Comments on: A river of sleaze

By: sheek

sheek — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:45:29 +0000

Sadly, it seems, as a sport grows & expands, it is invaded by the darker forces of humanity. Exhibit A - Soccer. Exhibit B - rugby league. Exhibit C - rugby union.

As the young kid implored to ’shoeless Joe Jackson’ upon being cionvicted of match fixing - “say it ain’t so, Joe”.

Unfortunately, it is so, with regards to the imposition of the darker forces of society.

By: Jesse Fink

Jesse Fink — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:47:38 +0000

Guys, thanks for the comments. Spiro first: check out Jennings’s book Foul!, which is about FIFA and the “river of sleaze” that took him to the top and keeps him there. There is the original edition (white cover) and a revised one (red). Yours truly gets a guernsey in the revised edition for a comment I made about “Teflon Jack” Warner. Eamonn, I haven’t made it to the FIFA Congress myself (real life intervened and I inadvertently missed the process of actually getting the accreditation required). But Simon told me the Tuesday press conference had about 60 reporters in attendance and only two, himself and News Ltd journo Tom Smithies, asked questions. I’ve seen the timidness of the international football media first-hand at the World Cup. After the Australia-Japan game in Kaiserslautern, not one Japanese journalist asked a question, and there were hundreds of them in the room. Back to Jennings, though: the new issue of Inside Sport has a piece on the Congress by Jennings. A good read.

By: Steve Kaless

Steve Kaless — Fri, 30 May 2008 09:32:49 +0000

Spot on Jesse. The Iraq game was never going to get banned with the FFA needing to bank a full house at Suncorp Stadium.

It is sickening the way most of the Aussie press fawn about Blatter. They were all up in arms when he did the original back flip about the World Cup spot, but now they are swooning again.

Does make you wonder just what we need to said and what will need to happen and who will need to be paid in the great World Cup hosting campaign. Of course, we if get it Blatter we says it is because of beaches, barbies and sporting culture and we’ll all smile and think ‘what a nice man’.

By: Spiro Zavos

Spiro Zavos — Fri, 30 May 2008 07:25:33 +0000

John O’Neill in his role as CEO of Soccer Australia, having endured the politicking of the ‘old farts’ of the IRB when he running the ARU, was adamant that soccer politics was the most ferocious and machiavellian he’d ever encountered. Jesse’s splendid column and that of Simon Hill explaining some of the intricacies involved in the parallel universe of Sepp Blatter provides an insight into the O’Neill experience. I must admit it’s disappointing that the mainstream media has not given us any sort of insight provided by Jesse and Simon.
It would be wonderful if Andrew Jennings could blow apart the parallel world constructed by Blatter. His work on the IOC, especially his exposure of Juan Samaranch, has led to a certain cleansing of the Olympic movement. Hopefully a Jennings expose of FIFA will have a similar result for world football.

By: Millster

Millster — Fri, 30 May 2008 06:56:58 +0000

Eamonn - as an ‘educated punter’ I can answer you …. YES!

But at the same time, thanks to the handful of you, spead across the various media publishers and outlets, that do contribute thought, controversy and vision into the debate about football’s development.

Market size measured in column inches will look after themselves. Broadly speaking, finally, we’re pointed in the right direction in terms of football in this country and starting to make a few delicate steps of progress.

By: Eamonn Flanagan

Eamonn Flanagan — Fri, 30 May 2008 06:46:51 +0000

Good one Jessie, I note few,if any, Aussie journo’s have been asking anything significant at the FIFA Congress. Any thoughts on this? Is this football journo’s market in Australia, too small, too limited in newspace to make asking anything worthwhile worth it?

By: Dez

Dez — Fri, 30 May 2008 02:18:12 +0000

Good article.

If enough people keep nibbling away at FIFA the whole farcical ediface must surely crumble. But imagine the mayhem after that in an uncontrolled free-for-all of football’s riches.

The future of this wonderful game is not wholesome - but then again, nor - when you take off the rose-tinted specs - was its past.

By: Salvation

Salvation — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:33:39 +0000

I hope PVB has kept his charges focused…

By: Millster

Millster — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:26:58 +0000

What happens if you are right Sledge? If we lose against Iraq but then they forfeit their place, do all parties who played them retrospectively get 3 points or are the points for forfeiture only awarded for matches in the future? I guess the saving grace if your scenario is right is that, after Sunday, we are exactly half-way through the set of fixtures, and each other team in the group will get at least one set of the “free points”.

On the other hand, if you look at the table, it makes the fixtures this weekend massively important. The outcome of China Vs Qatar will play a huge part in setting up the remaining scenarios for the group of 3 that would be left if Iraq withdrew. It would also essentailly mean that we would have to come away with at least a point from Qatar away.

By: sledgeross

sledgeross — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:46:35 +0000

What about the rumour doing the rounds that Iraq will be kicked out after the Aussie match. This stay of execution was done to avoid embarrassment for FIFA with so many luminaries in Oz for the conference.