Events over the last seven days encapsulate in microcosm the rampant corruption and associated loss of any vestige of integrity in the professional football world. Throughout this week, virtually all of the major areas of concern within the game have enjoyed their window in the public spotlight. From oligarchs to the Thai elections, from Quest and the bungs inquiry to heavily corrupted global spectacular matches, the state of the game has been laid bare for all to see.
Very few matches in the highly corrupted Euro 2008 Group E have been legitimate events. We brought this to the attention of readers last season and the situation has deteriorated in the intervening period to the extent that the global audience was treated to two matches (Russia/England and Israel/Russia) that were heavily externalised matches. The outcomes of both these matches were determined by illicit money and, as in the norm on such occasions, the visuals patently demonstrated the underworld dynamics.
But, hidden behind the media glare of the problematic nature of English qualification, there have been other machinations indicative of the state of the game.
We have posted on numerous previous occasions that the Quest Inquiry into bungs in football was a whitewash. From the perspective of the regulatory power bodies overseeing English football, the whole charade has been a nightmare. Conflicting rules and regulations have been revealed; the selective imposition of punishment has been exposed as a standard practice; the iceberg of footballing corruption has been lifted out of the water to a degree. It was evident months ago that there was no feasible and logical route for the FA and the Premier League to take that might validate their status as suitable guardians of the English game and so they resorted to spin, half-truths, rumour and intrigue. The final piece of this spectacular spun reality occurred at the end of last week when it was quietly announced that a few agents associated with Mike Newell and Luton Town FC had forgotten to sign a piece of paper and that, apart from this, everything was fine and dandy in Scudamore's and Barwick's worlds.
New Labour have perfected the art of burying away bad news and the FA's Blairite contortions were chosen for public release on the day prior to the critical Euro 2008Qualifiers and on the morning of England's game in Vienna. Only xmas day would have been more opaque...
And what is the result of PC Plod's sortie through the grey underground world of football? The corruption still exists in suspended animation which undermines any suspension in our disbelief at the attempts to clean up the game.
Since Mike Newell first went public and the BBC Panorama programme exposed certain operators within the game, there has been a momentum to peripheralise any real impact of the inquiry. The outcomes to date are:
i) Mike Newell was sacked as Luton Town manager as we predicted.
ii) Luton Town were relegated (as we also predicted).
iii) The Quest inquiry is now targeting six agents involved with transfers to and from Luton.
Allardyce, Bond, Arneson, Redknapp, Souness, Zahavi, McKay, Silkman etc do not appear to have had their strategies markedly disrupted by the inquiry. The excitement created by the City of London police raids at Newcastle, Portsmouth and Glasgow Rangers together with the arrest of a still-unnamed 61 year old (he may even be 62 by now) for money laundering have been carefully secreted in the unsolved cases file. None of the threats of legal action from any of those individuals originally fingered by BBC have come to fruition. But, apparently, we are expected to believe that all is well with the game because anybody related to Luton is getting hammered. Without going in to fulsome details - see David Conn's excellent post in today's Guardian for that (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/11/21/the_book_thrown_at_luton_stops.html) - the agents did absolutely nothing wrong. It was the rules of the English game that were swiss-cheesed with loopholes and inconsistencies. In effect, the Luton Six are being punished for failing to sign a document which, had they signed, would have been in breach of FA rules. Catch 22 or what...?
Then again, these are from the same rulebook which determines that the transfer of Carlos Tevez to West Ham United was a third party arrangement whereas the identical transfer to Manchester United was fair dinkum. Just how blind?
The degree of illegality with regard to Luton and the agents, if indeed anything outrightly illegal has occurred, is totally insignificant compared with the massive corruptions in the game by the Premier League, the FA, bookmakers and individual players and managers. By spinning their reality that punishing some small-town southern non-entity club proves that the game is being properly policed, the authorities make the error of mistaking fans for fools.
Over half the teams in the English Premiership are now under the full or partial yoke of the hyper-owners and the international break has presented us with some revealing insights into the worlds of the oligarchs and the offshore-financial-heads. Previously we have attempted to puncture the bubble of short-term optimism of the fans at the clubs targeted by exposing the lack of robustness of the longer term strategy of the hyper-owners from a financial perspective. Put simply, things will improve for a while but then the words "shit" and "fan" will come into close configuration. Lets check a few of the destabilisation scenarios.
* The billionaire barber buying Birmingham has blown it with Bruce who has finally tired of the distrustful business practices of the Macau casino owner. Bruce has gone to Wigan and Birmingham are rudderless. If the sale isn't completed by December 23rd then Sullivan is throwing his toys out of the pram and Birmingham will be left with half a season to rebuild a club culture.
* Newcastle are imploding. There are internalised cliques within the hierarchy and the owner's finances remain stretched making Mike Ashley a not-so-hyper-owner after all. In fact, the only thing going right at Newcastle is that the club are being paid oodles of cash by the FA, FIFA and any other regulatory authority that might be culpable for Michael Owen's hypochondriachal pseudo-injuries.
* Shinawatra continues to utilise Manchester City as an electionioneering vehicle for the forthcoming Thai elections. The signing of three Thai players at a glitzy Bangkok launch, by pure fluke, was coincident with the final day of candidate registration for the December election in Thailand. During his video address, the Crooked One stated without any hint of irony: "The new government must govern for the many, not just for the few". For the man that looted his country's treasury while he was in charge, this is a bit rich in the doublespeak department. Indeed, the Thai authorities have responded by seizing the assets of Shinawatra's children (who are also Man City board members). The $355 million in fines and taxes should affect Eriksson's January transfer window budget! The authorities are targeting Shinawatra's children after they acquired shares in Shin Corp at just 1 baht apiece through an offshore company established by their father. These self same shares were later sold to Singapore's Temasek at 49 baht in an outrageous piece of corruption. The tax-free Shin sale enraged Thailand's urban middle-class voters who staged Bangkok street demonstrations leading to the overthrow of Shinawatra. Only the most myopic of Man City fan will be unable to see where all this is leading for their currently overperforming team. Shinawatra also chose the international break to announce himself as the saviour of the young who are addicted to drugs. Having directly been responsible for 2500 deaths of supposed drug dealers in a shoot-to-kill policy while Thai Premier, the Gooch gang in Moss Side should be on their guard.
* Also in the international window, Usmanov attempted a PR exercise of his own through a revealing series of emails between his good self and The Guardian. The interaction was revealing because of Usmanov's responses to the libel and slander potentially contained in various blog and media allegations. People falling from windows to their death, a heroin dealing business acquaintance, mafia links, a rape conviction, baby boiling accomplices would normally be sufficient for one to use the justice system to clear one's name. But not for Mr Usmanov. Typical of all individuals who would prefer to keep their dodgy business and life practices private, Usmanov hides behind the excuse that he would willingly have his day in court if only he could find the time. Considering the financial rewards of a successful prosecution, we can only assume that the big boy is guilty as charged. The utilisation of the law (or not) is often an indicator of truths (think Allardyce and his threats over the BBC Panorama programme, for instance).
Which brings us back to tonight's national celebration of all things English at the food mall that is the New Wembley stadium.
There are a multitude of things worthy of celebration. A corrupt and tainted semi-triumph for the English football team is not one of them.
Always assuming that Roman doesn't have any say in the matter and the English don't self-destruct trying to achieve the draw the bookmakers are craving, that is...
© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological
