Natural fake, Sepp Blatter, runs a highly dysfunctional FIFA hierarchy where, as we have previously posted, corruption is a core competency in the inner circles of power. If an organisation is going to provide control for the likes of Blatter, Jack Warner and Franz Beckenbauer then one may guarantee that the lack of professional oversight extends down to the foundations of the body.
FIFA demonstrates incompetence at all strata but they are particularly inept (as are UEFA, by the way) when the recipe involves sport and politics. Remember Uzbekistan being denied a rightful place at the last World Cup so that Warner's Trinidad and Tobago may provide a little earner for the Warner clan's travel firm while the players still await payment. Allowing Israel and Kazakhstan to play in Europe, making Australia Asian (which must delight Pauline Hanson's xenophobes), UEFA's decision to put Azerbaijan and Armenia in the same Euro 2008 Qualifying Group resulting in the cancellation of both head-to-heads, forcing Greece and Turkey to play competitively four times in three years which, unsurprisingly, has produced riots and security nightmares in an already tense relationship. There are many more examples. Whenever the football governing bodies approach the political/ nationalistic arena, their (sometimes) well-intentioned agendas are, at best, an irritation and, at worst, inflammatory.
And, if this week's edict from on high is to be taken seriously, we have an example of the latter on our hands here. A FIFA leak has forewarned the planet that: "Footballers from Northern Ireland do not have the right to play for the Republic of Ireland, despite the Good Friday Agreement". Leaving aside the idiocy of FIFA putting its big jackboot into this sensitive region at this critical period in the attempt to build an edifice of trust on the island, what the fuck are they on about anyway? Imagine if Palestine were unable to field players born in Israel when it is one and the same place anyway!
Rules are for fools and, by a happy coincidence, are also made to be broken. Some rules that is... Football and sporting organisations in general spend copious amounts of time, money and effort in developing the rulebook. To put the situation simply, these rules often fail to dovetail with both national and EU laws. Consequently, football decides unilaterally, in many cases, which occasions football's rules gain pre-eminence and which occasions that football bows to global political realities. The Bosman ruling was an example of the latter and the current leak would be typical of the former.
In an attempt to address these issues succinctly, we'll take them in turn. Lets firstly look at football. Now haven't we got an amateur hierarchy to achieve underperformance without FIFA's external influences? - Eire are self-harming enough without further handicaps being placed on their progress. And, Good Friday Agreement or not, the selection of players on the island has always been a two-way process. Numerous catholics have played for the North and some, like Neil Lennon, have suffered for doing so while Jack Charlton's successful Eire team was a 50-50 split between the two religious backgrounds. Usually in law, there is precedence to guide the lawmakers but football, under the tutelage of FIFA, is arbitrary in its rulings to an extent where logic packed up its bags and went home ages ago. There is scarcely a second or third tier national team worldwide that doesn't possess some Brazilinho purporting to actually be a Muhammad or whatever. And there are numerous parallel examples - Klose and Podolski were both born in Poland but play for Germany; the French national team pillages former African colonies for players; the number of Argentinians to have discovered Italian grandparents continues unabated; England's squad is currently over 50% of Jamaican and/or Irish descent and looking slightly further back, John Barnes wasn't born in Surrey's version of Kingston. The recent spat between Ferguson and Wenger merely emphasises the spectrum of opinion. Ferguson wants restrictions, quotas, protectionism in the name of little-islander mentality whereas Wenger believes in meritocracy and freedom of movement. Wider society should take note of the benefits of Wenger's more enlightened "open source" approach to business.
The messy history of the thirty two counties inevitably has produced some warped realities on the ground - Derry City's participation in the Irish Premier League being only the most glaring example of political expedience. And Derry City are key to this issue. What is Derry if it is not an enclave within the six counties? Essentially, we are dealing with the politics of occupied territories here and it is not an area where FIFA should tread. Nationalism is an anachronism. Football should be moving beyond such petty nonsense and focus instead on the corruption, illegal gambling, player trafficking and drug abuse that defines the sport. A simple solution to the Irish impasse would be to allow players to select which of the two countries to represent or, preferably, go the whole hog, in a rugby union stylee, and create a united team. This would provide the "country" with more clout within both FIFA and UEFA which will improve qualification chances and provide a positive role model to the troubled territories of the North overall. With the correct political will, humans are quite able to solve community issues without destabilisation from afar. Focus should be given to the social improvements created by the Setanta Cup which features teams from both sides of the border rather than rooting out divisive constructs. A final point to be made with regard to the footballing aspect of this issue is that the non-appliance of internal rulings is the norm rather than the exception when it comes to the great game. Think bungs, third party arrangements, players and officials having links to betting organisations and institutionalised corruption. A particularly silly loophole popped up just this last week. No player is allowed to play for two Champions League sides in the same season. Fair dinkum, it stops glory hunters. Why does the same ruling not apply to managers as Koeman's move from PSV to Valencia has spotlighted? Yet more arbitrariness...
The recent history of sport is littered with thousands of such examples of the re-nationalisation of individuals to the benefit of the major global sporting powers. East African runners, East European weightlifters and South Asian cricketers utilise this wormhole of meritocratic recognition to achieve their sporting aims albeit for the benefit of Team USA or Team GB rather than the island of Jamaica or wherever. It is time for sport to be separated from nationalism and regionalism and placed firmly into the sector in which it most belongs - entertainment. Drugged up and naturalised sportspeople are not indicative of the primacy of their adopted nation. It is a peculiar irony that results in xenophobes supporting the very individuals who are the targets of their racism so long as it is for the greater glory (sic) of the homeland.
Politically, Blair's legacy has been a carve-up to the benefit of the mafiosi of both sides at Stormont - where are John Hume and David Trimble now? This is volatile to say the least. Football on the island of Ireland is in a position to lead society and, hopefully, politicians to a more inclusive future. Much was made recently of the absence of many Black players from the winning South African World Cup winning rugby union team. And, yet, this perceived racism is not what I saw in those winning celebrations. Team South Africa were a multiracial outfit if you looked at the squad and support staff overall. Neither the gusto with which the white players sang "Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika" (originally, an ANC act of defiance to apartheid, after all) nor the genuine warmth and affection between the team members and South African President Thabo Mbeki were suggestive of anything other than a microcosm of racial harmony creating global success. This is not to suggest that South Africa is a united land where inequalities based on race matter no more. But it is a prime example of the benefits of the truth and reconciliation and trust and diplomacy and dialogue approach undertaken post-apartheid that a team is able to rise above societal division to win together as a group of people.
Ireland should take note. We can all harp back to our clannish singing and culture but it is one island and everybody has to get along together. Or, of course, staying stuck in the middle ages of social living is another option.
Finally and far more importantly, there can only be two candidates to replace the hapless Steve Staunton as manager of Eire. Either drag Big Jack out of whichever river (or pub) he is immersing himself in or give the job to Shane MacGowan. To be sure, Eire would not qualify for anything but what's new? And at least it would be a laugh...
NB. Since writing this post, FIFA has announced a review of the FAI/IAF decision and, hopefully, a compromise may be diplomatically achieved.
© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological
