standards. ===================================== Sunday, 18 June, 2000, 18:11 GMT 19:11 UK Uefa issues ban threat to England Gerhard Aigner and Lennart Johansson Uefa's committee express the severe warning Uefa has warned that England could be kicked out of Euro 2000 if there is further hooliganism from their supporters. The threat was made after an extraordinary meeting convened by Uefa president Lennart Johansson before the Group C match between Norway and Yugoslavia. Answering a question if England could be kicked out, Johansson replied: "That shouldn't be excluded." Johansson said: "I think that the world expects us to take a stand for what has happened. We cannot forget what happened in Heysel. "We cannot ignore the incidents in Istanbul and Copenhagen, and specifically not what has happened in Charleroi and Brussels." Innocent Johansson said that one day, innocent people could be killed and it was not fair to genuine fans who could not walk the streets without fearing for their safety. He told BBC Sport Online that he could not confirm England would be expelled before this weekend's quarter-finals should they qualify. He also said that this latest spotlight on 'the English disease' should not affect their bid to host the 2006 World Cup. He hoped this final warning would prove sufficient to prevent any serious further trouble. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/euro2000/796435.stm
Thought this was the first incident of violence in the tournament so far...would that not suggest that the Russia march was the catalyst? If it was my country I am sorry to say that I would be kicking off for sure. They should never have allowed it to happen...I am absolutely disgusted that they did...utterly disgraceful. The fact that nothing has happened (or been reported) up until now would suggest that it has been in good spirits and under control no? That being the case, I think it a little silly to suggest that the tournament should not be held there. From what I have seen, every country has many a moron running around abusing and bullying when it comes to party/tournament time...why should Poland or Ukraine be treated any different? I just dont get it, sorry.
Well said Jammers. Thought Sku's post was funny until it dawned on me that maybe he was being serious!
i agree the bigger countries should have more voting rights, the whole of the carribeans votes are bought and paid for so tinpot FAs can basically rule FIFA and keep on voting the crooks in who give them bribes.
I thought that too, starts off with a home nations tournament, remove all diving, cheating and corruption from the game and then invite other countries to join, the good things is only the non corrupt will join as the corrupt will lose out on their gravy train.
But nothing happened back then either, it was an empty threat if I remember right (which is questionable!)
OK, where's today's "empty threat" then? The point I'm trying to make is these organisations are anti-English, do you think they'd be quiet if this had happened in Donetsk on Monday?
You have an agenda as you're a fundamentalist. We were given plenty of warnings as to our conduct yet they went unheeded and we continued to wreck the kip for years. Eventually UEFA had enough and banned our Clubs from Europe (which QPR missed out on having finished 5th) and many subsequent sanctions for subsequent rioting. What happened yesterday will be dealt with in the proper manner without going overboard. When our thugs first ran amok, nobody got banned straight away. Plenty of chances were given. This all reminds me of the Barton incident at City when guys were hopping mad that Tevez didn't get sanctioned. Who cares? Lets just keep our own house in order and not be so self righteous.
