By Peter Alegi | March 23rd, 2011 | 4 Comments
Saud Abdul Ghani, head of the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of Qatar, recently unveiled a special plan for the 2022 World Cup: remote-controlled artificial clouds over the stadiums!
Powered by four solar engines, the man-made clouds would be made of ultra light carbon fiber in an attempt to bring some relief to fans in the stands and players on the field from temperatures expected to reach 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 Celsius) during the Qatari summer. The cost of this Addams family trick? $500,000.
By Peter Alegi | January 11th, 2011 | 3 Comments
Mzansi Football and Kickoff.com report that the captains and coaches of South Africa’s men’s and women’s national teams failed to cast their vote for FIFA’s Golden Ball as the World’s Player of the Year awards are now known. According to the governing body, the 2010 World Cup hosts were one of just a handful of countries (out of 208) that did not vote. The awards went to Lionel Messi for the second year in a row and Marta for the fifth (?!) year in a row.
“It is the latest botch up by SAFA since the World Cup and makes a mockery of claims the association’s new leadership would bring a new efficiency to the running of the game,” writes kickoff.com. “They failed to enter the country’s teams in the All-Africa Games qualifiers and had to scramble to the Confederation of African Football in Cairo to get a backdoor entry when Namibia withdrew.” Read the full, thoroughly embarrassing details here.
By Peter Alegi | January 3rd, 2011 | 2 Comments
Happy New Year to all!
Back after a month-long break, we are pleased to report that our very own Sean Jacobs made it into the opinion pages of The New York Times yesterday (Sunday, 2 January 2011) as part of the ‘Around the World in 12 Months’ feature. (Some of you may recognize some of the ideas from Sean’s ‘Africa is a Country’ blog). My favorite part is his daughter’s memory of the 2010 World Cup. Click here to read Sean’s entry about the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
By Peter Alegi | December 4th, 2010 | 2 Comments
Insightful piece in TIME magazine on FIFA’s decision to stage the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments in Russia and Qatar is well worth reading:
“What the World Cup Choices Tell Us About the World” by Ishaan Tharoor and Tony Karon.
By Peter Alegi | December 1st, 2010 | 5 Comments
In a few hours WikiLeaks will release thousands of secret FIFA documents detailing World Cup match fixing and widespread corruption within football’s governing body.
Never before have such confidential documents been released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into FIFA’s activities on the shores of Lake Zurich.
The documents, which date from 1998 to 2010, contain 15,652 confidential communications between FIFA executive committee members in Zurich and corporate sponsors, media networks, and other football officials throughout the world.
But seriously, on Thursday, December 2, FIFA’s ethically challenged executive committee will award the hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup. The stench emanating from the bidding “process” has been overpowering to the point that we — the citizens of FootballWorld — would benefit greatly from the assistance of Julian Assange and the people behind WikiLeaks.
As the work of Andrew Jennings showed, revelations of overt facts can damage the image, if not the profits, of FIFA and its corporate allies. Such information would give a vital boost to good governance in the game and instill hope for a healthy football community.
Tags: FIFA
Filed under: Video
By Peter Alegi | October 21st, 2010 | 4 Comments
http://bit.ly/dtwp1b
Stung by the revelations of the Sunday Times, FIFA moved into damage control mode on Wednesday. The world body provisionally suspended executive committee members Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Reynald Temarii from Tahiti and four other officials as it investigates the World Cup vote-selling scandal.
A second official from Tahiti, Ahongalu Fusimalohi, is among the four former executive committee members also targeted by the probe. The other men, regrettably, are all Africans: Slim Aloulou (Tunisia), Amadou Diakite (Mali), and Ismael Bhamjee (Botswana). A reminder of how poor governance continues to hinder the progress of African football. And at a time of catastrophic corporate scandals on a planetary scale, this latest mess in Zurich demonstrates again how global sport, business, and politics are inextricably linked.
FIFA’s ethics panel (sic!) is moving quickly with the investigation to limit the negative publicity and to ensure that selection of the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 tournaments goes ahead as planned on December 2.
Read full article here.
By Peter Alegi | October 17th, 2010 | 4 Comments
Over the years, FIFA’s multibillion dollar revenues have had virtually no impact on grassroots football in Africa, Asia, Central and South America. One of the main reasons is that football development programs are often little more than a cover for corruption and bribery. As muckraker Andrew Jennings demonstrated in his book Foul! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-rigging and Ticket Scandals, FIFA vice-president Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago mastered the art of pocketing millions in just this way. The GOAL program in Africa has had similar outcomes.
Now investigative reporting by the Sunday Times of London gives us video recordings of two FIFA executive committee members — Reynald Temarii (Tahiti), president of the Oceania Football Confederation, and Amos Adamu from Nigeria — demanding bribes from two reporters posing as American businessmen in exchange for votes in support of the US bid to host the 2018 World Cup. (The US has since withdrawn its 2018 bid to focus on 2022.)
Temarii allegedly asked for £1.3 million and Adamu £500,000 with half to be paid upfront for a ‘personal project’. (Read article here.)
How did The Times reporters know how to ‘work’ the system? FIFA insiders like Amadou Diakite (Mali) of the referees’ committee told them to offer bribes of around $1 million. Diakite also suggested ‘Leaving the member to decide what he is going to do with the amount is the safest way to get his vote’.
FIFA stated it will study the allegation. We’ll be holding our breath.
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