World Cup: Former FA chief David Bernstein calls for boycott
The English Football Association has been urged to lobby Uefa for a European boycott of the next World Cup - unless Fifa implements meaningful reform.
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Similar views have been expressed by German Football League president Reinhard Rauball, who suggested Uefa could leave Fifa if the findings of the two-year investigation into corruption claims are not published in full.
I have been dreaming about this really, and however unrealistic it may sound, I am glad that someone at some senior position says something radical like this publicly. FIFA is so corrupt that it is impossible for it to correct and fix itself. Even if Sepp Blatter steps down (he won't), the corruption culture is so deeply embedded in the organization that the only way to change it is to take it apart and build a new one from scratch.
I have given some thoughts about this, actually. Obviously England cannot do it by itself. But if we can get the western Europe together, plus a few civilized countries like USA, Japan, etc, they should try to form a breakaway faction and run their own World Cup or whatever other tournaments at country or club level. There is no reason why FIFA should have monopoly in running world football. Let it face some competition. Essentially the world will then have two football governing bodies, a civilized one consisting of the above mentioned countries, and an uncivilized one containing, well, you know who those countries are. Let the uncivilized one have whatever bribery or corruption they like, as long as it is contained within themselves and don't affect the civilized world. Hopefully more countries will switch sides over time.
Of course there will be huge difficulties, for example FIFA will not allow "their" members' national players to play for Europe's clubs... but at the end of the day, it is about who has more financial bargaining power. Which of the following two is a bigger loss: the Premier League / Champions League losing some South American or African players, or FIFA / World Cup losing Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, France, England, and so on? (and don't worry, those South American or African players will find a way to change their nationality, as we all know already).
I know, it is just my dream, is it? Will someone have the courage to try to pull it off?
PS. And I forgot to mention, the civilized one can then do sensible things like using video replay technology and so on...
