Just why are FIFA so resistant to the idea of introducing technology to football? They’ve scrapped trials of goal-line technology, and instead are to train extra assistants to stand behind each goal.
If FIFA were in charge of cars, they’d still have people walking in front of them waving flags.
Has Sepp Blatter ever come up with a good idea? Maybe I don’t know enough about the inner workings of FIFA, but I get the impression that Blatter is a bit of an idiot.
His latest idea may not be as ridiculous as his plan to force women footballers to play in skimpy clothing, but it’s pretty stupid nonetheless: lifetime bans and criminal prosecutions for dangerous tackles.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not condoning dangerous play, and I think the current system of straight red cards earning the aggressor a three-match ban, regardless of the offence, is absurd. But lifetime bans are a nonsense. For a start, they depend on the interpretation; the recent tackle by Martin Taylor on Eduardo, for instance, was reckless and stupid, but was there an element of malice? If Eduardo’s foot hadn’t been planted the way it was, he wouldn’t have suffered the terrible injury; would that still be an offence worth ending Taylor’s career? A six match ban would be sufficient, as far as I’m concerned; we have to give players the chance to apologise and rehabilitate themselves.
And as for criminal charges, once you start down that road you’re opening yourselves up for a whole new era of litigation. If you set the precedent that tackles can lead to legal action, what’s to stop players suing other players if they feel they have been tackled unfairly? Or players suing managers for giving them instructions to be physical, which then lead to a player being banned for life?
Football needs to be a physical game, but it doesn’t have to be a dangerous one. No-one wants to see players facing potentially career-ending injuries, but the solution, in my opinion, is a mixture of the following ideas:
…but find their celebrations somewhat dampened by the fact that nobody gives a shit.
This debate about foreign players seems to brought out the xenophobia in many. The FIFA proposal seems straightforward enough, where each club must name eight players who have been “locally trained” and limit the number of “foreigners” to five; apparently, this would allow homegrown talent to flourish, apparently.
While this appears to be a good idea, a hark back to the pre-Premier League days of almost totally English teams in the English top-flight, I think it would make things worse for the majority. Rather than create a level playing field, I believe the clubs with the money would pull further away. The term “locally trained” is contentious; what does local mean? Are we talking League Of Gentlemen? How does London fit in this? A local to London qualifies to play for a plethora of different clubs, from (potentially) Leyton Orient to Chelsea.
The voices supporting this move include Ferguson, Steve Coppell and now Stevie G, the saviour of Engerlish football. Manchester United have that spine of British players we’d all love to have in our team – Ferdinand, Carrick, Hargreaves, Rooney are all full internationals. And all purchased from other clubs. Wes Brown, Darren Fletcher, Chris Eagles, Gary Neville – all products of the youth system with only Wes & Gary being the only likely starters. This summer they bought Nani and Anderson. Good British boys there. Stevie’s own beloved Liverpool have a fair assortment of foreigners including the manager and this summer bought Torres, Voronin, Babel and Benayoun to name but four. All foreigners. About half of the Reading team that started against Arsenal on Monday night was foreign, plus there were three Irish players in Hunt, Doyle and Long. Oh, and Murty’s Scottish. So that leaves Shorey, Kitson and Harper in the starting XI and Oster on the bench. That’s not exactly setting an example, Steve.
Stevie G says:
“We are proud to say that we have one of the best leagues in the world but the most important thing is that have one of best national teams as well.”
Sorry Stevie, you haven’t had one of the best national teams for years. And years. I’m Scottish, I should know.
Trevor Brooking says:
“If you look at Italy when they won the last World Cup (2006), I think they had over 70% of their league made up of domestic players. Spain, France, Holland, they’re all up there too. Germany aren’t much better than us but we’re the lowest. The more that goes down, and the pool of choice reduces, we must come under pressure. In 10 years’ time you don’t want us just being pleased to qualify for tournaments.”
Firstly, Italy’s youth set-up is far superior to that of this country. Facilities are better, the teaching is better and kids are encouraged to play as opposed to “Gaaarrrn, geeetttt riiiidddd offff iiiitttt!!!”. Italy has consistently produced good young players for years. Look at Massimo Maccarone - an great prospect until he comes over here and goes to Boro. All of a sudden, he’s shit. He can’t always have been shit, he wouldn’t have got in the Italian U21 team (I hope all Italians become shit overnight though and stay that way until at least Sunday morning). Engerland’s pool of choice is already pretty small, and if kids are more bothered about playing FIFA 08 or Pro Evo then they will not be motivated to go out and kick a real ball. Incidentally, Engerland are pleased to qualify for tournaments - look at the game where Beckham scored That Free Kick against Greece to qualify for the World Cup was treated as a victory - they fucking drew two-all for Christ’s sake! You were losing at that point!
Steve Coppell has blamed assorted factors for this situation, including conflicting interests. What appears to be the problem is the national team. The Premier League is being asked to intervene and enforce rules and laws for the best interests of the national team. The apathy surrounding the national team is at an all-time low; when BFF gets booed by his own supporters when he comes on against Estonia you can tell there’s a big problem. The main reason is because of his club team, which is what most people are bothered about these days. Why watch another mediocre performance against Estonia when you can watch Man United tear Roma a new arsehole, see Liverpool put eight past Besiktas and see Arsenal sublimely pass their way through another team?
Arsene Wenger says:
“I have only been here since 1996 but between 1966 and 1996 you [England] had 30 years without foreign players and you didn’t win any more competitions in that time,”
And why is that? Because the problem lies further down than clubs buying Robin van Persie as opposed to Emile Heskey. That’s for the FA to sort out, rather than spunking millions on that white elephant in North London they should look at the facilities for the future of football not a potential revenue stream for the next couple of years. Clubs want success, supporters (and shareholders) demand it, and success equals money.
That’s what it’s all about - lots of money but none of it going where it’s needed.
What’s the difference between Steve McClaren and the England football team?
One’s dour, unimaginative, prone to mistakes, and has an idea of their abilities which is betrayed by reality, and the other… oh, wait a minute…
According to this article he wants the G14, who represent 18 (I know) of Europe’s top club, to disband and use a new body called the Professional Football Strategy Council.
He’s being very nice about it, saying:
Presidents and heads of the major clubs - let us profit from your great experience and your ideas. Tell us about your convictions. Uefa’s door is wide open - join us, and I promise you that you will not be disappointed.
Personally I wouldn’t trust Platini as far as I could throw him. I think some of the ideas he has are dangerous and not good for football and he is aligned far too closely with FIFA and Blatter for my liking.
What the G14 provides is at least some kind of opposition to UEFA trampling all over club football in Europe. I would never be in favour of a breakaway European super-league at the expense of domestic competition but without the G14 UEFA would have free reign to do what they wanted.
There are issues to be resolved, particularly that of compensation for players who are injured while on national duty and with the persistent background threat of quotas of ‘homegrown’ or native players per team then for the G14 to disband would be close to a disaster, in my opinion. Without them new rules could be brought in unopposed and ultimately what FIFA and UEFA want to do is to promote the international tournaments.
Recent disappointing World Cups and European Championships, in terms of the quality of football played when compared with the top club football, have made them determined to level the playing field. The only way they can do that is to lower the standard of club football, not to increase the standard of national teams.
For example, if English clubs had to play 6 players who were English (not ‘homegrown’, actually English) then there’s no question the quality of Premiership football would suffer. By comparison the English national team would look better. It’s a false fix but one they will try and enforce.
So, G14, you need to tell Platini where to go and where to put his untrustworthy call to arms, for the sake of football.
So FIFA is to work with the FA with regard to the West Ham/Tevez debacle.
Expect swift and decisive action. And no hints of corruption. From anyone. Anywhere. Nope.
Liverpool have stepped up efforts to sign the Argentinian from West Ham despite FIFA rules which state a player cannot play for more than 2 clubs in a 12 month period. Rafa Benitez says:
We know the rule says he cannot play for three clubs, but he is unable to play at West Ham and we must take into consideration the law, and the law is more important than the rules. He is unable to work at the moment, nobody can say you cannot work.
A bit ambiguous, surely? He may not like it at West Ham and West Ham may not like him or fancy him as player (for reasons best known to themselves because he’s a class act in my opinion) but nobody is denying him the opportunity to work. He has a contract with West Ham. As well as that surely the rules Benitez talks about only apply to EU citizens and Mascherano certainly isn’t one of those.
If the move is sanctioned it gives Liverpool an unfair advantage over other clubs who are unable to sign players who are stymied by this same rule. It will be interesting to see what happens because if it’s ok for one club then it has to be ok for others. Will the floodgates open?
Michel Platini has been elected as President of UEFA.
Now, Lennart Johansson may not have been everyone’s cup of tea but his ideas about the game were not as dangerous as Platini’s.
Platini is a man who wanted a World Cup every two years and he has spoken openly about wanting to further diminish the amount of physical contact in the game. Shoulder charges are out, watch as he tries to outlaw sliding tackles, and any other part of football which involves strength and physicality.
His focus is entirely on International football. He sees club football as secondary. For 99.9% of fans club football is the bread and butter, the stuff we enjoy week in, week out. Platini will do his utmost to nobble the domestic leagues thus making international football seem a more attractive option.
His other ideas include having four linesmen - can you imagine the confusion when one puts his flag up for offisde and the other doesn’t? - introducing salary caps (a quite unworkable idea) and restricting the number of Champions League places for clubs from the ‘big’ nations, which obviously will not go down well with them, the sponsors of the tournament or the fans that are being charged increasingly high prices to watch the games.
Already, within hours of his appointment, Sir Alex Ferguson has warned the Frenchman not to tinker with the format of the competition.
The biggest problem of all though is the closeness of the relationship between Platini and Sepp Blatter, FIFA President. Until now UEFA has been powerful enough to resist some of his more ludicrous ideas but if Platini and Blatter agree on something then there’s no opposition any more.
Blatter and FIFA are motivated by greed, by money, and not the good of the game. For all his words today about football being more than a business you can rest assured that Platini’s UEFA will go the same way to make the game more sanitised, more TV friendly, more marketable. How long before we have bigger goals to make games more action packed for US audiences or similar?
What UEFA might find is that the domestic game dies out after the biggest clubs in each league, led by the G14, break away to form their own league with no requirement to provide players for national duty.
I hope things don’t go that far but this appointment really is a short-sighted one and dangerous for the game of football.
Sepp Blatter: you are an idiot. Put the rules back to what they should be. He is a complete lunatic.
Fantastic. No matter how many websites call the FIFA boss on his increasingly eccentric and noxious ideas about the game it’ll never have the same impact as someone working within the game. Classic.
Five stars, Mr Holloway. Leave him alone, the FA.