Fifa Broadcast Warning To England’s 2018 Bid

The World Cup draw in South Africa for next year’s finals allowed the English media to don its’ bombast hat and trumpet out loud about how easy the draw was, how progress could be made and the trophy won. Such jingoism is not unusual to read for those who inhabit these shores yet it also worked in Fifa’s favour.

Currently, the British government is reviewing those sporting events which should be listed to prevent pay-tv from purloining the nation’s broadcasting Crown Jewels. The Murdoch empire may screen these events but they cannot be the sole provider, terrestrial television must be allowed to carry them live. It is a fine principle, preventing the public from being cast into the televisual dark ages for the premier events.

Such policies though threaten to sabotage England’s 2018 World Cup, inflicting more damage than the bellicose pomposity of Jack Warner ever could. The World Cup final and home nations matches in the finals are listed. Under discussion is whether or not the whole of the tournament should follow suit.

Jerome Valcke, Fifa’s General Secretary, gave an unequivocal answer last week to the House of Commons committee reviewing the issue:

If the World Cup remained listed in its entirety by the time bids were received, England would not be selected unless, and until, Fifa had had discussions with the BBC and ITV and had struck a pre-contract agreement which gave Fifa full value for its broadcasting rights

It has long been known that broadcasters are the pipers who call football’s tune. The English Premier League came into existence as a result of the Machivellian manoeuverings of the televisions companies, promising to bring the game into a land of untold riches without quite explaining to the club chairmen how much of their souls they would have to sell. Too much as it turned out but by then events were too far progressed to prevent such an outcome.

Fifa does have a duty of care to maximise its revenues in order to re-invest into the game. However, it also has a duty to expose football to the widest audience, something which pay-tv will never be able to achieve. The two are not mutually exclusive; indeed a balance must be struck. Morally, the pendulum should swing in the favour of the masses. Realistically, money talks louder to football’s politicians.

Can The FA Ever Do Anything Right?

If the Football Association had any illusions that the appointment of Fabio Capello would steady the ship of tarnished reputations were brutally shattered by the announcement that the Italian is under investigation by Turin magistrates for tax offences, focussing on offshore companies created by his sons. As part of the fallout of the scandal that engulfed Juventus and Milan amongst others, the involvement of high profile individuals is of little surprise. Even less so would be the ‘news’ that the Football Association already knew of the investigation, no doubt disclosed prior to his appointment. If it was not then there are serious questions to be answered regarding the depth of any enquiries made by Brian Barwick and his team of interviewers and also whether Capello himself should have disclosed the investigation to his potential employers.

The FA spokesman was put in an invidious position; the organisation had to back its most high profile employee or otherwise become a laughing stock once more. That dubious honour may yet be bestowed upon them should the easy denials of any wrongdoing be proven to be wrong. It will however not ease the pressure on Barwick whose reputation amongst the media at least, continues to erode any work that he tries to do.

Fundamentally this is the latest in a long line of debacles which are constantly leaving the FA looking more like a lame duck administration than a dynamic leadership of football in England. In allowing themselves to become mired in a constant welter of negative publicity, they have been unable to press home any good work that they may do; no, I cannot think of any either. It is little wonder therefore that the Premier League, who it must be said are no angels themselves, look to be the singular most powerful organisation in English football.

In appointing the England manager, the FA has been somewhat luckless as well as clueless on occasion. The incompetence of Graham Taylor at the highest level was evident early on, eventually ridiculed out of the job following the failure to qualify for USA ’94. Terry Venables had proven dubious business practices; Hoddle’ beliefs got in his way as did his indiscretion in publishing a World Cup diary; Keegan was tactically naïve whilst Eriksson attracted opprobrium on front and back pages.

It is not unique to football for the high profile employees to be tainted by scandal or be incompetent; thousands of businesses are testament to both. It is unique for one organisation to be so beset by problems year after year. Carrying the overblown expectations of a nation compounds any faults; the FA simply cannot come out with a statement that says that the players are not good enough, to do so would be a damning indictment of themselves. Yet this is what needs to happen in unequivocal terms to dampen the media’s fires, to reduce the expectations of supporters, who incidentally know this to be a true fact.

The Switzerland friendly next month will no doubt be marked as a milestone, the astuteness of Capello’s tactical knowledge will be scrutinised. In many respects, it is a false ideal to believe that he can magically improve matters in an instance. He cannot for the simple fact that he will not have enough time with the players beforehand. In that respect, the folly of an already arranged match is there for all to see; he should be spending the international week introducing himself and his methods away from the media spotlight without the requirement to perform at the end of it. The match was supposed to be part of England’s Euro2008 warm-up yet the haste in arranging the fixture when it was known that participation this summer was doubtful highlights the inadequacies of the international fixture list. The FA knew there was a better than average chance of McClaren being unemployed so why arrange it? Coffers need to be filled but the long term benefits of such a match are unquantifiable simply because there are none.

Contrary to their claims, international friendlies are not popular with fans, particularly those of Premier League clubs whose players come back injured. There is no reason other than money to schedule them during a busy domestic fixture list when the players would benefit more from a week resting rather than playing.

The FA are undergoing reformation of their organisation and business practices; they need to change their football operation because more and more frequently, incompetence comes to the fore and their suitability to administer the game is open to question.