Saint Blatter versus the dark arts of commerce

Continuing in the same vein as the previous post, on the interfering nature of the football bureaucracy, we come to the recent furore about young players being poached by wealthy clubs.

It seems that, just like previous bung scandal, the powers that be have got the bit between their teeth on another issue that is as old as the game itself and, in my opinion, impossible to eradicate. I am not saying it is fail or legal or even morally just but when a top European club offers the impoverish parents of a young footballer a financial incentive for the services of their offspring please tell me how they are supposed to turn it down.

Recent interviews by the likes of Salomon Kalou and Emmanuel Adebayor depict a world of deprivation that we in the western world can only have nightmares about under out suburban shelters. Kalou was 15-years-old before he was afforded a pair of football boots to spare the agonies of his bare feet while Adebayor grew up sharing a bedroom with several other siblings and relatives. Both the Kalou and Adebayor families now live in paradise compared to the destitution they previously existed in. While these two examples may have reached the Premiership’s elite via the proper means their early lives mirror those of Gael Katuka (Chelsea) and Paul Pogba (Manchester United) the two emerging talents reported lured away from their clubs while still at schoolboy level.

The intricacies and formalities of these deals and a selection of similar ones before them, Federico Macheda and Cesc Fabregas for example, have been well documented and there is a consistent factor. In England youth players can sign professional contracts as soon as they turn 16, in other countries, like Spain and Italy, it is older. These legalities are there for football associations all over the globe to address but where will it really get them?

Last season bung was the buzzword, what are they? Who’s taking them? How much are they? Documentaries were made, media blackouts followed and household names were the victims of dawn raids and to what ends? Illegal payments to agents, players or managers are as old as the game itself. Whether it’s 20 new balls and a bag of bibs for a non-league veteran, used fivers swapped at a roadside cafe or millions of pounds electronically transferred to a mysterious offshore account. Sport breeds competition and competition is the lifeblood of capitalism.

The only high profile victim of the attempted bung clear up was George Graham whose downfall was through not the sleuth like detective work of the F.A or any of the ruling organizations, Graham’s conviction came courtesy of his own greed and penchant for avoiding his taxes. Had the former Arsenal hero kept the Inland Revenue sweet, like so many of his peers, past and present, then his antics may have continued unpunished.

Chelsea, in the same mould as Graham, have flouted one too many rules and irked one too many important people but will this charge really go anyway to removing dark the art of illegally assembling the best talent at the biggest clubs? The answer is no; whether it be due to strict legislation like the restraint of trade law or simply clubs heeding this warning and conducting their business in a more clandestine manner, the wealthier clubs will still rule the waves, parents and agents will continue to profit from their prodigal sons and Sepp Blatter will persist on condoning the exploitation of the poor from his designer Ivory tower.

A new season and a new reason not to be too cheerful

A new season brings a plethora of exciting new things to English football; Promoted and relegated teams create fresh fixtures and resurrect old rivalries, the influx of foreign stars create new heroes while emerging starlets bring hope to lower league clubs. Unfortunately with a new season there comes new schemes, so-called innovative initiatives and a brand new set of problems that once created must be addressed.

The first to fall into the media’s glare, courtesy of Eduardo and later Wayne Rooney, was diving, the new scourge of English football. For some time now it has been a bookable offence but, since the act of simulation from Arsenal’s Croatian striker, it has come the most scurrilous of crimes, now deemed punishable with a two match retrospective ban. Personally I feel for the Brazilian born forward and there is certainly some credence to his club manager’s argument against the ban. There was no forewarning before the game with Celtic nor was it another new rule, it was simply EUFA deciding to flex its muscles.

There is no doubt anywhere that diving is not only unsporting and devious but it is also highly embarrassing. To see a primed athlete dive to the floor is cringe worthy and sometimes even laughable. We, the English, seem very assured that diving is another foreign import that has infected our game like interfering directors of football, match fixing or the hair-band. I remember, following a series of Didier Drogba’s more dramatic appearances, there were rumours that John Terry had told the Ivorian to cut out the simulation as he was making himself and his team mates look stupid, now defenders are having to double up during all too often vein attempts to stop the Chelsea powerhouse. If EUFA had wished to make its mark on diving it should happened before the this years Champions League qualifiers had began or the Eduardo incident should have been the watershed, the point at which EUFA said ‘enough is enough, anymore of that and you’ll get a two match ban’. By not setting a precedent EUFA have asked for this backlash just as much as Eduardo deserved for a yellow card, not a two-game ban.

I remember, many years ago, when shirt pulling was christened the enemy of the game. On the eve of the new season every referee, club and player was informed of the consequences. Every offender was to be punished immediately with a yellow card, how long did that inscription stay on the ever-increasing scroll that is the football rules and regulations handbook? The fact is different governing bodies rule the variety of competitions we pour over week-in-week-out and they are never going to agree on every aspect of the beautiful game but a little cohesion might limit confusion and stop anyone falling foul of the laws on diving.