[Football] Time to leave FIFA and start up & alternative governing body ?

[BadFish]

The biggest issue of Qatar hosting the WC is Human Rights and subsequently the cowardly restriction by FIFA to ban anyone from protesting against infringements of LGBTQ rights by wearing one love armbands - is this not considered justification enough alone to walk away from FIFA?


Fifa claims that it is “committed to respecting all internationally recognised human rights and shall strive to promote the protection of these rights.” This policy states that discrimination of any kind, including against sexual orientation, is “strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion”.

World Cup 2022: Fifa’s clampdown on rainbow armbands conflicts with its own guidance on human rights

The decision to only pay lip service to discrimination could have long term impacts.

theconversation.com

Bollocks is it.

The FIFA tournament rules of official equipment/clothing is also being used to deliberately suppress LGBTQ anti-discrimination statements- otherwise why would FIFA issue their own armbands protesting against discrimination minus any mention of discrimination on the grounds of sexuality?

On one side sits the right and decent thing to do as a huge entity that spans the world. On the other is the opportunity to be given huge sums of cash.

It would be called the FIFA paradox in a parallel universe where FIFA considered for just one moment, making a different choice.

They have got some PR work to do after this tournament. Something tells me that Ifantini is not the man to do it.

 

[Zeberdi]

subject was the arm bands, dont go switching to fans hats. unless there has been a rule change, the arm band issue entirely predictable.

Subject is whether it is ‘time to leave FIFA and start up a governing body’ not what you decide it is - I have raised the issue of human rights on this thread, because no else had up until I had posted earlier, the focus was on corruption etc etc I posted previously a link to the twitter feed (before your comment about rules) and underscoring that FIFA is controlling the ‘protest’ agenda, not because of equipment rules but because they are cow towing to Qatar.

The more you push back about that, the more you come across as justifying their shameful behaviour.

 

[Zeberdi]

On one side sits the right and decent thing to do as a huge entity that spans the world. On the other is the opportunity to be given huge sums of cash.

I agree, and the biggest source of revenue for FIFA (and therefore for the FA etc as FIFA payouts) are, as we know, from the WC - I’m not sure going down the path of advocating another global managing organisation to replace FIFA is the right one largely because given the existing financial benefits for national football, asking countries to boycott the WC or even withdraw from FIFA, would be like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas. FIFA is a transnational private (Swiss registered) organisation so not subject to political scrutiny in the way a publicly owned body would be but it has over the past 10 years gradually adopted an acknowledgment of, then proper engagement with and finally, drawn up internal policies and procedures concerning Human Rights partly because of external pressures to do so.

The way forward imo, is to review FIFA’s human rights protection and defence mechanisms as to whether they are working, if indeed they are being implemented (I doubt curtailing legitimate freedom of expression is satisfying even FIFAs own policies) and to explore ways that FIFA can be held to account with sanctions, and by what judicial body, when it fails in this regard - Nevertheless, compared to where it was in 2014 at the South Africa WC, (when the UN stepped in to get FIFA to address adverse human rights impacts), it has moved on considerably but still has a long way to go. That’s where public and professional pressure and protest can effect change - resisting FIFAs attempts to supress that protest must be ongoing and unrelenting.

As with any global sporting event however, the success and popularity of the event requires broad participation- therefore can not be seen as an overtly political organisation or it will limit participation - the UN Declaration of Human Rights which informs a Western dialogue of Human Rights needs to be seen for what it is, based on a culturally specific, judeo-christian approach to rights which are not fully shared by Arab and Muslin culture.

 

[Brovion]

everyone's overlooking the what FIFA is doing with arm bands is applying the laws of the game. they havent invented new ones for this cup. fairly certain the various associations knew what would happen, and played along to publicise the cause for as long as they could.

I don't think anybody posting on this thread is overlooking that, I think everyone accepts that them's the Rules. What we are saying is that in this instance the rules should be broken and we should take the punishment, same as we'd expect a nation wearing pro-racisim armbands to be punished.

 

[beorhthelm]

I don't think anybody posting on this thread is overlooking that, I think everyone accepts that them's the Rules. What we are saying is that in this instance the rules should be broken and we should take the punishment, same as we'd expect a nation wearing pro-racisim armbands to be punished.

they are when talking about FIFA strong arming nations for appling rules. even seen one comment suggest any sanction is a "reprisal", which is an odd term for a well established rule.

the irony is all these actions are doing is highlighting Qatar's intolerance. especially the hat thing, which made headline news.

 

[Brovion]

they are when talking about FIFA strong arming nations for appling rules. even seen one comment suggest any sanction is a "reprisal", which is an odd term for a well established rule.

the irony is all these actions are doing is highlighting Qatar's intolerance. especially the hat thing, which made headline news.

I can't remember the whole thread, but one comment does not equate to 'everybody'.

 

[GT49er]

I agree but you have to ask why those nations didn't do that. Contriving to isolate nations is one thing. Managing to do that is quite another.

That's what I said - FIFA, the slimey ****s, managed to do just that.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Good thought, but I guess they might need other countries to co-host.

Knowing FIFA, they are probably trying and bri, er, encourage, Aliens to get the thing played on Mars.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Its a terrible idea.

FIFA is exceptionally well-run in most regards and is absolutely brilliant in a lot of ways that will be very, very difficult to copy. Yes there is corruption and poor/silly decisions but I really don't think it is any more corrupt than any other £30bn+ market... quite the opposite. Football is surprisingly clean and fair, considering the money involved.

The right way to go is to make FIFA more transparent and democratic, imho.

Er...

 

[Baldrick]

If England players want to protest each player could dye their hair in a different colour from the rainbow and line up in the correct order

 

[nicko31]

a number of FAs just got scared about wearing an armband. You really think any would walk from FIFA. You’ve seen what happened with the ESL.

Be interesting to see how many FAs even publicly state they wont vote for Infantino for the next term.

Amazed how all the FA's capitulated at the first time of trouble. What were they going to do book the whole team and turn the whole tournament into a farce. Should have held their nerve, f**k em...

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'Leave FIFA' ?

What would you replace it with, perhaps an organisation where each individual country FA is a member and they collectively elect a governing body to manage world football, with the entire group of FA's coming together to vote on the most important issues?

If not, what did you have in mind exactly?

 

[GT49er]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'Leave FIFA' ?

What would you replace it with, perhaps an organisation where each individual country FA is a member and they collectively elect a governing body to manage world football, with the entire group of FA's coming together to vote on the most important issues?

Yes, one of those, but a different one.

 

[Boys 9d]

Isn't there a danger that a new organisation could split the football world in the same way professional Boxing did? How many World Champion Boxing titles are there at each weight?

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Yes, one of those, but a different one.

So all the countries of the world leave FIFA and set up a new organisation based on exactly the same structure? It makes little sense.

The house needs cleaning from the inside.

 

[GT49er]

So all the countries of the world leave FIFA and set up a new organisation based on exactly the same structure? It makes little sense.

The house needs cleaning from the inside.

No - it'd be a new house.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

a number of FAs just got scared about wearing an armband. You really think any would walk from FIFA. You’ve seen what happened with the ESL.

Be interesting to see how many FAs even publicly state they wont vote for Infantino for the next term.

The Armband thing was just lols in the end.

As are wales getting tough over LGBT flags getting removed from fans.

 

[rippleman]

Amazed how all the FA's capitulated at the first time of trouble. What were they going to do book the whole team and turn the whole tournament into a farce. Should have held their nerve, f**k em...

Yup. We know the FA are spineless and despite him giving it the "big billy" Kane is a coward who was never going to wear the One Love armband. A booking! FFS Kane you captain our country. Grow a pair and take the booking. Shameful. But I expected no better from him.

Respect to the German sponsors who have pulled their sponsorship of the German national team when it turned out their skipper had no balls either and caved in regarding the One Love armband. You would like to think that the sponsors of the England team would do likewise but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Zeberdi]

We know the FA are spineless and despite him giving it the "big billy" Kane is a coward who was never going to wear the One Love armband. A booking! FFS Kane you captain our country. Grow a pair and take the booking. Shameful. But I expected no better from him.

I agree but I wonder how much of the decision was about Kane having a choice or about Southgate insisting the whole team obeys FIFAs ruling whether individual players want to or not? Unless Southgate comes out and says he gave Kane the choice, i guess we wouldn’t know. Tactical yellow card fouls can be seen to work in the PL/FA but taking the hit for wearing an armband that has nothing to do with the match and to the extent it could result in a suspension for the next match has more implication in a WC competition than it would in a league match for obvious reasons.

 

[Swansman]

Yup. We know the FA are spineless and despite him giving it the "big billy" Kane is a coward who was never going to wear the One Love armband. A booking! FFS Kane you captain our country. Grow a pair and take the booking. Shameful. But I expected no better from him.

Respect to the German sponsors who have pulled their sponsorship of the German national team when it turned out their skipper had no balls either and caved in regarding the One Love armband. You would like to think that the sponsors of the England team would do likewise but I'm not holding my breath.

But then he might get sent off for one of his dives or neck-breaker antics. It isn't the Premier League.