Some folks in town hate my guts, Jomo. Their roasted beef and grilled mutton? I refuse to call a goat a ruminant or beat about the bushes, twigs and shrubs in all matters serious or mundane:
Today, I come with a simple plan to enable us reclaim our football before Sepp Blatter and his band of despotic characters at FIFA headquarters reduce our beautiful game to an outdoor casino where skills are pitted against sheer luck, with goal-mouth thieves waiting in the wings to scavenge on any chance occurring on the blind side of referees.
Watching the World Cup, it appears the time has finally come for sports writers around the world who have revolutionary perspectives on modern international soccer to orchestrate a world-wide campaign that will force Blatter to take a final walk into the sunset.
With football, there may be a few bizarre exceptions like the case of Somalia where religious extremists attacked their compatriots for “wasting” potentially productive time watching television images of mad men jumping up and down and running around chasing a leather bag full of air, otherwise, the world loves this game too much to leave it to the apparent caprices of one man.
No sir, football does not belong to FIFA, national and regional football associations, team managers, coaches, referees or anyone else. The game belongs to us the fans. Without the millions of fans around the world, the game would be as good as dead and its commercial appendages in the form of massive advertising along with it.
The world does in deed owe Blatter some gratitude for his great contribution to the development and growth of international soccer but the point is that long before Darwin’s great grand father was born, a profound fact had prevailed: Only those species which can adapt to change survive.
It is obvious from the heart-breaking scenarios which have played out at World Cup 2010, that there are many things gone dead wrong with many aspects of the game. The refereeing blunders in particular, shocked everyone from Kumasi-Zongo to Washington DC: Teams were erroneously denied very obvious goals and others incorrectly granted goals that should have been disallowed. Thanks to television technology, millions of fans around the world saw it all. Yet Blatter and his band of characters from FIFA did not see anything or did not think it mattered much, in spite of the fact that one goal could make all the difference between a first round exit and a glorious championship All Blatter could say about the mess was "the English said thank you and accepted that in football you can win and you lose” and “the Mexicans bowed their head and accepted it”. Imagine that!
In spite of the obvious need, Mr. Blatter appears reluctant to adapt to the changing dynamics of the game. The introduction of video technology to help referees make the right decisions, will affect the traditional quality of the game, he says.
The 74-year old Mr. Blatter has been at FIFA for as long as anyone can remember or to be fair to him, for the past 35 years, first as Technical Director for six years, then as General-Secretary for an unbelievable 16 years and finally as president for the past 12 years.
Aba. Is there no one else on this planet capable of bringing fresh ideas to the leadership of FIFA? You might stake a wager on it: Blatter will seek another term when FIFA goes to congress in 2011and may continue with his vice-like grip on FIFA if our campaign falls flat. Blatter is fast to play to the political gallery whenever any nation tries to clean up its football administration. As recently as 2009, an amount of US $236, 000 was kept in the safe of the Nigerian Football Federation. The vey next day, the green bucks dematerialized into plain oxygen and has not been found since. Then there was the recent issue of the hiring of a foreign coach for the Super Eagles. After the interviews to select a coach, Kwara State Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, was quoted in the media at the time as having revealed that he talked to one of the candidates who aspired for the Super Eagles job, Mr. Glenn Hoddle about the recruitment interviews. According to Dr. Saraki, Hoddle told him that he {Hoddle} had been asked to part with $500, 000 out of his $1.5 million proposed salary and that he had been told, that was how to do business in Nigeria. Dr. Sakari said at the time that Hoddle claimed “some people” had asked him to quote $1.5 million instead of the $1,000, 000 salary.” FIFA is not on record as having done anything about that. Now Goodluck Jonathan wants to clean up the place and Blatter comes singing this hackneyed jazz tune about government interference in football administration. FIFA itself has not been an epitome of financial accountability. Journalist Andrew Jennings spent four years engaged in unprecedented research into world football and interviewed football officials in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. The result was the famous book Foul!: The secret world of FIFA which chronicled stories of ticket racketeering, bribe–taking, FIFA election–rigging illicit trading, and “other dirty tricks.” In spite of the efforts of people like Jennings, no one has managed to penetrate the supper-hallowed domain of FIFA to successfully investigate the frequent but yet unproven allegation of corruption in world football. Swiss security operatives stormed FIFA headquarters in 2005 during investigations into allegations that FIFA had money laundering routes that had been used to spirit away more than £70 million in kickbacks. Some in the sports world thought, “Uhuh, the end has finally come for Blatter”, but the man bounced back unscathed.
A painful loss it was indeed under controversial circumstances but we must celebrate the achievement of having reached a World Cup quarter final. That is what some of our compatriots at home and abroad are saying.
That is plain old crap and an undue glorification of mediocrity. Have we not always insisted we are a football nation and that we are capable of reaching the World Cup final and even snatching the crown?
Cameroon the first African country to reach a World Cup final did so 20 long years ago. In getting kicked out at the quarter final has Ghana helped take African football any nearer the final than it was 20 years ago? We are marching on the spot, a potential prelude to back-paddling!
…Alright, so Luis Suarez’s goalmouth thieving ways denied us a goal but probably nine out of every ten players in Suarez’s shoes would have handled the ball to stop a goal. Therefore, issuing a yellow card and sending the thieving player off will not deter players from doing so. It would be strange indeed if FIFA ignored our legitimate demand that in such situations a goal be awarded.
Send the word around the world by every available means, Jomo: let us forge a global rallying point for making our most pressing concerns known to FIFA before the crucial meeting to be held in Cardiff.
Coach Rejevac? The gentleman appeared too crestfallen after our goal against his native Serbia to inspire any confidence in his loyalty to our great republic’s bid to grab the almighty cup some day. His play strategy, player substitutions and other decisions sometimes appeared a bit weird to me.
Anyhow, Jomo, what do you make of our unrelenting obsession with foreign coaches? Do you know of any foreign coach who has ever led Ghana to a continental, regional or world cup championship? Mayhap, we need to bleach them whiter than they come, yes sir! By George Sydney Abugri Website: www.sydneyabugri.com
