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UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

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Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#201

Post by danielvf »

rsynnott wrote: post #171
t0mpr1c3 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way that the Iran team was only allowed into the USA on match days was a disgrace. Refusing entry to a Somali referee on the spurious grounds of links to terrorism was a disgrace. The overturning of Falorin Balogun's ban was a disgrace. The ticket prices were a disgrace. The transport to the stadiums was a shambles. I could go on.

> The transport to the stadiums was a shambles. This bit was kind of baffling to me. Like, the US has a bunch of large stadiums. Presumably they sometimes get used for stuff. How is it not a constant disaster? There’s a medium sized (50k capacity) stadium near me, and even _with_ a train station with a train each way every ten minutes right beside it, and within easy walking distance of about five high capacity bus r…

For local NFL games in a bigger stadium that, most people attending do drive, but do not park at the stadium, rather nearby, then walk the rest of the way. This spreads out the traffic over a much larger set of roads.

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#202

Post by t0mpr1c3 »

whateveracct wrote: post #70

CONCACAF too

Right, IIRC they basically banned everybody in Trinidad from FIFA and relocated the HQ.

It didn't help that Chuck Blazer just looked like a pedophile. Not sure if it's a coincidence that he lived in Trump tower. He had two apartments there, one for his cats.

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#203

Post by Ekaros »

kzrdude wrote: post #187
DrJokepu wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, both FIFA and IOC are headquartered in Switzerland, a country that is ranked by Transparency International as one least corrupt countries in the world… Draw you own conclusions.

A common factor seems rather that international sports orgs are often very corrupt. Would be interesting to understand why it happens systematically. Lack of good governance structures must be part of it.

I think fundamental issue is that only people who want power, money or influence get involved at highest levels. For rest operating at grass roots or slightly higher and having local impact is more important. Farther you move from there more power hungry and less passionate about underlying thing the people get.

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#204

Post by MandieD »

rsynnott wrote: post #171
t0mpr1c3 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way that the Iran team was only allowed into the USA on match days was a disgrace. Refusing entry to a Somali referee on the spurious grounds of links to terrorism was a disgrace. The overturning of Falorin Balogun's ban was a disgrace. The ticket prices were a disgrace. The transport to the stadiums was a shambles. I could go on.

> The transport to the stadiums was a shambles. This bit was kind of baffling to me. Like, the US has a bunch of large stadiums. Presumably they sometimes get used for stuff. How is it not a constant disaster? There’s a medium sized (50k capacity) stadium near me, and even _with_ a train station with a train each way every ten minutes right beside it, and within easy walking distance of about five high capacity bus r…

Acres upon acres of parking lots.

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#206

Post by NoboruWataya »

dmarcos wrote: post #77
nkg wrote: post #51

I'm so happy to see they care enough to take a stand. The last World Cup was a sh-t show. I expect the LA olympics to be no better.

How was it a shit show? I’m genuinely curious. I attended 5 games (Atlanta, LA and Dallas) and was a fantastic experience minus the process to get tickets.

The football itself wasn't bad, it was all the other stuff - prices, unfair treatment for Iran, hydration breaks, the whole Balogun thing, the pre-game and half-time shows at the final, Trump photo-bombing the Spanish celebration, etc. Every WC has its own problems and some of these things will be forgotten about soon, but it definitely seemed more ruthlessly commercialised than ever before.

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#207

Post by mig1 »

erfgh wrote: post #190
brunoborges wrote: post #2

Infantino clearly wants to see FIFA making billions so he and many others can pocket millions legally. But the only way for this to happen in a non-corrupt way, given that FIFA is non-profit and therefore requires a lot of questionable operations, is to turn FIFA into a business like NFL / MLS. The problem with that is that it then it is no longer a sport, rather a... business. UEFA letter is spot on.

What's wrong with making billions? Will this hurt the game somehow?

Investors calling to change red cards because the best players should play, etc

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#208

Post by madradavid »

brunoborges wrote: post #2

Infantino clearly wants to see FIFA making billions so he and many others can pocket millions legally. But the only way for this to happen in a non-corrupt way, given that FIFA is non-profit and therefore requires a lot of questionable operations, is to turn FIFA into a business like NFL / MLS. The problem with that is that it then it is no longer a sport, rather a... business. UEFA letter is spot on.

CONCACAF join UEFA and reject FIFA's World Cup sell-off plan. https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49488584/uefa-boycott... . By the end of this Gianni Infantino will only be left with the Africans .I am African and these Federations will do anything to keep him around because of the unprecedented amounts of corruption...

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#209

Post by tverbeure »

jimbokun wrote: post #124
tverbeure wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 200+ participating countries. Many of those are on his side, because they’re tiny and easy to bribe: a few million is significant for them and often that money can be siphoned into corrupt pockets. That said, a World Cup without any of the 55 UEFA countries wouldn’t make sense commercially.

But the USA men might finally do well! Depending on whether the South American teams show up…

I’ve bad news for you: Concacaf has also unanimously spoken against the plan. :-)

(Though AFAIK they haven’t yet threatened a boycott.)

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#210

Post by Jtarii »

dmarcos wrote: post #181
antonyt wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP, but I would guess: "hydration breaks" to inject commercials, half-time shows that felt alien to much of the core audience, and various rule-bending shenanigans (Ronaldo, Balogun).

Hydration breaks a tad weird. Half time shows were pretty subtle, didn’t change the length of the break except for the final. There’s no soccer competition without someone complaining about refereeing. Def always things to improve but I had fun, all people around me seemed to have fun. I flew in an out and always was either public transportation or uefa provided shuttles… It was really well run. Not something you can…

Balogun and Ronaldo red card overturns had nothing to do with "refereeing". It was clear corruption and favouritism.

Also the treatment of the Iranian team was comically awful.

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