FIFA needs to change a few things

Tony Becca, Contributor

FIFA president Sepp Blatter is famous for saying that football is one big, happy family, and probably, up to the votes for the next two hosts of the World Cup, he was right.

Since then, however, he cannot be right. FIFA seems split, with talk of bribes and other underhand activities - such as elaborate gifts to wives - accompanying the votes for the host cities of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals.

Russia won the right to host the 2018 World Cup, Qatar won it for the 2022 event, and although the Spain-Portugal and Netherlands-Belgium combinations, South Korea, Japan, and the United States also lost, England and Australia are hurting the most.

England are hurting because, so it is said, they had everything to win the bid, and they put forward the best bid; and Australia are hurting simply because they believe that Qatar did not measure up.

On top of all that, they were embarrassed, or in Franz Beckenbauer's own words, "they were left in disgrace".

England were knocked out in the first round after receiving only two votes, Australia lost after receiving one vote, and this after many countries promised to vote for them.

"They looked us in the eye and promised their votes," said one Englishman, "and then they did what they did."

It was so bad that Beckenbauer, the German who was once a World Footballer of the Year and once a World Manager of the Year, who is a member of FIFA's executive committee, and therefore a member of the 22-man voting committee, said: "I now have less confidence in FIFA."

Disappointed

Beckenbauer went on to say that he was disappointed with how FIFA handled things after the vote.

"The executive were told that neither us nor the public would know the exact number of votes. We were told after each round only which countries were left, and then I heard a couple of hours later on radio which countries received which share of the votes."

No ones knows, or is talking, about whether there were bribes or not, but one man, Peter Hargitay, a Hungarian who was Blatter's adviser in 2002 and the adviser to Australia's bid team, did say afterwards that "the fact that we did not win is probably because of that - not giving bribes".

Blatter has defended FIFA's decision on both counts, citing the need of FIFA to spread its wings and open new frontiers for football.

With some people accusing FIFA of going for money in deciding on bids, Blatter also said that was not true, that money played no part in the bid issue.

Some will believe Blatter and some will not, but the fact that some will not means that FIFA has to change the way it operates.

Although FIFA has said, time and time again, that politics and football should not mix, that politics should stay out of football, Blatter has said that he is courted by kings and prime ministers when it comes to determining host countries, and if he is right, something is wrong.

Blatter should not entertain those politicians, and something as important as that should not be decided by 22 men sitting in a room somewhere.

To host the football World Cup means a whole lot to those bidding to do so, and something as important as that breeds corruption, especially when decided by so few people.

One more thing: regardless of what FIFA says about the secrecy of the vote, it seems obvious, based on Blatter's talk of the need for new frontiers in football, that FIFA's views on the applicants are known by the decision makers beforehand.

No chance of winning bid

If the bid process was fair and above board, England and Australia would not have gone out in the first round, and they would not have got two votes and one vote, respectively.

They would have known before, long before, that they had no chance of winning, that their chance to win was as little as that of a snowball in hell.

And that brings us to one important point. To put together a bid costs millions of dollars, and win or lose, there is no refund.

The questions, therefore, are these: if FIFA knows what it wants, why does it encourage countries to spend all that time and all that money in putting together a bid, and if they know where they would like to go, why not simply ask that country to host it, or limit the bid to those of their choice?

If the country that puts forward the best bid in terms of football - stadiums, fans, climate, treatment of foreign fans, etc, loses the bid, and the country that puts forward the worse bid and only promises to do things, many of which need to be done, gets the bid, then the bidding process is a waste of time and money.

England, Spain-Portugal, and Netherlands- Belgium, Australia, South Korea, Japan, and the US lost millions of dollars in bidding for the World Cup this time around, and maybe the way to do it next time, for World Cup 2026, although it would be a bit difficult to control, would be to ask every member country to vote.

If fair play is FIFA's goal on and off the pitch, that seems the only way, or the best way, forward for an event that this year handed FIFA approximately $3.5 billion.

Right now, people in football, particularly those in England and in Australia, have little or no confidence in FIFA, in Blatter, or in those 22 men.

FIFA certainly is not one big, happy family now.