Chopping down the forest: football’s ludicrous and awful situation

PART TWO:  Chopping down the Forest

Don McMahon

Following on my recent article about the horrible situation world Football finds itself in currently when faced with racism, corruption, match-fixing etc….I decided to try and answer the questions I  posed in the article here.

Keep in mind that I do not have any more access to the truth than the next guy but I do have a good idea about how Football is managed and directed by the powers that be, after years of experience at the professional level ( as a referee) and my psychological training.

1) Why aren’t FIFA and UEFA taking the lead in promoting and encouraging their own investigations and enquiries instead of being made to look like clue less fools to the world Football community?

* FIFA and EUFA, are by their very nature, reactive organizations….they don’t try and anticipate issues, they cause them.

* FIFA and EUFA are part of the problem, not the solution. There is firm and ample evidence that both organisations are corrupt and that their leadership is idiotic, ineffective and duplicitous.

* It isn’t in the nature of bureaucratic organisations like FIFA and EUFA to take the lead in anything, if there isn’t a profit to be made for the organization AND themselves,personally.

* Such organisations seek to hide from bad PR and deny threats that everyone else acknowledges as being serious and ever-present.  They aren’t actually clueless, but they are cowards and stuffed suits who prefer anonymity over leadership.

2) What are the FA and its minions, stuffed suits and vested interests trying to hide and why?

* Maybe they aren’t trying to hide anything, and in all fairness we have to assume innocence before guilt BUT the entire structure and philosophy of the FA is to keep their dirty linen in-house and free from prying eyes, like the Football supporters and investigative authorities.

* The FA is almost a law unto itself and the government, in its sacred mission to ignore issues until they become an embarrassment and a threat to its re-election, are complicity with the FA in this mismanagement and secrecy.

* The majority of these men and women have been out of football for so long that they have become token administrators and Lord Scudmore is a case in point. Nepotism is rampant and sycophants infest the FA, which is now a hollow straw man.

* The lamentations that British Football is ¨pure¨ and unsullied sound not only spurious but contrived. When Wenger says that British Football is corruption-free, I tend to believe him more than anyone else.

3) Why is the FA not interested in controlling the agents’ unbridled greed and unregulated behaviours?

*This one almost answers itself. Where there are vested self-interests involved, the powers that be will ensure that legality and respect for the law are distant goals as long as their is a profit to be made.

* The FA clearly fears tipping over the apple cart and upsetting the big money Clubs who prefer the status quo, which they have succeeded in implanting in Britain over the last decade. Their motto is:  if its broken don’t fix it, just oil the machine so nobody will notice the noise.

* Their myopic view of football won’t allow them, to take responsibility or leadership for the current agents’ excesses, and they’d rather leave it to the EU and their big brother FIFA/EUFA to handle this issue. they are not masters in their own house.

4) Is there a provable, concerted and orchestrated attempt by the media, Mr. Usmanov, the invisible AAA, and even the football hierarchy (including the PGMOL) to vilify, demean, discredit and dismiss Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal’s credibility, reputation and philosophy, thereby rendering a great Football force for good, ineffective?

* We do know that Mr Wenger’s vision for football has been consistently and almost perpetually mocked by the media and some of the EPL owners and managers as well. This, despite EUFA saying that the Arsenal are a model for financial sanity and stability. In other words, the damned foreigner can’t be seen to be right, this is OUR game after all!

* Wenger has been treated badly on occasions by the game officials and his players subjected to rotational fouling, career-threatening viciousness on the field. Neutral sources have repeatedly stated that had AFC received fair treatment by the officials since 2005, they could have won the league at least once.

* There is of course no evidence that Mr Usmanov is orchestrating a campaign to destroy Mr Wenger or AFC.  So it is particularly sad that his comments do seem to pop up by sheer coincidence when the AAA whining and vitriol have reached a crescendo.

* There is evidence to suggest that other Clubs have faced a diminished version of this media inspired denigration but that is for a future article to dissect.

5) Finally, what role do British Football authorities play in this situation and is this a sign that corruption has indeed penetrated pure Albion’s sacred shores?

* While there is, so far, no firm proof that corruption has penetrated our British game, the Rangers’ debacle and the number of clubs going into receivership indicate that a malaise IS hurting British Football.

* In a time when we seek leadership and proactive courage from our FA, we are provided with denial, duplicity and  dismissive indifference at best and at worst, arrogance, myopic and idiotic misdirection and empty rhetoric.

* There can be no doubt that the same forces that have succeeded in corrupting other Football Associations and leagues will at some time encroach on the British Football scene, if they already haven’t done so.

The proof will be in the pudding and if the FA and the government don’t cooperate and collaborate fully and enthusiastically with Europol and other investigative bodies, then there is something definitely rotten in Britain.

Don McMahon

• Who is going to sue Uefa first?
• EC demands reform of the transfer system. The pressure is mounting.
• Gambling, ref fixing, money laundering, homophobia… all part of the rich mix of English football.
• The politics of refereeing; it is not just what you know, it is who you know
• A fair and balanced competition. The EU is about to act.

The books…

• Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
• Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
• The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches

The sites…

• Referee Decisions - just what are the refs up to this season?
• Parent News - what is going on in schools these days?
• The weight loss programme: The only guaranteed way to stay fit
• The Arsenal History Blog from the AISA Arsenal History Society