Pest control: Fifa and its internationals « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
By Tony Attwood
Internationals are a pest because…
1: They stop our club matches
When did Arsenal last play? It seems ages ago. We are three weekends into the season and it all stops. And we are supposed to be thankful.
2: Our players might get injured
Diaby is the only Arsenal name on the list so far. Mr Wenger says it is not serious, and he might even be ready for the weekend – but certainly should be ok for the game after that.
But we have suffered so often – and even if it is just a little injury why should those of us who pay to watch Arsenal have to suffer?
Less worrying for us Van Persie got a thigh injury and was taken off. Rather sickeningly Dutch manager Louis van Gaal said, “We took off Robin for precautionary measures. It doesn’t seem to be too serious, but you never know. We didn’t want to take any risks.”
How come? They certainly took every risk under the sun when he was at Arsenal.
Shinji Kagawa missed Japan’s 1-0 victory over Iraq with a back injury, so at least Man U have to worry on two fronts. But here again the player said, “It’s not that serious and I don’t think it will keep me out for long.”
3: There is a growing sense that some games are fixed
Fifa’s former head of security, Chris Eaton, has claimed Fifa has investigated the 2010 World Cup match between Nigeria and Greece. Greece came from 1-0 to win 2-1 after Nigeria’s Sani Kaita got sent off. Eaton said Fifa’s anti-corruption unit had been contacted by a footballer playing in the Championship expressing concerns over corruption.
Eaton is the International Centre for Sport Security’s director of sport integrity, and has said that corruption is embedded in the global game and that referees and other officials are targeted.
“A referee approached a member of the Fifa investigation team and told him that he is the only person with any honesty and integrity in the room,” said Eaton.
“How many officials? It may not be thousands but it would certainly be hundreds. We have a number of clubs and federations who are actively under investigation today to see the extent to which criminal infiltration has taken a hold of their decision- making processes….Corruption cannot be solved at a national level. This is across borders and it is not just contained in regions like Europe or regions like Asia, it needs a global response.””
Uefa revealed it is investigating possible match-fixing in a Europa League qualifier between Aalesunds and KF Tirana. Fifa denied any wrong doing.
4: There is a growing feeling that many games are unnecessary
There are no pre-qualifiers in Uefa territory, no preliminary rounds like you get in the FA Cup. So small countries that never win games get to play against big countries from the off. The rest of the world either has small groups of countries (like South America) or have preliminary rounds which reduces the number of smaller nations.
5: The media hype them up, even though lots of people are utterly disinterested.
Page after page after page analysing these pointless games.
6: Fifa is involved
Anything with Fifa in it is by definition bad. If the English FA had had a single shred of decency it would have pulled out of Fifa years ago. It hasn’t and so it doesn’t.
7: Countries can now buy clubs
PSG is, I think, the first big club in the world to be owned by a country – in this case Qatar itself , rather than by a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family. So why bother with internationals at all?
8: Blatter now says that there is no racism in football.
In an interview with Al Jazeera in November last year Blatter was asked if he thought racism was a big problem in the sport. He said…
”During a match you may make a movement to somebody or hurt somebody or you may say something to somebody who is not exactly looking like you, but at the end of the match it is forgotten.
“Racism is when there are spectators or movements of discrimination outside the field of play. But on the field of play I deny there is racism.”
By supporting any match organised by Fifa, then you are supporting that statement.
How to fight back
Don’t go to games. Don’t watch them on TV. Don’t buy newspapers that cover them. Don’t support the sponsors.