The world cup in Brazil and the protest movement

So we are now into the 3rd week of the world cup 2014 in Brazil and so far its been a very entertaining exciting tournament going rather well from the football point of view unless you are a England fan of course but we wont go there . Lots was made of Brazil hosting this world cup and would it be ready or not in time. The stadium were all completed just in time and no big troubles in terms of the organisation appears to have arisen . But the protest movement which caught everyone by surprise last year in the confederations cup has not gone away. Maybe the big numbers are not there but certainly the anger and feeling about this not being a world cup for Brazil more for FIFA the world governing body of international football. Writing for the BBC Tim Vickery who is the BBC's fantastic South American football expert detailed how much tension there was over the hosting of this world cup in Brazil and notably the cost involved which the public would take the majority of the burden. Tim wrote "In 2008 a poll by the Datafolha Agency in the widely respected Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper showed 79% support for the World Cup in Brazil. By April of this year another poll by the same agency showed this had fallen to 48%. Many people are more reluctant to associate themselves with a competition that has become a public relations disaster. The anti-World Cup protests will not go away because there is plenty to protest about. There is the poor organisation - starting with the absurd delay in naming the host cities and the insistence on 12 when Fifa would have been happy with eight, while for years there was no government representation on the local organising committee - a bizarre flaw in a tournament that has implications for public spending. And many people believe that officials have taken the support of the people for granted and made empty promises. Hosting the competition has cost the country more than it should, and in return is giving back less than it should. The cost of the stadiums is now in the region of £2.4bn, three times more than the figure quoted in 2007. Four of the stadiums - in Manaus, Cuiaiba, Brasilia and Natal - would seem to have little prospect of long-term viability, meaning that there was no chance of private funding being attracted to build them. There were widespread protests in Brazil during the Confederations Cup Support of the population was cynically taken for granted, with empty promises that all of the money spent on stadiums would be from private sources. Luis Fernandes, the Ministry of Sports representative who was very belatedly brought on to the local organising committee, has been big enough to recognise that "this speech never corresponded to reality". The lack of debate in Brazilian society about the competition and its objectives has returned to bite the authorities where it hurts. Certainly, the authorities got a massive shock last year during the Confederations Cup when Brazilians took to the streets in huge numbers to show their displeasure at the amount of public spending on a football tournament. No-one saw it coming, but the protest movement is a reality that now has to be dealt with - especially as this is election year in Brazil, and some will be looking to turn dissatisfaction with the World Cup into votes. The great hope of the authorities is that the power of the event will work its magic. This is not just a forlorn desire. The atmosphere in the country through June and July is sure to be very special; over half a million visitors from all over the planet will be traipsing across the country, giving Brazil an unusual cosmopolitan air, and with over 60% of the tickets being snapped up by Brazilians, there is clearly considerable local enthusiasm for the event also, however well hidden. " So far we have seen some protests and i can see them picking up if Brazil happen to go out of the world cup early on or if there is heavy policing of the protests which have largely been peaceful up till now. Whatever happens in the rest of the tournament the feeling of injustice of a world cup and its cost being forced on the Brazilian people is not going away anytime soon. with thanks to Tim Vickery south american football expert of the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27476602

The power and corruption in the beautiful game today

So as we sit and wait to see if the FIFA presidency elections will happen or not with just one candidate standing. The current president Sepp Blatter we are left wondering what has happened to our beautiful game many of us lovea round the world today.

The main reason for its corruption and downfall i place firmly at the feet of big rich greedy businessman. The game is not run by real football people or fans anymore, instead rich hungry and greedy business people.

The fact that rich billionaires like Roman Abramovich at Chelsea can play with a football club like chelsea and pull his money out whenever he likes is a fine example of how unstable and badly run football is in this country.

I follow my local side Stevenage FC who have just gained promotion to League 1 in England. We dont spend much and gate prices are very reasonable to be honest. But for premiership fans paying £40 + a game is all too much for many working class fans.

The fact that football is prodomenatly a working class game for the workers to enjoy at the weekends has faded considerably. The game is now far too expensive for workers to enjoy going to games with their mates at weekends.

Our solution as socialists would be to introduce workers run football clubs. Alittle like AFC Wimbledon where there is no big businessman running them rather the fans all own a part of the club and help fund this.

I do think fan ownership is the way to go with football clubs with many clubs facing tough times and this would prevent many going to the wall.

The fact that football clubs can get away with big debts and just reforming under new owners is wrong. They if they want to run like a business should be treated like one not given special treatment. All this would not have to happen if workers and fans ran the clubs in a democratic fashion making no profit from the ownership only reinvesting in the everyday running of the clubs.

This way all fans who wished to attend games could do without being priced out of attending. The prices would be fixed at a affordable rate for all fans and workers to enjoy their own beautiful game.

As far as FIFA goes i see little hope for them. Unless it is inspected and a proper inquirey is held ridding it of its corrupt nature i cannot see the organisation changing anytime soon.

Again with FIFA if it was brought under international fan ownership and run for the benifit of the fans and workers in a turely democratic fashion i am sure much of the corruption could be rooted out with a transparent looking at the books and how money changes hands.

Is football not living in the real world ?

Taking this blog on a different direction now. As some of you may or may not know i'm a big football fan but i think this recent story of Darren Bent a average premiership striker at best is set to move to Aston villa from Sunderland for 18 million pounds.

Outrageous sums of money this is. When will football join the real world while people aer struggling to get by with paying their bills these super rich sports stars are getting paid silly amounts of money.

Take Manchester City for e xample Carlos tevez gets paid roughly 200,000 pounds a week and if any new player joins the club on a higher salary his wages will match that. I just think it sets a really bad example to the rest of the country in times of hardship.

I know alot of this money coming into the game has been though various sources like Sky Television money and selling the rights to show live games around the planet. But also foreign ownership with rich benifactors buying up english clubs pumping huge sums of money into the top teams. That money rarely trickles down to the lower league teams forcing many to go out of business.

Football is a cruel game which must look at its actions if it wants to continue to be a well respected sport on the national and world stage. As was shown with FIFA over their decision for the world cup in 2018 and 2022 there is a hell of a lot of corruptin involved in the game still.

Speaking of corruption it hasnt erally been touched on but is sure to attract attention from groups like UKuncut in next few months and years is the fact alot of rich footballers avoid paying large sums of their tax. Wayne Rooney, one of Englands best players and best paid players earns an estimated 250 thousand pounds but dodges paying tax on a large amount of that. What UKuncut ask is that money better spent on the NHS rather than being in your back pocket.

more and more questions will be asked like this if fotball continues to live in this rich fantasy world turning into a game no longer for the working class who already find it hard to afford to attend games turning into a game and a play thing for the very rich.

The corruption of FIFA

So as we have just learned that fifa have gone with russia and qatar for the 2018 and 2022 world cups. I just think these decisions alone demand a investigation as to the corruption of FIFA.

I personally feel it is a disgrace clearly the people who get to vote on these things can be influenced so much.
We must set up a big campaign to rid fifia of its corruption. FOr the good of the game.
The bbc panarama documentary really did highlight the corruption involved in fifa. Still so many questions to be answered out there. The debate still rolls on whether the documentary helped or hindered our bid. i rather think it didnt as the timing of the show really made us out to be trouble makers. Even if true the timing wasnt great when we were trying to bid for the thing. Maybe we should have waited till after ?

Just disapointed we didnt get it as it would have brought lots of money and revenue into the country which we could have needed.