FIFA - All that’s wrong with football

They officially gave up on rotation sometimes around giving it to Russia and Qatar. They needed the policy to justify giving the tournament to the non-traditional confederations, something that solidified the personal power of the men at the head of FIFA. But once they broke that barrier, and they realized there was more money in giving it to non-traditional powers even more often than would occur on a rotation, they dropped the rotation.

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Out of all the criticisms of this WC, having it in winter is one of the few I disagree with. It’s something that we’ll have to get used to.

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Why should we get used to it? If it was a collective decision from all the stake holders then fair enough, but it wasnt. It was a unilateral decision enforced on the major shareholders as a result of a dishonest agreement between FIFA and Qatar to do it in the summer and then when they accepted it was impossible they pretended there was no option but to move the dates, rather than move the location, all while the stake holder were complaining.

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I suspect the holders of broadcast rights who have seen a collapse in the value of league packages will be telling European club football that the lower payments is just something they will have to get used to. At some point, European club football might start telling FIFA that not being able to release players for an international schedule they have no say in is something they will have to get used to. The hockey model has to look rather appealing to the big European clubs right about now.

It would be one thing if FIFA had made any attempt to make the losers in this whole. But the reality is the gains are running overwhelmingly to countries that contribute nothing but a FIFA vote to world football, while bearing no costs.

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Not defending Qatar lying. Just suspect winter World Cups will be more common in the future as the average temp. keeps rising.

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Yeah, totally understand that. But there are so many knock on effects related to the world calendar that it would have to be a coordinated move organized by all the stake holders, led by the clubs and the braodcasters. Doing it this way, for selfish reasons, is very much worthy of crticism, if only because the lack of beliability of their original promise to deliver a summer tournament drives home the brazzen corruption of Fifa

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I think there is nothing wrong in principle with a winter tournament, but that move has consequences. FIFA has accepted no responsibility for those consequences, yet has captured all of the benefits - and in an overtly corrupt manner.

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I think so too, it’s the one thing that hasn’t bothered me, I do think that was poorly planned mind, then again I don’t think Covid helped.

Ideally the season should have started mid July and the last one sometime in April.

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A pic from 2018. Three pals enjoying their time together:

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You spelt “cunts” wrong.

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I heard an interesting discussion about 2026 in the context of the Iran flag squabble (which was stupid on USSF’s part). With FIFA having established that host countries can change the terms just days before a World Cup, the US might be in a position to decide in 2026 simply to refuse some countries entry into US territory.

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A picture’s worth a thousand words.

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fixed it for you.

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Has someone seen the Netflix series about the history of corruption within FIFA?

I recommend it to anyone able to watch it, it’s really very well done. An eye-opener for all those who still don’t see the problem with FIFA, and a detail-provider for all those interested to know how all of this could happen.

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Just saw the listing the other day, I think I’ll watch.

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not the Tifo football one?

I’ve watched an episode a night over the last 3 nights. Will try and get the last one in tonight. Been interesting. Surprised Sepp is on it.

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The title is FIFA: football and corruption

That penalty awarded to Messi the other night reeks of corrupt directives to get Messi’s Argentina through at any cost.

Probably one of the most disgusting football decisions I have ever witnessed.

So Nunez is the only Liverpool player exiting the world cup.

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