I need to just get back into the habit of writing every day but what’s funny about that is that I tried to schedule my day with all of the things I love to do and I found that there’s literally not enough time. Between being a dad, twitter*, social media, writing, baking, Arsenal, playing bass, walking the dog, exercise, birding, and reading plus work I can’t schedule everything.
The biggest part of the problem is that, for example, writing takes up a small segment, but research takes up hours and hours. For example, I got incensed when I heard that Tierney needed a 2-week quarantine after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID during the internationalism break. Of all the times in the world why are we playing international friendlies now? The answer of course, is money.
FIFA and UEFA have already been paid for their extremely lucrative broadcast and licensing rights, so the games absolutely must go on, players be damned. Doesn’t matter if we can’t get into the stadiums. Doesn’t matter if some of them get sick and miss out on a month of football. They have already set their budget for the next three years.
Oh trust me, they met, in a smoky room, and talked about what they could do about COVID. This is a “non-profit” which has 2.74 billion dollars in cash reserves, with projected revenue of $6.4bn between 2019 and 2021, and with $6.3bn in promised expenses over that period. You read that right, they are projecting a $100m profit. And they decided in that meeting not to change much.
They are doing a few things. I think the FAI received a million dollars amid what looks like a small attempt by FIFA to say that they are going to help out organizations and clubs during the COVID outbreak with their “global financial relief plan”. But all this does is release money that was already earmarked for each of the 211 organizations.
Yet another odd fact that I found out in this black hole of research is that each of the 211 member organizations receives the exact same base allocation. They have a nice little graphic for this programme which they call the “FIFA Forward Impact Map”. Using this, you can pan around the globe, touch down on one of the 211 organizations and see how much money they have been awarded and get a sense of where the money is going. Now, these figures are for the period of 2016-2022, so you have to put that in context.
- USA (pop 329m) $9.75m available
- Bermuda (pop 63k) $10.85m available
- Cook Islands (pop 18.6k) $11.3m available
- Montserrat (pop 5,188 total people) $10.9m available
The list goes on. Quite interesting that so many little island nations each have an association and each have about $875k per year allocated just to operating costs for their FA.
Montserrat has already spent $6.4m of the 2016-2022 allocated budget and doesn’t even have a web site (they use Facebook) but they did build a $2.5m technical center for their 5,188 people to use.
This program is listed in the FIFA revised budget docs as the FIFA Forward programme and it is the main method by which they fund grassroots football. And whenever I or anyone else questions FIFA and their money-spinning tournaments the answer is that we all suffer these things because FIFA funds grassroots football.
There is no question that FIFA does put a lot of money into the development of football around the globe. In the revised budget they will spend $1.7bn on the FIFA Forward programme and another $618m on additional development programs. They have also committed to spending $500m on women’s football (from the cash reserves) which is pretty incredible if they actually do pony up that money. Regardless, 37% of their ongoing budget goes to development and while this is a system ripe for exploitation and graft (with a sordid history of both things), there’s also a hugely important goal of equity and access here.
As I swiped around the globe looking at the Cook Islands and Maldives and giggling about their population sizes and how they all get the same allocation as, say the English FA. I landed on New Caledonia.
New Caledonia have quite an active FA, a web site, and in fact many video highlights from their matches. In those videos you see young people playing football, smiling, laughing, and of training and taking things very seriously. And that’s when I suddenly realized the purpose; it’s to give everyone the same opportunity to play football that we have in wealthy countries. And of course it takes more “per-capita” investment to do that but I want that for the world. I want the world to play football.
That’s not to say that I don’t have complaints. Of course I do, I am a human being on the internet in the year 2020, what use would I be if I didn’t have complaints? Could FIFA do a better job scheduling? Maybe. It’s tricky though, because if you schedule all of the FIFA activities for summer in the northern hemisphere, you leave a lot of countries playing internationals (or their normal leagues) in extreme weather.
And then there’s the question of should we be having these tournaments at all? Without them, though, the whole system collapses or at least becomes extremely difficult to maintain. They could, of course, cut costs and I’m frankly disgusted that they didn’t even mention salary cuts to executives (their budgets for staff are quite incredible) at this time. They say that “health comes first” (of the players and fans) but their second response should be to offer the reserves and cut costs to support associations which will need money for testing, tracing, and quarantine during this crisis. And it looks to me like they have done a sort of PR handshake about helping the orgs and said very loudly to the players and everyone else “get back to work.”
So, it’s complicated. I can’t stand FIFA for a lot of reasons – most of which stem from my love of club football, FIFA’s history as a criminal organization, and very deep disgust with nationalism. But even I have to admit that the charitable work that they do and their mission of growing football for everyone – regardless of their race, gender, or the size of their nation – is crucial.
I just wish they weren’t so awful and rotten to the core.
Thanks Tim, I was reading this thinking, here goes the annual let’s pile on FIFA parade. But you took the time to really figure out what’s what and concluded that the answers aren’t simple or easy. Well done.
That’s right, it’s complex.
I couldn’t be bothered to watch any of the friendlies or even qualifiers but I will watch the Euros or World Cup, and somehow it needs to be determined who goes into these.
Besides, no matter what the fans think, the vast majority of players absolutely love representing their countries.
Yes, and I, for one, enjoy the nationalism aspect of this. I know Tim hates this stuff but I think it’s OK to be proud of where you’re from. Violent expressions of nationalism are a lot like violent expressions of religious devotion or any other idealism run rampant. People can use any excuse, such as football, for example, to be belligerent.
I used to enjoy watching international football, but I’ve got to be honest and say it leaves me completely and utterly cold.
The thing is, once upon a time (wake up at the back!), when you spent your time watching English domestic football you only got to see British footballers. Overseas players hadn’t been invented. As a result, when the World Cup came along every 4 years, it was your main chance to see, Brazilian, Dutch, German footballers perform. Exciting, yeah?
Nowadays of course, those self same players play for English clubs, week in week out. Where’s the novelty value?
I wouldn’t mind betting that if you pitched the top club sides against any international side, then the club side would come out on top. It would be an interesting experiment.
So there you have it. International football. A second rate competition featuring foreign players, many of whom you wouldn’t want at your club.
In a nutshell, it’s had its day. FIFA won’t let go of it though, purely for money reasons. Also it’s a chance for them to wear their blazers and get a free lunch.
Echoing the Good Doctor’s words. Figuring this s%&t out ain’t easy because of course, nothing is purely black and white. I think of the United Nations: utterly useless politically but yet, they do tremendous good work for children through agencies such as UNICEF ( I am a long standing UNICEF supporter).
That all being said, I come down on the wrong side of FIFA for s lot of the negatives you’ve pointed out. It’s been a sick organization for decades and I worry that the noble character of an Arsene Wenger won’t survive the environment that contains so much that he abhors.
What I love about football or any sport, isn’t FIFA. It’s watching Messi being Messi, Cazorla being Cazorla, Henry being Henry and Bergkamp being Bergkamp.
Kudos to you 1nil, it’s great that you support UNICEF.
It should be noted that even UNICEF have big problems with getting results for their programming, avoiding corruption and not doing harm (Do No Harm is a humanitarian mantra and it’s surprisingly hard to live up to, when you’re pumping money in to fragile societies).
Short version: no organisation is perfect, especially the top down bureaucratic ones.
FIFA I am sure is like many other big international orgs: about 50-50 split between people trying to do their best and do the right thing; and people in it for their own personal and political gain. Any pressure and scrutiny that can be put on them from outside to help the good ones do their jobs will pay off.
I was scrolling twitter and looking at the various ways people are suggesting we will use Thomas. The most common scenario I saw involved him sitting as the deepest midfielder with two ahead of him as part of a 4-3-3. I could be wrong but I do t think that will be his role. One of the great appeals of Thomas is he can be used in so many ways. In the current setup he profiles best as an upgraded version of Granit Xhaka playing alongside either ElNeny or Ceballos as a link between defense and attack. He is also suited to the role currently occupied by ElNeny as a hybrid midfielder/supporting RB that allows Bellerin to get forward. I think we will see him in both capacities depending on the opponent we are facing. Xhaka has been in middling form since the start of the season so his place would seem to be under the most threat, but Thomas has expressed his admiration for him after meeting in the EL semifinal two years ago.
If we do use Thomas in a midfield 3, I would prefer him as a roaming box to box presence rather than a deep lying sweeper. That also depends o. The options we have to place beside him. The three that intrigues me most right now would be Saka, Thomas in advanced roles and Xhaka as the deepest midfielder.
i agree with most everything you said…except the last line. we’ve seen xhaka as the deepest lying player and he’s awful there. it’s why wenger initially went to the back 3 when cazorla and coquelin got injured.
Hey JOSHUAD, I know we have seen Xhaka playing deep for Arsenal before, but unlike when he plays for Switzerland, he has never had the right type of box-to-box midfielders either side of him.
He now has Partey and Ceballos on either side of him, we could finally see the best of Granit.
But I have a feeling this 433 thing that everyone seems to be fixated on will not come to pass. Arteta’s football right now and the little bits that constantly repeat in games do not show me how a 433 could improve us. I see Arteta switching between 343 and 4231.
Just a quick word to wise. If you haven’t checked out Arseblog’s interview with TGSTEL, well, you simply must, Andrew does well, he doesn’t pander, he doesn’t patronize, he asks hard questions and he keeps an even keel. Well worth a listen.
Thanks for that. I plan to listen tomorrow.
While I think some might think “meh” about it because normally journalists pander (as you say) to the celebrity of the player, Andrew showed with this Fabregas interview (really enjoyable) that he’s interested in poking at some of the controversies and problems, not just the highlights.
I’m looking forward to it.
*his
There’s also this.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/oct/09/nicklas-bendtner-i-became-too-fond-of-the-lifestyle-that-came-with-the-money
Bendtner is a great interviewee. He’s honest, and unflinchingly self-critical. Great story in his book about his clashes with Henry, and with the unpleasant specimen that was Adebayor.
Great piece, Tim. It’s rare these days to read something about a controversial (or really any) institution that is so circumspect and self-reflective.
In Trinidad and Tobago where I live, FIFA formed an Orwellian sounding “normalisation committee” to clean up allegedly ethically and managerially dubious practices of the local FA, and then suspended them. This is, after all, the footballing jurisdiction that gave the world Jack Warner. So kudos to them. The FIFA of Infantino isn’t the FIFA of Havelange.
Montserrat and Antigua and Barbuda getting as much funding as bigger, richer nations? Good. It’s time that small countries played on a level-ish playing field, and the process at least LOOKS democratic. I mean, look at America. All those 1994 hopes and dreams unfulfilled. If you’re looking at bang for buck, you’re better off putting more money into Senegalese football. The disbursement policy isn’t perfect, but it isn’t crazy in logic either.
Hopefully the democratisation of football gives us more George Weahs and Dwight Yorkes (Yorkie is a Tobago lad). And more stories like T&T, a country the size of Rhode Island with a population a tick under San Antonio’s, denying the USA in world cup qualifying for Russia. Only on a soccer field could that happen.
Tim, I am about to write exams and I have been using your writing as a template for my writing. I struggle from time to time with understanding the meanings behind some of the words you use, but your perspective and how you tackle topics (whether biased or not), it’s always amazing to read.
This is me saying thank you and even if you don’t find the time to write everyday, any time you do, I will be happy to read.
total aside: big up to olivier giroud who just keeps proving people wrong. 100 caps for france and overtakes michel platini in goals scored, second only to thierry henry. he’s the ULTIMATE team player. everyone loves playing with him because he genuinely gives his all and tries to make everyone else shine.
if you watch a video compilation of arsenal’s best goals over the past decade, giroud is in the middle of at least half of them. love that young man and i’m super-happy for him. didn’t know it at the time but fabulous signing by wenger.
Heartily seconded
The world is in the midst of a ramp-up of the second-wave of a pandemic. While not identical– this model follows the wave pattern of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic closely enough. Supposedly second-waves are 3-to-5 times stronger than the first. If this is accurate– this wave may last until February (followed closely by a less-than-the-others third-wave that will plateau until a vaccine is distributable).
It’s been an inspiring effort– seeing clubs keeping themselves to strict protocols allowing last season to conclude– and this one to get going successfully. But it’s insane to mix players from all over the continent and further– for something without no outcome.
The virus has only one rule. Which no amount of money can overcome.
It’s all a bit odd and I’m not sure old models will be a good fit this year. Given the way that the USA works as basically 50+ distinct governments I think we are going to see some good data about a variety of approaches, demographics, densities, and so on.
I expect stricter lockdowns as we start to see more flu cases.