FIFA

[Angry Shed Sex]

Great couple of bites there Vic.

[Silver Fox]

He's not a troll though, he's a confused old man

[PieEater]

Is this "I'm going to resign" just the same as "I'm not going to stand for re-election"?

Let's see the report ASAP

[Kitsondinho]

I really hope this is true...

http://www.buzzfeed.com/heidiblake/blat ... -world-cup

....but I am sceptical

EDIT. Oh Sepp, now we know why you are going.......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-32986950

[Super Kevin Bremner!]

My rant on the matter is this. As a kids football manager it's really disappointing that to buy a team set of Adidas shirts we have to scrape around for sponsors, collect subs from parents etc to raise £400-500, when a Premier League club gets paid £100m for the same privilege. Will that change (or for that matter will anything else promoting British grass roots football) change now the allegedly corrupt head of FIFA has resigned? Will it f@ck. And for that reason I couldn't give less of a sh1t about the whole debacle, or who gets the World Cup. As long as it's played somewhere in the World, it counts doesn't it? People are doing my nut in saying they feel brilliant now Blatter's gone. Real people doing real football on your own doorstep know full well FIFA means nothing to what we get up and do every Sunday morning, so get off your f@cking high horses.

Ps I heard an argument that FIFA should be leaving legacies in these countries hosting the World Cups. Apparently football is really important to boosting 3rd world economies etc.

In any successful ecological society, football, or any loved sport for that matter, should only ever be the cherry on top of the cake, and not the sugar, flour and eggs. It's politicians and governments that should be acting to leave legacies where children have role models and a safe environment to live, play and develop in. Not football associations.

Football is just cabaret, a game that people have to keep them happy in their spare time, but the whole thing is an ugly entity as an industry because the rich just f@cking dominate everything all the time.

[Deadlock]

There will be another election for president of FIFA and the man from that footballing powerhouse of Jordan will get the job and then what?

Don't be stupid. If Blatter had wanted Prince Ali bin Hussein anywhere near the job he'd have stood down before the election. He's done it now so he can manouvre one of his cronies into position.

[Libertine]

EDIT. Oh Sepp, now we know why you are going.......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-32986950

Hopefully here...

[Sutekh]

And so the whole farce finally looks like it's about to come tumbling down with the FBI, Swiss Police and the UK Serious Fraud Squad now starting to pick the bones clean.

All stems back to the days of Joao Havelange I believe, when the football world rightly wanted rid of the dinosaur Rous but have subsequently run into a bad case of "be careful what you wish for".

Now is the opportunity to start anew, scrap FIFA altogether and for UEFA, US, Canada, Australia, Oceania and all other interested FAs to get together and create a new governing body with none of the old ways and a clear and transparent management hierarchy e.g. to whom they are accountable, maximum term of presidency etc.

[Royalclapper]

Can't wait for the announcement that while the Middle East has yet to host a tournament, the U.S feels that Israel should now be awarded the 2022 World Cup!

[Royal Rother]

There will be another election for president of FIFA and the man from that footballing powerhouse of Jordan will get the job and then what?

Don't be stupid. If Blatter had wanted Prince Ali bin Hussein anywhere near the job he'd have stood down before the election. He's done it now so he can manouvre one of his cronies into position.

Not a chance.

[ZacNaloen]

Well Israel at least has an established footballing domestic culture...

[PeterReadingborn59]

Isha Johansen the current president of Sierra Leone FA spoke this morning about how football had provided a common ground for people to participate in after years of civil unrest and how monies from FIFA had helped develop football, but on her election she had needed to start to implement greater governance as monies were unaccounted for.

This is why FIFA needs to be reformed, as the current governance structure does not allow clear accountability and independence in decision making. Improved fund usage could filter down to provide more facilities locally and fund things such as all weather pitches that all clubs could use. I disagree with the funding of specific clubs as this can favour teams for the wrong reasons. Adult 11 a side local football appears to be dying in the UK with less teams, high fees for pitches and training facilities discourage the casual players.

[ZacNaloen]

This is the same problem with giving aid money to fundamentally corrupt countries. The money disappears into the pockets of those in charge. With aid money there's no real recourse, that's not the case with Football.

[6ft Kerplunk]

Lovely stuff on FIFA from John Oliver on Last Week Tonight. Blatter's resignation should make for an interesting follow up based on what he said he'd do if Blatter quit.

[Deadlock]

Bud Light lime, McDonald's full 99c menu, and somethign else, wasn't it?

[Silver Fox]

Lovely stuff on FIFA from John Oliver on Last Week Tonight. Blatter's resignation should make for an interesting follow up based on what he said he'd do if Blatter quit.

He tweeted a pic of a bucket of bud light limes and captioned it champagne yesterday

[No Fixed Abode]

My rant on the matter is this. As a kids football manager it's really disappointing that to buy a team set of Adidas shirts we have to scrape around for sponsors, collect subs from parents etc to raise £400-500, when a Premier League club gets paid £100m for the same privilege. Will that change (or for that matter will anything else promoting British grass roots football) change now the allegedly corrupt head of FIFA has resigned? Will it f@ck. And for that reason I couldn't give less of a sh1t about the whole debacle, or who gets the World Cup. As long as it's played somewhere in the World, it counts doesn't it? People are doing my nut in saying they feel brilliant now Blatter's gone. Real people doing real football on your own doorstep know full well FIFA means nothing to what we get up and do every Sunday morning, so get off your f@cking high horses.

Ps I heard an argument that FIFA should be leaving legacies in these countries hosting the World Cups. Apparently football is really important to boosting 3rd world economies etc.

In any successful ecological society, football, or any loved sport for that matter, should only ever be the cherry on top of the cake, and not the sugar, flour and eggs. It's politicians and governments that should be acting to leave legacies where children have role models and a safe environment to live, play and develop in. Not football associations.

Football is just cabaret, a game that people have to keep them happy in their spare time, but the whole thing is an ugly entity as an industry because the rich just f@cking dominate everything all the time.

I get what you mean - but brands pay for the privilege of supplying teams as it sells products. Why does it have to be Adidas? Could you not go for a cheaper brand especially as they will grow out of them in 5 minutes? Or is it a keeping up with the Joneses type thing where Earley Eagles have Nike so you have to have Adidas?

Decathlon do a cheap Kipsta range that would probably work out about 1/3 of the price of Adidas.

[6ft Kerplunk]

Bud Light lime, McDonald's full 99c menu, and somethign else, wasn't it?

Gold adidas trainers. Its going to be some start to the show next week. Bet he glad he only said a bite of eat 99c menu item.

[BR2]

Super Kevin bremner has summed up my views far better than I have been able to express.
Presumably you will now get abuse from the likes of Kitson, silver Fox ,the (dreadful) Ian and zac who never read anything in full before they post and quite frankly are all a bit thick .

[Royal Rother]

My rant on the matter is this. As a kids football manager it's really disappointing that to buy a team set of Adidas shirts we have to scrape around for sponsors, collect subs from parents etc to raise £400-500, when a Premier League club gets paid £100m for the same privilege. Will that change (or for that matter will anything else promoting British grass roots football) change now the allegedly corrupt head of FIFA has resigned? Will it f@ck. And for that reason I couldn't give less of a sh1t about the whole debacle, or who gets the World Cup. As long as it's played somewhere in the World, it counts doesn't it? People are doing my nut in saying they feel brilliant now Blatter's gone. Real people doing real football on your own doorstep know full well FIFA means nothing to what we get up and do every Sunday morning, so get off your f@cking high horses.

Ps I heard an argument that FIFA should be leaving legacies in these countries hosting the World Cups. Apparently football is really important to boosting 3rd world economies etc.

In any successful ecological society, football, or any loved sport for that matter, should only ever be the cherry on top of the cake, and not the sugar, flour and eggs. It's politicians and governments that should be acting to leave legacies where children have role models and a safe environment to live, play and develop in. Not football associations.

Football is just cabaret, a game that people have to keep them happy in their spare time, but the whole thing is an ugly entity as an industry because the rich just f@cking dominate everything all the time.

Well yes, I agree with all that in essence but there's a helluva lot better chance of funds being redirected (eventually) to grass roots football across the globe if FIFA is run with its main focus on developing the Sport itself rather than that being of secondary importance after the real purpose which has long been that of lining people's pockets.

It needs a politically savvie charismatic individual whose integrity is beyond question and comes with experience of sports administration and participation to carry this through... of course the person doesn't have to be a Brit but although he's supposed to be standing for President of the IAAF this year I can think of no-one better than Seb Coe to take on that role.