Monday 17 November 2014

Reform FIFA and lose our National Side, A price worth paying?

The BBC have reported that The Football Association has been urged to lobby Uefa for a European boycott of the next World Cup - unless Fifa implements meaningful reform.

They say ..
Former FA chairman David Bernstein told BBC Sport it was time for "drastic" action against the governing body.He believes the tournament could not be taken seriously without Europe's major nations and that a boycott would be supported by the English public.Meanwhile, Bernstein has resigned from Fifa's anti-discrimination taskforce.He described it as "ineffectual" and wishes to end his ties with the organisation.In an exclusive interview, the 71-year-old also said:
  • Fifa is a "totalitarian" set-up that reminds him of "the old Soviet empire" and is "beyond ridicule".
  • The credibility of football is "suffering enormously" under the current Fifa regime.
  • Choosing Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup was "one of the most ludicrous decisions in the history of sport".
  • Fifa president Sepp Blatter will remain in power "unless someone does something about it"
From a Welsh point of view it would be difficult for the Welsh and Scottish FAs to support this  as the fear is that do so could threaten their existence with the FA insisting that there only be  a UK international side.

If I thought  Bernstein's call would result in end to corruption in Footballs governing body then with a heavy heart I would have to agree to it . Even if it cost us our National side.

It might make the call for an independent Scotland more likely and although we wait for Wales to be an Independent Nation to restore our Football side.

But I doubt that this will come about and the English FA have hardly come out of this unsullied.England's World Cup bid was criticised in the Fifa report with the FA accused of flouting bidding rules, while Qatar was cleared of corruption allegations.

Apart from getting rid of Blatter I don't know what can be done and it is hard to se who in FIFA including the English FA  has clean hands.

Tearing down and starting again would almost certainly see a end to the Welsh National side and that might just be a price worth paying but it doubtful that what would reemerge would be any better.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

good call glyn. just when wales is getting going as a football team again along comes something like this which, as you rightly say, could see an end to the wales national side if they followed the view of people like david bernstein. but to be honest doubt things will get that far.

good sense will prevail and the big football nations will agree to take the world cup out of qatar - the regime there should never have been awarded it in the first place. those stadiums are being built by slave labour.

so bring the 2022 world cup to wales - then we wouldnt even have to wory about trying to qualify.

Anonymous said...

No Glyn, losing our national side for the sake of cleaning FIFA is not a price worth paying.

FIFA will be cleaned sometime - probably after Blatter has gone. But we lose our national side we'll never get it back again.

Our selfish desire to keep one our few national institutions is more important than being a sacrificial lamb.

Anonymous said...

Its the English FA that needs to clean its act up, whenever Welsh teams play English teams in the league only English officials are allowed and that was before the changes when some of the best refs in the league were Welsh.

Don't forget the handbags situation involving the English and their recent World cup bid, remember the ''el robo del siglo'' or ''the robbery of the century'' as the South Americans referred to it when England hosted the World Cup in 1966.
1. Teams were said to be unhappy with English and German officials.
2. Moving the semi-final venue at the last minute to deny Portugal a 'home' game and England an 'away' game.
3, The 'ghost' goal.

Wales must keep its football independence.

Anonymous said...

Football like banking is run by big money and vested interest, even if you started again the new body would be corrupted by the same money and vested interest soon after it was formed. So, no losing our football independence is not a price worth paying and i question your nationalist credentials of late, lauding the England and Wales greens and calling for coalition with Plaid, advocating abolishing wales seat at the international football table, what's next cheerleading for the Labour Party?

R Tyler said...

Can't agree Glyn.
Wales must keep its football independence.

glynbeddau said...

I hope people realise that what I was trying to point out that reform of FIFA could cause the loss of ou0r N8ation9al side and wondered if that was a price worth paying for ending corruption.
But let's be honest what would legitimise a Welsh National side would be an Independent Wales.Which is what I seek.
mise

Anonymous said...

Have some poster's actually read what glyn said ? Try again boys and girls and you'll see that he is against the FAW undertaking any course of action which would threaten the existence of the Wales national team.

Trust us glyn you know you're doing something right when people start attacking you :)

Anonymous said...

Green Dragon your total agreement with Glyn and cheerleading on behalf of the Unionist Greens is undermining this blogs welsh nationalist credentials, it's suddenly become insipid and devolutionist, a change that's been noticed since the 'green dragon blog' appeared.

glynbeddau said...

Pardon my stance hasn't, changed one bit. I Simply look for allies. The YES campaign in Scotland was not just about the SNP it was RIC Socialist and Greens. We must build such alliances in Wales.

Anonymous said...

Apologies if I overstepped the mark, I enjoy your blog but it’s been hard reading it of late

I totally agree YES Scotland was a broad church and alliances need to be built, but until the greens in Wales resemble the Scottish Green Party then welsh nationalists shouldn’t be dancing to their tune, its no different to the constant sucking up to Labour, it hurts Plaid Cymru especially when the party should be focusing on the golden opportunity of the UK in flux to make real advances for Wales next May and in 2016, let the greens sort themselves out and keep them at arms length in the meantime.

Anonymous said...

Anon we want to see the welsh greens evolve in the manner of their scottish counterparts - this really should be clear in all our blog posts, and in our posts elsewhere. Further, and while it obviously seems to pain you, the inescapable fact is there is much common ground between the wales greens and plaid cymru in particular its leader leanne and the likes of jill evans and bethan jenkins. Such people we are sure share the Wales green party's vision of a future Wales that is progressive, green and nuclear free.

As an alleged plaid cymru supporter do you share that vision we wonder?

Anonymous said...

"welsh greens"
I would be honestly intrigued to learn how many of them are from wales. From all the recent mentions on blogs and in the news it appears every single one hails from England.

Anonymous said...

'Anon' theres no scientific reason to believe that the proportions of members of the wales green party born in wales are any different to those of any other political party in Wales - afraid your own anecdotal observations hardly count as 'scientific'. Though we have to confess to being somewhat disturbed that you should feel the need to even raise such a question - is it a case of 'Blut und Boden' for you anon?

While we note no response from you to our question about the obvious 'shared visions' of a future Wales ie progressive, green and nuclear free which undeniably exists between the likes of leanne wood and jill evans and the Wales green party

Welsh not British said...

There is nothing worth risking our national football team. It is the one major global sport where we are able to compete as Wales against any other country (at least the 208 other FIFA teams anyway).

That being said a boycott could only work if it was every national association within UEFA. A World Cup is contested by 209 nations across the globe, of those 209 only 32 will be able to qualify for the finals. UEFA currently has 13 slots, it's fluctuated over the last few decades from 12 to 12.5, 13, 13.5 and 14 but let's just go with 13 for 2022 (the 0.5 means you play-off against another confederation's (continent) half-slot).

To withdraw 13 of the world's best teams is unthinkable and would bring FIFA to its knees, the World Cup is UEFA plus Brazil, Argentina and (historically) Uruguay plus a few other bums from across the world.

For this to happen the boycott would need to be led by Germany, Spain, Holland, Italy and France plus all the other teams. There is no good England trying to call the shots because apart from the English not one other nation would give a toss if England boycotted the very World Cup they have claimed they should win (I shit you not!).

And as for the green above suggesting Wales should host it, I can only assume they are joking because we lack the infrastructure (I dislike the word stadia) to host a UEFA Championship let alone a WC.

Arjpa said...

Well FIFA is getting back on track and has implemented good reforms and policies. They have removed lot of junk and are on their way to become good.

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