FIFA – “The Family”

A summary of the voting at the FIFA Congress:

• The FA’s move at the Fifa Congress on Wednesday was defeated by 172 votes to 17. The Scottish FA was the only association to publicly back the FA. (It now appears that Vietnam voted for the FA motion by mistake – so it should have been 173 votes to 16).
• Blatter was re-elected after receiving 186 of the 203 votes cast to remain in charge until 2015.

The Farce That Is FIFA

Blatter has been cleared by the Ethics Committee.

Bin Hammam not only withdraws his candidacy, but he has been suspended by the Ethics Committee. Jack Warner is also suspended.

Blatter is now unopposed.

At Odds With Common Sense

On BBC Sport:

Dundee United manager Peter Houston says he fears for the game if every penalty conceded results in a red card.

Houston did not dispute Rangers’ three spot-kick awards as United had a trio of players sent off in a 4-0 defeat.

But he said: “I worry about the game and where it’s going to if we are going to have straight red cards for every incident that’s happening in the box.

“I am frustrated that we have had three players sent off in a game when there was hardly a tackle put in.”

Does It Matter Who The FIFA President Is?

So Mohammed Bin Hammam will be challenging Sepp Blatter for the FIFA Presidency after all.

I asked myself whether I should do a post about it at all, as I imagine the subject will be analysed to death elsewhere. My ambivalence can be summed up by the following passage in an earlier post about some of the issues facing football:

“I don’t know if Sepp Blatter not being re-elected as FIFA President would solve anything, but it would be a step in the right direction.”

The Future Of Football – What’s Really At Stake

I responded with several posts on a thread on Tony’s Non-League Forum about recent high profile refereeing errors in England.  I’m collating them here.

Competition Faced By European Leagues

UEFA adopted financial fair play rules last May. As reported at that time in the Guardian:

“Uefa has approved plans to force clubs in European competition to spend only what they earn. The financial fair play rules will require clubs to break even over a rolling three-year period if they want to play in the Champions League or Europa League.”

The Potential For Discord In World Football

As FIFA basks in the publicity, if not the financial success, of the 2010 World Cup Finals, it is easy to ignore the potential discord that lies ahead for world football.

Neo-Feudalism & FIFA

BBC Sport reports that FIFA “warns” Sarkozy:

An International Calendar

The club v country debate hasn’t really gone away.  Rationalizing an international calendar would help.   Swiss system anyone?

Are FIFA Any Better Than Thugs?

On BBC News: