Tagged with Football

Football for fans not consumers: they took the words right out of our mouth

Dortmund banner at White Hart Lane this week

Mark Perryman of Philosophy Football applauds Dortmund fans’ resistance to a European Superleague

When the Borussia Dortmund fans held up their brilliant banner at White Hart Lane on Thursday night ‘UEFA Super League? Shut the Fuck Up’ for many fans in England too the response would be ‘you took the words right out of our mouth’.

The old European Cup was the best cup competition in the world, sorry FA Cup sponsored by wotsit, bar none. A simple idea made good, only the league champion of each European nation in an unseeded knockout competition. Home and away legs gave the bigger clubs some advantage but built into the campaign those European glory nights for stay-at-home and travelling fans alike. What was there possibly not to like? Continue reading →

When it comes to FIFA the FA’s not got a leg to stand on

FICK FUFAMark Perryman of Philosophy Football is unconvinced by English football’s occupation of any moral high ground vs FiFA Corruption

I’m incredibly disappointed with the timing of what the BBC seem to be proposing with Panorama. To do it the week before the vote – I don’t think think it’s patriotic.”

So said Andy Anson, Director of the England World Cup 2018 bid, in November 2010. That’s right, on the eve of England’s doomed bid to host World Cup 2018 the bid director took time out to lambast the BBC for investigating FIFA corruption. Five years later with FIFA headquarters raided by police and arrests made the smell of the hypocrisy of English football adopting the role of the game’s moral guardian should border on the overpowering. But almost all of this context is lost in the soft target discourse of Blatter-bashing. Continue reading →

Stop foul play in Qatar

Playfair QatarThe TUC has launched the campaign – Playfair Qatar – to draw football fans into the protests against Qatar’s treatment of the workforce building the infrastructure for its 2022 World Cup. The campaign will complement other campaigns already running by bringing in new allies.

Fans – many of whom are also trade unionists – are as outraged as anyone that Qatar’s lax health and safety and repressive “kafala” laws are likely to lead to 4,000 deaths before the 2022 World Cup begins. Football fans are considered such an important constituency in the battle of the hosting of the World Cup that Qatar has paid a PR agency to set up a “grass roots” blog which also serves as a platform for character assassinations of anyone criticising the country. Continue reading →

Qatar: Concern grows for missing human rights investigators

bn7hjebicaehanmTwo British human rights campaigners, investigating the treatment of migrant workers in Qatar have gone missing. Ghimire Gundev and Krishna Upadhyaya were last seen on Sunday when they sent panicked texts to colleagues saying they were being followed by police.

Speaking to ITV News, the Norwegian charity employing the men said it had yet to receive any information from the Qatari authorities despite numerous requests. A spokesperson said: Continue reading →

The World Cup of our dreams

9781908699916To drag ourselves away from the banalities of the Brazil 2014 TV studio punditariat Mark Perryman provides a World Cup reading list.

The professionally cautious Roy Hodgson just couldn’t resist it could he? ‘England can win this World Cup’ he declares on the eve of the tournament. Not if Roy consults the match histories elegantly provided by Brain Glanville’s classic The Story of the World Cup they won’t. No European side has won a World Cup hosted in South America, Central America or North America. No England side has made it past the quarter-finals in a World Cup for 24 years. No England side has ever made it past the quarter finals at a World Cup in South or Central America. Why should things be any different this time Roy? That’s not to say the next three and a bit weeks can’t be hugely enjoyable for football fans, England loyal or otherwise. Continue reading →