The final fling: Rain on the parade

Or – how to reduce your carbon footprint in a few easy steps.

Flooding in Whanganui.

Jacob Mancer via RNZ.

I know it’s mean to rain on the parade, but that’s what Mother Nature is doing as heavy rain threatens to turn a sell-out crowd at the U-20 FIFA finals in Auckland into a sodden one. 

Maybe (just like the Pope’s encyclical – Praised Be for that) this could be a watershed moment to consider the costs – environmental – of major sports events.

David Connor in the UK notes, just from the British football season, about 30 million journeys to and from stadia, many by car. Then there are the “thousands of tonnes of beer bottles, pie trays, soft drink cans, waste food, used tickets and merchandise wrapping mostly sent to landfill.”

Brendan Koerner, writing in the US Slate magazine on The hidden costs of heading to the stadium begins by wondering how much energy is burnt by stadium lights and the power required to "feed the fans", etc, but concludes that most of the environmental cost is that of fans travelling to and from the game – especially by car.

But it seems the scintillating Brazilians – off the pitch – have taken the lead on “sustainable football”, thanks to some UK technology (and some Anglo-Dutch petrochemical funding). The Gaurdian, in a look at Sustainability in football, says:

The London-based tech firm Pavegen has installed 200 of its “kinetic-harvesting” tiles into a local football pitch in the Rio’s Morro da Mineira neighbourhood. The 56mm tiles sit under the pitch’s Astroturf surface and flex fractionally every time a player takes a step. Each footstep generates around five watts per second. The system is supplemented by solar panels, which together help light the pitch and surrounding area for up to ten hours a night. 

The pitch, funded by oil company Shell, marks the largest application of the innovative tiles to date. Pavegen’s portfolio of projects also includes kinetic powered lighting for a pedestrian bridge at West Ham Tube Station, one of the access points to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.

The same article highlights Real Madrid’s Dutch-made pitch that never needs watering, mowing or pesticide applications, and Gloucestershire’s Forest Green Rovers who have an organic football pitch, which needs no nitrogen-based fertilisers or chemicals.

But none of these superficial changes deals with the impact of fans travelling to the game, energy use and the superfluity of food and drink around the spectacle.

Meanwhile, as football fans settle down to watch Brazil play Serbia under lights in the U-20 final, about 4000 properties are without power in the southwest of the North Island, and 1000 are still without power in the South – due to the southerly storm that has moved up the country in the last two days.

Are super-sports just bread and circuses to distract us from the real issues?

The fall of Blatter’s House of Cards

The FIFA fallout is having reverberations all around the world – most notably in Brazil, where The Guardian reports that “the fall of the Blatter empire has unleashed a glorious turmoil that has set football legends against the kleptocrats who have long run the game.”

There are demands for the resignation of the current Brazil Football Confederation president, and some professional players are demanding major reform.

Perhaps the ghost of 1982 captain Sócrates (left), who promoted democracy on and off the field, is stalking the corridors of power. Says The Guardian:

Brazilian football has always had two very different sides, both of which have shaped the game at an international level. On the pitch, the seleçao – comprised mostly of players from poor communities – has won more World Cups than any other. Off the pitch, its executives – most of whom are from the country’s white elite – created a system of patronage and kickbacks that became the global model during the long reign of Blatter’s Brazilian predecessor, João Havelange, as Fifa president. 

Former national striker Romário, now a senator, launched a congressional inquiry into corruption in the sport in Brazil. “The resignation of Joseph Blatter as president of Fifa is the beginning of a new era for world football. All corrupt managers of the confederations, around the world, will feel his fall like a tsunami,” he said. 

Commentator Marília Ruiz said the impact of Blatter’s resignation was gigantic. “It’s like a house of cards, you take one and the others fall,” she said. “This debate isn’t going to die away. The police investigation has been open for years but this is a new chance. There have already been so many windows of opportunity lost, but this is the biggest. The gates have now been thrown open.” 

...Common Sense FC – a group of more than a thousand players who are calling for more transparency and accountability – say the crisis is an opportunity to tackle a host of problems facing football in Brazil, including poor attendances, huge levels of debt at most clubs and an irrational calendar of matches that leaves thousands of professional players unemployed for most of the year while the CBF and regional federations milk TV and sponsorship rights for millions.

“There are urgent measures of democratisation and transparency,” said Paulo André, the founder of Common Sense.

Others are more sceptical. “Endemic corruption in football won’t be resolved overnight, just with the mere resignation of Sepp Blatter. The entire structure that supports it is still in place,” said Alexandre Addor.

And regardless of what happens in the backroom and upper echelons, to many perhaps the only thing that counts is what happens on the field. Says Ruiz: “nothing could be worse than the 7-1” – referring to Brazil’s humiliating defeat to Germany in last year’s WC semi-final.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. - Luke 1:52

Football fans - walk away (unless you're being anti-sexist)

Photo: Moazzam Brohi

In an earlier blog I highlighted the Facebook campaign calling for a boycott of FIFA's main sponsors. But according to analysis today from the Globe and Mail, sponsors aint gonna walk away from FIFA unless the fans do too. Some quotes:

“People are not turning in their tickets to the Women’s World Cup, or saying they’re not going to watch the matches on TV. At the end of the day, the sponsors will follow the fans,” said Jim Andrews, senior vice-president at Chicago-based sports marketing firm IEG. “Until the consumers say we’re not going to support the sport because of what’s going on, the sponsors will follow the fans.” 

“FIFA has become a byword for shady dealings,” said Chris Renner, chief executive officer of Helios Partners, which markets sporting events around the world. “But the World Cup will always be bulletproof, there’s no question about it. It’s just too great a competition to even have the guys that run it screw it up. All you’ve got to basically do is get 11 players on each side and roll a ball out and the thing’s going to happen – and 60,000 people will show up.”

Mind you – some are urging people specifically to support the Women’s World Cup, because they get such a raw deal in the sport – and not just because of the astroturf some are being forced to play on in Canada. Read this article about sexism in ‘the beautiful game’, and and then maybe you can might feel ok about watching New Zealand v China tomorrow (11.30am our time) in the Women’s World Cup.

Please FIFA, can we have our Ball back?

We love football, but we abhor, and are embarrassed by, FIFA.

This is the slogan of NewFIFANow – a movement for change within football that was launched in January 2015. They background a lot of the issues that have been brought more to light since the arrests in Zurich of FIFA officials.

The group wants to achieving genuine, long-lasting change in the governance of world football. Their Charter is a demand for change “for everyone who loves football: fans, players, sponsors, broadcasters, those who work in media and who form our governments.” These are people who believe football can truly be a force for good, and not let those words be an empty, hollow slogan for yet-another money-grubbing multinational. They say on their website:

It is for everyone who is of the view that football deserves a world governing body that is free of corruption, mismanagement and self-interest.

It is for everyone who wants to see football governed by people who make decisions and take action in a transparent manner, and who are held accountable in the best interests of the sport and civil society. 

And it is for everyone who shares in the community of football around the world.

They have called on FIFA ‘to have the same level of transparency and accountability that most citizens expect of their governments, major institutions and organisations’. To get there they are seeking ‘an interim time-limited administration, led by an eminent person with a broad mandate to develop a new constitution, governance arrangements and policies and conduct new elections.’

And by jove – you know – I think they’ll get it. Or something like it. The ball is rolling – I don’t think anyone can stop it now. But where it will end up is anyone’s guess.

This whole FIFA debacle and unravelling gives me great cause for hope in regard to any form of corruption or injustice. Let’s keep the ball rolling.

Support NewFIFANow – sign the petition!

Turf wars - unequal playing fields

NZ v Canada at the Women's World Cup - Getty Images

With the Women's World Cup underway in Canada, I thought it was about time to highlight the injustices within FIFA - like the decision to play on artificial turf - a harder surface to play on, and which can lead to severe grazes.

Top female soccer players took FIFA to court about it, but the world body wouldn't even accept a compromise offer to have the 2015 Canadian tournament played on artificial grass until the semifinals, third-place and final matches.

Ultimately, the players dropped their legal fight, saying they were "doing what FIFA and CSA have proven incapable of: putting the sport of soccer first."

Blowing the whistle on Qatar

With Qatar playing today in the Under-20s, I thought it was about time to look at the country (currently) set to host World Cup 2022.

The Guardian of Britain is among those that have highlighted recently the appalling conditions and high death rate for migrant workers in Qatar. Among the shocking stats are Play Fair Qatar’s predictions that more than 62 workers will die for each game played during the 2022 tournament. That’s no price to pay for sport.

Attention on Qatar has been increasing this year, especially with stronger indications – in the whole FIFA debacle – that dirty deals may have been behind not just the upcoming Russia and Qatar competitions, but in earlier tournaments going back the 1990s.

The website Equal Times reported in February 2013 that injuries from falls by construction workers in Qatar had reached record highs – more than 1,000 workers a year - in the 2022 World Cup building boom. Most were migrant workers, who make up 99 per cent of the private sector workforce in Qatar. Ten per cent of those injured faced permanent disability.

Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), said Qatar was a “21st-century slave state”.

A Human Rights Watch World Report 2014 said migrants in Qatar continued “to experience serious rights violations, including forced labor and arbitrary restrictions on the right to leave Qatar, which expose them to exploitation and abuse by employers.”

Of Qatar’s population of 2 million, only 10 percent are Qatari nationals, and the number of economically active foreign nationals increased by 122,000 (about 10 percent), in the 12 months to April 2013.

Workers are subject to various restrictions by their employers.: “The kafala (sponsorship) system ties a migrant worker’s legal residence to his or her employer, or sponsor. Migrant workers commonly complain that employers fail to pay their wages on time if at all, ...”

They must also get an exit visa from their sponsor in order to leave. This may be refused arbitrarily, or their employer may accuse them of criminal or civil offences – leading to an indefinite travel ban. Even some highly-paid expatriates have found themselves trapped in Qatar in such a way – such as French professional footballer Zahir Belounis, and three former employees of the Al Jazeera Children’s Channel.

You want to do something about this? Check out the campaign websites:

• http://www.rerunthevote.org
• http://playfairqatar.org.uk

Keeping it clean - Macclesfield for 2026 WC

Let's just skip all the current controversy over arrests, shock resignations and questionable 2018 (Russia) and 2022 (Qatar) competitions and shoot straight to 2026. By that time, FIFA would have sorted itself, and we can sit down to a jolly old, right royal English - and I'm sure CLEAN - competition in Macclesfield. (Where???)

Yep, the town in Cheshire, England (FA Trophy winners in 1970 and 1996) has launched what must be a no-brainer bid for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. No new stadia required - the town has history on its side. I'm sure climate change concerns will have overtaken corruption and embezzlement by that time, so the seating capacity will impose some natural limits. Here's what the proponents say:

The imposing, 124-year-old Moss Rose ground, with a capacity of 6,335 (including 2,599 seats for VIPs and assorted football dignitaries), would be the centrepiece of the bid, supported by World Cup-ready venues such as Booth Street - home of Congleton Town FC - which can accommodate almost 1,500 fans from across the globe. ... 

Other venues, all within reach of local bus services, include the King George V Playing Field, opened in 1855 and with room for a crowd of 200 (plus fourteen dogs, which comfortably meets Fifa World Cup specifications for canine spectators). …  The world's media will enjoy state-of-the-art facilities, thanks to "free Wi-Fi available at Macclesfield Library [which] will continue throughout the tournament."  ...

Because the average temperature in Macclesfield in June is a whopping 14.1°C we recommend that air conditioned stadia are used.

(Read the full bid - which includes canine capacity for all stadia.)

Must be a winner - even surpassing the prospect of an NZ-Australia bid - which has an enormous ditch to cross.

Stick it to the sponsors

Prince William at the FA Cup final. Photo: BBC.

Did you know there's a Facebook community advocating for people to put pressure on key FIFA sponsors to pull their funds - or exercise leverage for change.

Sponsors targetted include: Adidas, Coca Cola, Kia, Hyundai, Emirates, Sony, Visa, Budweiser, Castrol, Continental, McDonalds, oi, Seara, Itaú, Liberty Seguros, Chocolates Nescau. Organisers are asking people to boycott these companies, their subsidiaries and their brands. The Campaign is not intended to question the products, services or general business practices of the companies themselves. It's intended to send a message to the companies that their support of FIFA is causing them to lose business - ultimately with the hope that the sponsors will withdraw their support for FIFA until such time as it eliminates corruption as much as reasonably possible.

(Mmm, this raises a predicament for me - the only company of the above I use is VISA, but I need to clear my debts first - unless I could negotiate a favourable transfer of funds ….)

TV satirist John Oliver also got stuck into FIFA on his "Last Week Tonight" show yesterday - and pledged severe sacrifices (on his part) to FIFA's sponsors, if only they would get rid of Sepp Blatter.

Meanwhile, Prince William used the opportunity of the FA Cup final at the home of football to call for reform of the world's governing body. He said: "There seems to be a huge disconnect between the sense of fair play that guides those playing and supporting the game, and the allegations of corruption that have long lingered around the management of the sport internationally. … Those backing Fifa, such as sponsors and the regional confederations, must do their bit to press these reforms - we are doing football and its fans no favours if we do not."

Will he be our Prince to slay the mighty dragon?

Who's the corruptest of them all?

Seeing as FIFA has given us the lead on levels of corruption, we thought we’d look at how competing countries at the Under-20s measure up on their own corruption stakes – or rather, how Transparency International rates them.

Well, for the match between Hungary and North Korea this afternoon – there’s no contest (just as there was no contest in Germany’s 8-1 rout over Fiji earlier today). So, according to Transparency, North Korea scores just 3 points on the 0-100 scale (where 0=very corrupt) and is ranked just one up from ; while Hungary scores 54/100 and is placed 47^th out of 175 countries. Still a long way to go – especially with regard to fair consultation on legislation and a rapidly revolving door between public and private sector for high-flying jobs. (See Hungary - Overview.)

 

For the other game of this afternoon, there’s more of an even match between Honduras and Uzbekistan. Though both are in the lower third in corruption levels, a simple look at the figures would pick Honduras to win with 29 points (ranked 126) over Uzbekistan’s 18 points, which puts it at 166 of 175. 

Photo source: Transparency International

FIFA - Consider the alternatives

Darfur United under the sun. Photo: Humanity United.

I was going to get onto some match commentaries, but the off-the-ball play around FIFA itself is too interesting at present. With the election of Sepp Blatter for a fifth term as FIFA President, will UEFA President Michel Platini take UEFA's 53 members out of FIFA - as he threatened pre-vote? Unlikely - it would take a quarter of members out of the international body.

But if he did, where could they go. Ummm, perhaps they could join the real alternative to FIFA: ConIFA, the Confederation of Independent Football Associations.  It is a football federation for all associations outside FIFA - a global, non-profit organisation (technically, FIFA is too!) that supports representatives of international football teams from nations, de-facto nations, regions, minority peoples and sports isolated territories. Founded in 2013, and which had its own World Football Cup in June 2014 in Ostersund, Sweden.

"ConIFA aims to build bridges between people, nations, minorities and isolated regions all over the world through friendship, culture and the joy of playing football. ConIFA works for the development of affiliated members and is committed to fair play and the eradication of racism."

Membership ranges from Darfur, South Ossetia, and Quebec to the County of Nice and the principality of Monaco - one of the world's smallest nations.

Political football

When the World Cup came to Africa: Sepp Blatter (right) with South African President Jacob Zuma in 2010. Getty Images

Is Sepp Blatter really bad – is he as corrupt as other FIFA officials recently arrested (and whose guilt is still to be proven in a court of law?). The voices of condemnation are pretty universal –  in the Western world. But I’ve seen little analysis on why most of the world’s football associations support him, and those against come almost solely from Europe and (mainly white) former British colonies (NZ included). Here are two links that provide a bit more perspective: the very valid reasons why Sepp Blatter finds support in developing countries (in economic and football terms): Fifa vote: Why Africa backs Sepp Blatter.

And even though this interview with former Fifa executive Jerome Champagne aired before the vote that delivered Sepp Blatter his fifth victory, it is still the best rundown I’ve heard on how the FIFA executive works (or doesn’t), and the politicking going on behind the scenes to try to bring Sepp Blatter down (Michel Platini is no saint), and why Champagne (who earlier tried to oust Blatter), still considered him the lesser of two evils, and hoped that he would use his (likely) last term to change FIFA and turn it upside down. A forlorn hope? Only time - four years to be precise - will tell:

Still asking the question ...

… To foot the ball or not to foot the ball? Last year I boycotted the FIFA Football World Cup (the big one - for the big boys), as one Kiwi waving the flag in a worldwide protest about the abuse of power and privilege that went into Brazil's hosting of the 2014 mega-event. And launched this blog to highlight social justice issues around Brazil and FIFA at the time. (View highlights - of the blog - here.)

Well, Aotearoa New Zealand doesn't have the same kind of issues around hosting the lesser scale U-20 mens competition. But huge questions can still be asked about FIFA and some of the participating nations, such as Qatar - already in the gun for exploited foreign workers who are building - and dying - for Qatar's hosting of FIFA 2022. Nepalese workers on World Cup building sites weren't even allowed home for funerals or to visit relations after the recent quakes in Nepal.

Coupled with continued FIFA corruption (today I read that six football officials were arrested at FIFA's annual meeting in Zurich) and I feel I can't support the FIFA machine anymore, even it is just watching it for free on friends' TVs or down the back of the pub. 

And as FIFA considers whether or not to replace Sepp Blatter as President (they won't), I draw some comfort from the words of would-be presidential candidate Luis Figo, who announced his withdrawal by saying (among other things):

But over the past few months I have not only witnessed that desire (for change), I have witnessed consecutive incidents, all over the world, that should shame anyone who desires soccer to be free, clean and democratic. ... this electoral process is anything but an election. 

I am firm in my desire to take an active part in the regeneration of FIFA and I will be available for it whenever it is proven to me that we are not living under a dictatorship. I do not fear the ballot box, but I will not go along with nor will I give my consent to a process which will end on May 29 and from which soccer will not emerge the winner. ... I will not stand in what is being called an election for the FIFA presidency. 

I offer my deepest thanks to all those who have supported me and I ask them to keep alive their desire for a regeneration which, though it may take some time, will come.

 I think U2's Still haven't found what I'm looking for strikes the right chord: