Change FIFA ...

Special thanks from Kicking Back to Jeff for bringing this one forward.

An interesting read and full of self evident truths. Very passionate for sure, and clear that there are folks around the world that are done with FIFA in its current form. Misguided in some of their other posts (e.g. Barack Obama can force change in FIFA and the World's game), but good reads regardless, as some points are spot on (e.g. Nike and Adidas rule the world).


Take a few minutes and decide for yourselves and remember folks, like here, it is an opinion piece.

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH
March 29th, 2011

ChangeFIFA Calls On FIFA And Its’ Members To Live By Their Own Credo Of “Fair Play” And Give Legendary Football Player, Elias Figueroa, The Opportunity To Run For FIFA President

Washington, D.C., U.S.A. – Tuesday, March 29, 2011 - ChangeFIFA has asked football legend, Elias Figueroa, 64, to run for President of FIFA and now calls on FIFA and its’ Members to live by their own self-professed credo of “Fair Play” and allow Mr. Figueroa to run for President.

According to FIFA’s own Fair Play Code, opponents are a necessary part of every competition and should be given the same rights and respected. It states: “Winning is without value if victory has been achieved unfairly…Fair play always has its reward, even when the game is lost. Playing fair earns respect, while cheating only brings shame…Without opponents there can be no game. Everyone has the same rights, including the right to be respected.” ...

See the whole article here, courtesy of Change FIFA.

CONMEBOL to back Blatter

CONMEBOL to back Blatter

South America's confederation (CONMEBOL) will back Sepp Blatter in the upcoming FIFA Presidential campaign against rival Mohamed Bin Hammam.

Blatter's recent criticism of the organisation of World Cup 2014 to be held in Brazil saw suggestions that he would not be a popular choice in South America, but Argentina football chief Julio Grondona told the CONMEBOL executive board he was in no doubt as to who he would be voting for next month. ...

See the whole article here courtesy of ESPN.

Kicking Back Comments: Interesting if true. I also wonder if this was a way for Brazil to get FIFA off its back regarding the upcoming World Cup. A promise for a vote in exchange for some silence?

We will see next month ... 

FIFA Accepting Applications

Media Info: 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil

Media accreditation process for the Preliminary Draw launched

FIFA announces that the accreditation process for media representatives who intend to cover the Preliminary Draw for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ opened via the FIFA Media Channel (http://media.fifa.com). The deadline for accreditation applications is Friday, 13 May 2011.

Thereafter, the applicant’s information will be subject to a review process by FIFA and the Local Organising Committee. Applicants will be notified by e-mail as of mid-May 2011 if their accreditation requests were successful. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of the Ghana FA.

Kicking Back's comments: This one is just too tempting to pass up. KB just might have to "turn pro" to get the inside scoop on this one.

Let the games begin ... again

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying To Begin June 3

NEW YORK - The 10 lowest CONCACAF teams in the FIFA rankings will face off in two-leg series June 3 and June 7, beginning the region's qualifying process for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

FIFA announced on Tuesday the five preliminary round matchups, which is part of a proposal by the CONCACAF Executive Committee still pending full approval from FIFA that includes three group phases. ...

See the full story here, courtesy of boxscorenews.com.

FIFA committee takes over Bosnia federation

GENEVA — FIFA on Tuesday set up a committee to take over the running of Bosnian football and resolve rifts that led to Bosnia Hercegovina's suspension from international football this month.

The six strong normalisation committee will immediately cut off the old tripatrite leadership by May 26 and reform the country's football federation by the end of November, world football's governing body said in a statement.

FIFA and European governing body UEFA suspended Bosnia Hercegovina from international and European football on April 1 after the country's federation (NSBIH) failed to adopt statutes that would lead to a single-member presidency. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of AFP via Google.

Kicking Back's Comments:

FIFA 12 In Development

Screenshot courtesy of EA Sports

For all you virtual players, EA has just released a screenshot of FIFA 12.

Not much to see yet, but it is on the street that EA's focus is on set pieces, grass, and stars like Kaka.

Release date would seem to be set around early Q4 2011 ... no doubt in time for Christmas.

You can see what EA is trying to improve on with FIFA 11. Also, take a look at an incredibly detailed analysis and wish list from blogcritics, here.

Not surprised in the least

FIFA's Jack Warner Accused of Seeking England World Cup Bid Favours

(WFI) The leaders of England’s failed bid to host the 2018 World Cup were asked by FIFA vice-president Jack Warner to pay for an education centre in his native Trinidad during the bid process.

The Times newspaper alleges that Warner twice asked England’s World Cup bid leaders about funding for facilities on the island, in London in October 2009 and again while a high-profile delegation visited Trinidad at the time of a Caribbean Football Union dinner last February. ...

See the whole story here, from World Football Insider.

Kicking Back comments: Representing CONCACAF with style since 1983. For the record, I'll take Chuck Blazer any day of the week and twice on Sunday over Jack Warner.

Another investigation into FIFA's actions

Fifa faces investigation into Burma business deal

Fifa is the subject of an investigation by the Swiss state authorities over allegations that its financial dealings with Burma may have broken international sanctions.

The Myanmar Times, a newspaper in the pocket of Burma's junta, is said to have reported last December that the construction firm Max Myanmar has been contracted to build a stadium that Fifa funds will help to pay for. ...

See the complete story here, courtesy of guardian.co.uk.

All for one?

File this one under unresolved.

Just the other day I received a survey request from Teresa Smith who serves as a rules administrator for the NCAA (for soccer and a number of other sports). The survey was interesting, asking about various modification the NCAA would seem to be considering. These included:

• Limiting time for a throw-in.
• When players would shake hands.
• Use of noise makers.
• Excessive celebration of a gaol, and
• Time keeping if a caution is issued in the final 5 minutes.

My question is twofold.

First, why the exceptions to the LTOG? FIFA's LOTG deal with all of these things either explicitly or implicitly, and in fact allow the referee some discretion in how to handle them in many cases. While part of me wants to say that the NCAA is considering these rule changes to help referees, I actually believe that changes like this hurt referees as it requires referees to act in all of the above situations without any latitude to understand the situation. It turns a thoughtful moment into a "just do it" moment. Why not let the referees just referee? We say that a lot with players ... let them play. Well please, just let me referee.

Second, why not harmonize on FIFA's LOTG? This is a twist of the above question, but would make things easier for referees to be sure. I used to carry a matrix around from season to season that would enumerate the differences so I did not blow a restart doing a high school or college match. Why not make it easy on everyone? Players, coaches, and referees alike. Go ahead and wear the NCAA patch, but use the same rules.

Granted, there are times when the LOTG need to be modified for various reasons such as age of the players. Changes could include goal size, ball size, field size, periods of play, etc.. High school and college players are entering or are in the prime of their career, why are any modification needed at all?

To help the referee I think is part of it. To be distinct from FIFA as an organization I believe is another. The latter if true, may once again demonstrate a business element creeping into THE game and having the potential for a harmful result.

Just an opinion ... what are yours?

This one is not a joke

Warner in new World Cup 'ticket scandal'

Sepp Blatter will meet the new Football Association chairman, David Bernstein, tomorrow, to try to secure England's vote for the Fifa presidency, but his visit has come at the worst time in terms of his efforts to clean up the game. Yesterday, fresh claims emerged over the controversial Fifa vice-president Jack Warner's alleged involvement in a World Cup ticket scandal. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of The Independent.

Kicking Back Comments: This does not help Blatter in his FIFA presidency run. This is now the second time Warner has been caught in a World Cup ticket scandal. First time was back in 2006 when he was reprimanded by FIFA. Glad to see Jack's continuing commitment to rid the world game of corruption.

Is Qatar Losing the World Cup in 2022?

Sounds crazy huh?

Well at least one person out there thinks this can happen based on the FIFA presidential fight. One may think that the US would be a pretty viable alternative to Qatar, yes?

No, says this article stating ... and you'll love this:

As the second-placed bid behind Qatar, the United States was the logical option, but talks with the USSF “were not able to progress beyond a preliminary level.” It is understood that political considerations were key: given the current tension between the US and the Arab world, the country could ill afford to be seen to be taking a World Cup from a Middle Eastern nation.

If true, I don't know which part make me angrier, the fact that we didn't even consider trying to grab success from the jaws of epic defeat, or the folks in Chicago are making geopolitical decisions passing judgment on the big bad US (my sarcastic words) "taking" something else from "a Middle Eastern nation." Come on folks, at times US Soccer seems to have difficulty managing itself, ceding much of its perceived authority to the individual state associations, and (again if the story is true) is tying to play state department and casting judgment about what is going on over in the Middle East and translating it into not trying for the World Cup ... please. Why did we even try in the first place then knowing we were bidding against Qatar?

Australia seems to have no such hangups and with their support of Blatter, may indeed see that tournament in 2022.

We will see how much the story is fact or fiction in the days ahead, but it sounds like at FIFA it is politics as usual, and US Soccer is all to happy to sit on the sidelines.

I guess there is always 2026 ... what's 15 years, right?
For those who are not paying attention at US Soccer ... it is a lifetime.

See the full story, Australia to get 2022 World Cup, FIFA descends into chaos courtesy of The Roar.

No Snood Says FIFA

Matt Reis 26-MAR-2011 v. DC United
Check out the snood

Special thanks to Dr. Rice for sending some of these links along.

So back in February of this year, I opined about "snoods" and why FIFA may be banning them.

Well FIFA has come through and is officially banning the snood as reported here from ESPN on a litany of matters IFAB is currently tinkering with.

Apparently this topic is so emotional that Sepp has hearkened back to his days as a player stating that:

I was a player in both winter and summer weather and I never wore a snood.

He continues on to say that snoods can be dangerous, and are not "part of the equipment" for playing. I agree on both fronts there. Law 4 is very clear on that point, and snoods can create a genuine danger, and should be banned.

Sepp does continue saying "We must pay attention to the Laws of the Game." Well frankly, its not a law yet, and is one that will not be "on the books" as it were until July 1, 2011 when the new law changes are published and given effect internationally. However the timing is funny as a commentator from The Soccer Insiders put it:

By the way, as proof that Sepp likes to make meaningless gestures, the ban doesn't take effect until July 1st of 2011. Yeah, that's right. The middle of summer.

Not intentional, but certainly ironic.

I would be surprised if MLS does not take immediate action themselves and not allow such garments, even absent authorization, or possibly with permission, from FIFA.

While this is good in protecting players safety, what about banning neck chains and the like? These too send the wrong message to the youth players who weekend after weekend try to wear such articles and often cite "... but I saw (MLS player X) wearing that ... ."

While not realistic I know, I would love to see consistency like this for all levels of THE game.

Instant replay?

Kicking Back Comments: Take a look at the story below ... it is actually pretty interesting. The first half rails about the FIFA presidential elections and how corrupt they are. Nothing new there folks.

The second part however has some quotes from various EPL coaches and a fan. What astounds me in reading these and doing further research on the topic, is there seems to be an idea that things will be made "right" by the use of replay and other technology.

Now, I have stated that I personally am not a fan of replay or goal line technology. Tools to help referees communicate batter (e.g. radios), you bet, I am a BIG fan of that. Anything beyond that puts us on the slippery slope however. I am failing to see however why the use of technology corrects all THE game's "wrongs" as seen by ... well just about everyone.

One analogy is in the NFL where review is used fairly sparingly. Are we really going to allow Sir Alex and his ilk to openly challenge a referee decision by (as the NFL does) tossing a red flag into the pitch? To what end? He will then argue THAT decision if it does not go his way, as he generally does today. Note further, this is for the "clear" incidents ... but as we know, THE game is generally a world of grey when it comes to Law 12.

Long story short, technology is a wonderful thing that can solve many problems as it has in general society and industry. Comments from the below article continue to solidify the though in me that the use of such technology to "assist" in adjudication of a match will cause more problems, and not solve the one it was intended to solve. A classic case of the law of unintended consequences.

Alan Green: Fifa will keep on stalling over video evidence

Late last week the President of the Asian Football Confederation, Mohammed Bin Hammam, announced that he’d be standing against Sepp Blatter in the Fifa elections on June 1. I wouldn’t get your hopes up.

For a start, he’s so much against the head of world football that he campaigned on Blatter’s behalf in the last two elections and, far from delivering a radical and detailed plan to re-design Fifa — an essential you’d think — and the sport as a whole, Bin Hammam’s announcement was couched only in vague promises. ...

See the complete story here, courtesy of the Belfast Telegraph.

Cute, but not helpful

Take a look here at Don Garber and Sunil Gulati's  recent comments (or complete duck) regarding the FIFA presidential elections.

While both in their own way clearly decided to stay away from the controversy, my question is, why? While Gulati does cite that "Chuck Blazer have got us represented ..." (sic), why not get on board with someone?

Besides, Chuck does not represent the US explicitly, he represents CONCACAF. Now I can see why Mr. Garber would take a pass as while he certainly has a dog in the fight, it proxies through Mr. Gulati.

I can't fathom why Gulati took a pass. He is there to lead ... so please lead Mr. president. Take a stand. Worse case is we get shunned from the football world if you back the wrong guy. Not sure how it can get too much worse ... but I would think we would be willing to get behind someone and take a risk.

Fight, fight, fight !!!

Kicking Backs Comments: You know it's not good when you start with something like this: 

"FIFA will be doomed if Hammam became the president," Velappan told The Associated Press. "It would be very detrimental."

Blatter ally slams Mohamed bin Hammam's FIFA presidency bid

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A former top official of the Asian Football Confederation slammed Mohamed bin Hammam on Monday for challenging Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency, saying the organization would be "doomed" if the Qatari wins.

Peter Velappan, a Blatter ally who was the AFC's general secretary from 1978 to 2007, said bin Hammam's pledge to bring "new blood" into the leadership of world football was "the joke of the century."

The Malaysian's comments underscore bitter divisions that could increasingly become public following last week's announcement by bin Hammam, the current AFC president, that he would run to replace the 75-year-old Blatter.

"FIFA will be doomed if Hammam became the president," Velappan told The Associated Press. "It would be very detrimental." ...

See the full story here, courtesy of the Canadian Press.

Presidential Politics

World Football in Focus - Warner the Kingmaker in FIFA Presidency Battle

(WFI) Controversial CONCACAF president Jack Warner has emerged as the key powerbroker in the battle to win the FIFA presidency.

Warner controls 35 of the 208 federations who will decide the next FIFA president at its congress in Zurich in June, and sources with knowledge of FIFA politics have indicated that he is the key figure in the electoral race. CONCACAF have indicated this week that they will likely vote as a bloc. ...

See the full article here, courtesy of World Football Insider.

Kicking Back Comments: My favorite quote in the article is this:

In a nutshell, Bin Hammam proposes giving huge amounts of FIFA power to confederation heads. The plan, according to one FIFA insider, is “to appeal to the vanity of confederation heads, such as Warner.”

Just classic stuff. What was that tweet from @fakesepp? Oh yeah.

Another FIFA investigation on the horizon?

From the NYT:

Player Claims of Beating and Threats: A soccer player from Montenegro who fell out of favor with his Russian club said he was beaten into terminating his contract by armed men and feared for his life. A team executive dismissed the claim as “pure idiocy.” Nikola Nikezic, who played for Kuban Krasnodar in the Russian Premier League, outlined what happened in a letter to Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president.

What an endorsement!!

As some may know Mohamed bin Hammam is ready to take on Sepp Blatter against in June for the presidency of FIFA.

There may be some skeletons in his closet however that may be an issue. From Guardian:

FIFA EX-COM VP Chung Mong-joon stating that Bin Hammam represented "a serious lack of transparency, democracy and rule of law". "I am afraid that he behaves like a mentally ill man …"

... and a ringing endorsement from a friend.

... standing by Bin Hammam in 2009: Indonesia's FA president Nurdin Halid – twice allowed by Bin Hammam's Asian Football Confederation to run his FA from inside prison while serving time for embezzling humanitarian aid. Halid: "Mr Hammam has my full support. His vision is second to none!"

I don't know what is worse. The devil you know, or the one you don't.

See the whole story here, courtesy of  guardian.co.uk.

Slow on the uptake?

Fifa denies it was slow to deal with fixing fears

Fifa has denied being slow to react to fears that two international friendly matches were being targeted by match fixers.

The games between Bolivia and Latvia and Estonia and Bulgaria are now the subject of an investigation by the world governing body, who have opened disciplinary proceedings against six match officials.

Officials from the Estonian FA had alerted Fifa and Uefa to their concerns over the organisation of the games two weeks before the fixtures were played in Turkey on 9 February. The games went ahead and a reported €5m (£4.3m) was gambled on the Estonian match, a 2-2 draw. Industry insiders have suggested the "over two-and-a-half goal market" as the key area in a gamble originating in the Far East. ...

Full story continues here, courtesy of The Independent.

I'm with Sepp on this one

English FA could have sanctioned Rooney, says Blatter

NEWPORT, Wales (Reuters) - The English FA would have been within its rights to sanction Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney following an elbowing incident last week, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said on Saturday.

The FA said it could not retrospectively take action against Rooney for elbowing Wigan Athletics' James McCarthy in the back of the head in a Premier League match because, under FIFA rules, as referee Mark Clattenburg had already given a foul against the England man for obstruction, they could take no further action. ...

See the complete story here, courtesy of Reuters.

Kicking Back Comments: For my money Sepp has this one exactly right. There is no reason that a league should not jump in to further sanction a player, even if that player was already dealt with by the match referee. The FA's move to not further sanction Rooney for delivering an elbow to McCarthy is deplorable. Then to further compound the story by saying that they were really just protecting the integrity of the decision of Mark Clattenburg is just cowardice on the part of the FA.

Granted, no referee likes to have such a situation occur that the league has to step in and take further action. In my day it happened to me personally a couple of times. When I got over myself that I should have seen the whole incident and dealt with it differently ... the bigger picture prevailed. That picture was it was better to get it right than to just let it go.

As referees we certainly try to get it right all the time. But alas, sometimes we miss ... not often but we do. At the professional and international level while there is great scrutiny of referees, there is also great opportunity for leagues to stamp out the type of behavior Roo engaged in here. Leagues can also mete out much harsher punishment that a referee ever could, and really put some bite into a sanction.

I'm with Sepp, and say let them. Adding onto a particular sanction to further enforce a point started by a referee does nothing but drive that point home to the owner of the actions, and other players who may consider the same in the future.