The politics of football

Nothing prepared the world of football for the events that ensued in the week leading to the FIFA elections on May 29, 2015. US prosecutors in the company of FBI agents armed with search and arrest warrants swarming an elitist Zurich hotel where FIFA congress delegates were accommodated may have seemed like a scene in a crime drama on TV.

A few days later the FIFA congress went ahead on 29^th May and Joseph Sepp Blatter was re-elected FIFA president for a 5^th term. However, just four days later the drama took a new twist as Sepp Blatter resigned from his position to pave way for him to leave within the next months with many speculating not beyond December 2015. In his resignation speech, Mr Blatter stated that he felt he didn’t have the confidence and mandate of all the stakeholders of football despite winning a landslide election four days earlier there by carrying the mandate of the Football Associations.

I know for sure Sepp Blatter is someone that divides opinions of many. He has very firm critics and also loyalists who will always stand by him. One point I tend to agree with his critics on is the fact that, four terms as president for over 16 years and many years as secretary general before that, Sepp had over stayed his welcome. I am of the view that in an elective position, the top dog shouldn’t rule more than 10 years. People just grow weary of such a leader. However, I do not in any way support the way he was hounded out of office.

For one reason or the other, there seems to be a lot of politics going on in football, a game that tries to dissociate itself from any kind of politics or any political interference of any sort in the running of football.

In my view, the politics in football didn’t start today, but has been existing for many years with the only difference being that now there are millions pumped in football every year hence opportunists want to cash in. opportunists will stop at nothing to get closer to power. To justify my point, I will give the example of the kind of political bickering that has engulfed Zambian football since 2011. The bickering in Zambian football management started around the time when the Football Association of Zambia signed contracts for sponsorship of the Super league, initially it was KCM and later MTN.

At about the same time the league sponsorship deal was acquired, there were other deals signed such as the Nike shirt sponsorship deal as well as the Supersport TV Broadcast deal. Pumping money into football through such sponsorships, is the way sports entities sustain themselves across the world. However, when the deals were secured by FAZ there were all sorts of wrangles that immediately broke out leading to a ‘break away’ administration that called themselves the National Football League (NFL). Zambian football teams were almost split into two with various club executives siding with either of the two camps. Fast forward to 2015, the wounds are yet to heal.

When it comes to the problems at FIFA, it is not a surprise that at the front of the queue of the possible causes for the bickering is money exchanging hands. The opportunists want to cash in even at the expense of destroying institutions. The institution of FIFA has come under increasing threat of disintegration, with the Michel Platini led European confederation threatening to break away and be an independent ‘world governing body’ that would organize a world cup of their own.

How a bunch of European nations would play a world cup still remains a mystery that only Plattini and his cronies would be able to explain. For starters, 8 out of the 53 association in UEFA were for Sepp Blatter as the voting pattern showed. I am not sure how many of the 55 or so African associations voted for Blatter but my best guess is that all 55 did. The Asian and South American associations were all pro- Blatter too. One really wonders what would constitute Plattini’s world cup.

When it comes to Blatter, the truth is that the man had over stayed and eventually time caught up with him. What was needed though is to elect his successor democratically and not these underhand methods we have witnessed. The European Union parliament has now gone ahead to demand that Blatter leaves the FIFA presidency immediately. I really don’t know who they want at the helm but my best bet is that they want Michel Platini to steer the FIFA ship in the interim and maybe later on rubber stamp him as the new FIFA president.

When it comes to Blatter vs Platini, I as an African would side for Blatter any day. For all his faults, Blatter has been a friend of Africans. Many African nations have benefitted from the FIFA goal project initiated by Blatter. Zambia as an example owe it to Blatter for a beautiful building that houses the Football Association of Zambia, a situation very different from the time when FAZ offices would be closed by the land-lords of the building the national FA was renting. There many such stories across Africa including academies and centers of excellence.

In addition to the building projects, Blatter has been very vocal in calling for more African nations at the world cup. This is in contrast to Platini who despite having less countries in UEFA (53), than CAF (55), but more European countries in the world cup, still wants more European countries at the world cup. The 13 of UEFA is almost three times more than the 5 of CAF. Platini is not satisfied with the number of European countries thus has been calling for more European teams even to the extent of suggesting an increase of the number of teams and format. He is very self-centered and history has proven that he isn’t the most astute of men. He is a very biased fellow.

For instance, in 2008 when Manchester United and Chelsea made it to the UEFA champions’ league final in Moscow, the UEFA boss was quoted as saying it was bad for football when two teams from the same federation featured in the final. According to reports that quoted him, this was a champions league final and not an EPL game or FA cup final. A few years later in 2013 when at the semifinal stage Barcelona faced Bayern Munich and Real Madrid faced Borrussia Dortmund, Platini was quoted as saying it would be good if the two Spanish teams played the final so that we could watch an ‘elclassico’ final. What had happened to the concept of two teams from the same federation facing each other in the final being bad for football?

Platini was also conspicuously quite when Bayern Munich and Borrussia Dortmund faced each other in the final the same year and when the following season in 2014 Madrid teams in Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid contested the final. Biased fellow, not good for the top job.

The big wigs in the European parliament as well as UEFA should know better that the world is not Western Europe. Now they have enlisted their American ‘big brother’ in a witch hunt, and almost brought FIFA to its knees. The arrests made by the American prosecutors in Zurich should be treated as allegations and not any guilty verdicts. In any case, if Jack Warner a suspended member of FIFA and former CONCACAF boss accepted bribes, let Jack Warner be prosecuted and if found guilty face the law. Jack Warner’s bribes should not in any way be the reason Blatter is hanged.

If Blatter accepted bribes let him be prosecuted too, for his own sins and not the sins of anyone else. Above all, there should be sanity and the same rules must apply for everyone. My point is that if South Africa bribed its way to hosting the 2010 world cup (which they have denied) what are the facts surrounding the 1994 USA world cup? Or the 1998 France world cup? The 2006 world cup in German? I believe the problems of money illegally changing hands in football must be looked at critically and not just point out to the African world cup, Qartar world cup and Russia world cup in Eastern Europe.

Ironically, while the Americans are all over accusing everyone and looking for corrupt football administrators, it must be mentioned that the only official so far found guilty is an American, Chuck Blazer. The truth is that like most institution where money is in abundance, football has a lot of opportunist ready to cash in. This is the kind of football politics to be done away with.

I am of the view that the fight against Blatter the individual, especially by the Western European block arises from the fact that he has not put the interests of a few nations in front at the expense of the whole world. Blatter introduced equal distribution of funding to associations which has not gone well with Europe as they want the bigger piece of the cake. Further, Blatter’s decision to rotate the world cup from one continent to the other is not so popular with Europe.

Like everyone else that likes the game of football, we hope that only the best comes out of this situation where the head of FIFA has been forced to resign and the institution heavily embarrassed. Blatter or no Blatter, football must continue. But please let them not impose Platini on the rest of the world or we will be in trouble.