World Soccer Needs One Swift Penalty Kick

11/6/2014

Air-Condition This

The world’s most popular sport is still stuck with primitive leadership and bad decisions. A column by Richard Sandomir in the Times on Thursday says the 2022 World Cup – scheduled for Qatar -- might be moved from June-July to November-December, right in the middle of the world’s major soccer leagues and tournaments.

This wretched planning happened under the watch of Sepp Blatter, who is now threatening to run for his fifth term as president of FIFA, the world soccer body, next May.

Blatter is already in trouble, what with a former voting member of FIFA, Chuck Blazer, an American who lived very well on soccer money, reportedly testifying to American authorities about FIFA. I'm just guessing that Blatter will not be touching down on American soil any time soon.

The tainted vote for Qatar, quite likely fueled by payments to larcenous FIFA board members, was the fault of Blatter. Qatar promises to build air-conditioned stadiums in the desert, often over 110 degrees Fahrenheit, presumably with the “help” of migrant laborers, those that survive.

Now that Blatter has discovered the climate of Qatar in the summer – his lack of scientific knowledge could qualify him for the U.S. Congress – he is going to do something.

But as Sandomir points out – what we all have known for years – is that American networks have other sports, other financial obligations, going on in November and December.

Sandomir notes that it will be hard to get out of the contract but he proposes: FIFA “should make a deal to satisfy Fox, Telemundo and other global networks aggrieved by changing the World Cup schedule. And let the networks give any financial compensation to charity.”

What is missing is the economic hammer. What is missing is one aggrieved corporate leader like David D’Alessandro, who was once the head of John Hancock, a major Olympic sponsor. This is what I wrote in 2008:

When the bribery scandal hit a few years before the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, the most prophetic voice from the corporate world was that of David D’Alessandro, the chief executive of John Hancock Financial Services. He basically warned the I.O.C. to clean up the mess made by the good burghers of Utah and the dozens of avaricious members whose votes were for hire — or else D’Alessandro would take his corporate sponsorship away from the Olympics faster than you can say, “On your mark, get set, go.”
D’Alessandro was not being moralistic, he said. He was merely protecting his company. He has since moved on from John Hancock. Someday the Olympics might find another visionary leader from corporate America. It’s not impossible.

D’Alessandro forced the International Olympic Committee to find a new leader of the host committee – a Boston guy named Mitt Romney, you may have heard of him, who did a good job. And right through the 2004 Summer Games, as long as he was running John Hancock, D’Alessandro put pressure on the Olympic movement.

What FIFA needs right now is a corporate leader like David D’Alessandro to tell Blatter that he can no longer subsidize an operation as erratic and secretive and dishonest as his. There are still six months left to force Sepp Blatter out.

9 Comments

Alan Rubin link

11/6/2014 05:59:34 am

George

You are absolutely correct in that money talks. Every entity that can hurt FIFA in their pocketbook should do so. It is the only language that would get their attention.

There is probably more to it, but it seems that FIFA’s main hold over soccer teams, leagues and national programs is that they can pull their sanction. If so, this is the time to collectively challenge this control. Most of the big leagues and programs have sufficient, independent revenue streams. They should all threaten, if not actually do it, to break from FIFA.

African players are threatening to boycott WC 2018 in Russia over racism. Advertisers and networks should boycott WC 2022 in Qatar, and rebel against having it moved.

The world will not come to an end, but Blatter’s power might.

John McDermott

11/6/2014 09:40:35 am

It may have already begun. Emirates has just turned its back on FIFA after three World Cups. And so has Sony. That's two out of the six existing "Partners" who have said "Basta!", who have figured out that paying all that money to be associated with an organization whose reputation is ever deeper in the toliet might not be the best thing for their own corporate image. Disappointing to me is the general lack of interest in this story in the USA, especially on the part of the media. Maybe because "it's just soccer"? The New York Times has totally ignored it, which I don't find surprising, just frustrating. Blazer's reputation for aggressive attention to his own financial well-being and his love of the good life and of rubbing elbows with the great and powerful was certainly no secret. I fear that little Sepp will carry on with his circus undisturbed, that no FIFA events will take place in the USA for a very long time and that, as you say, Sepp and his cronies won't be making any stopovers at JFK or Miami International any time soon.

John McDermott

11/7/2014 12:20:35 am

The English soccer authorities have always had a quaint, almost Victorian kind of catch-all disciplinary charge which has been used to deal with a wide range of misbehavior: "Bringing the Game into Disrepute". Whenever I hear it it causes me to chuckle. But when I think about it, isn't that exactly what Blatter and his various cronies, past and present have done? No chuckle this time. Just anger at people who have made a career out of exploiting the world's greatest game for their own selfish and greedy ends.

George Vecsey

11/7/2014 01:18:07 am

The great baseball administrator Lee MacPhail used the concept of "the good of the game" to over-rule the pine-tar charge against George Brett. It was upheld in court. Should work in soccer, too.

The Times has an update today on the long-anticipated FIFA investigation. The New York investigator, Garcia, came up with a report. The German judge, Eckert, doesn’t want it to go public. The story is quite nuanced, with apparently responsible people explaining both stances. The bottom line seems to be: FIFA secrecy endures.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/07/sports/soccer/secret-fifa-report-stirs-dispute-between-investigators.html?ref=sports&_r=0

Alan Rubin link

11/7/2014 02:54:22 am

I do not know the extent of their readership, but SoccerAmerica and the Belcher Report have regularly reported FIFA’s corrupt dealings and hypocrisy on the internet. I think that the main stream is beginning to take notice.

I believe things are reaching a tipping point as more people are becoming aware of FIFA’s actions and are willing to speak out about it.

FIFA’s feet are beginning to be held to the fire and not a minute too soon.

Sam Toperoff

11/7/2014 04:22:50 am

Dear Mr. Vecsey--I couldn't help noticing the severe animus you seem to hold against Mr. Blather. What in the world has he ever done to you for you to have developed such a personal antagonism? I bought your most recent book, Eight World Cups, and on page after page you attack this poor guy. From my perspective, all I've seen is World Soccer go from one record breaking year to another under his stewardship.. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were jealous of his organizational and commercial success. (You aren't angling for his job yourself, are you? Especially now that you're no longer writing a Times column and your travel schedule gives you so much free time?) And what's the big deal about a little bribery...if the one percent gets what it wants, why discriminate against some Sheiks with cash on the oil barrelhead? And your attitude about his not knowing enough about meteorological conditions in the hottest place on earth was patently smug and superior to say the least. Just because there are some folks in Qatar who fund murderers, doesn't mean that all Qataris should be non-grata as a result. Yes, it's too hot for soccer, and yes workers will die building the stadia, but c'mon, man, give Schlep a fair deal and put whatever personal matter exists between you two aside. Common decency requires it. And it's what I expect a man of your so-called character to do.

George Vecsey

11/7/2014 12:49:41 pm

Monsieur Toperoff: Tu as raison. Je ne le ferai plus. Merci

John McDermott

11/7/2014 05:50:38 am

"For the Good of the Game", FIFA's official logan. No irony intended, of course.

George Vecsey

11/7/2014 12:54:04 pm

omigosh, it is. I never noticed. I wonder why.

just looked up. Lee MacPhail cited the spirit of the rules, not the good of the game. Lee MacPhail was a good man, the antithesis of the Seppster. (sorry, Mr. Toperoff) GV

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QUOTES

Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

World Soccer Needs One Swift Penalty Kick

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