I started these blogs in response to injustice over Brazil's hosting of the 2014 World Cup and FIFA corruption in giving the 2018 and 2022 competitions to Russia and Qatar respectively. The campaign against Qatar continues, with an estimated 7000 workers expected to die in the construction frenzy Qatar is going through to host the Cup. However, public pressure has had an impact - the country did agree to a package of reforms in November 2017 to deal with some of the abuse.
This time around for Russia, I've just managed to make it into the football fray for the last week of play, but will be doing a blog a day on social and political dimensions around football. It won't change the world, but it will extend my education, raise awareness for any readers (are there any out there) and maybe entertain with a bit of word play.
Earlier in this tournament, when Japan got through to the final 16 on the back of fewer yellow cards, I was tempted to say 'fair play'' pays off. Perhaps it was reflective of the country, which topped societal 'fair play' rankings that Catholic social justice agency Caritas ran for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. But when I read how Japan played out their final quarter against Poland - to avoid goals as well as yellow cards, I decided it was just bad sportsmanship. And they got their just desserts in the next round, bowing out to giant killers Belgium.
So - if the present countries remaining were ranked on more important matters than football skills, or fair play on the field, where would they stand, or sit?
Well, seeing as we're talking about corruption, the easiest place to start is Transparency International's Corruption Index, which placed Sweden and the UK (as a proxy for England) on top among those remaining in the World Cup. Shame then that either Sweden or England will be eliminated in the next quarter final overnight. And it's also worth noting a team that should be there, but isn't: New Zealand (undefeated in World Cup finals since 1986) were actually no 1 overall on Transparency's Index.
Ranking in TI Corruption Perceptions Index:
Sweden - 6
United Kingdom - 8
Belgium - 16
France - 23
(then there's a long way to go to ....)
Croatia - 57
(and even further ........... to)
Russia - 135
....out of 180 states.
Mmm - there's room for improvement there, Mr Putin.
This time around for Russia, I've just managed to make it into the football fray for the last week of play, but will be doing a blog a day on social and political dimensions around football. It won't change the world, but it will extend my education, raise awareness for any readers (are there any out there) and maybe entertain with a bit of word play.
Earlier in this tournament, when Japan got through to the final 16 on the back of fewer yellow cards, I was tempted to say 'fair play'' pays off. Perhaps it was reflective of the country, which topped societal 'fair play' rankings that Catholic social justice agency Caritas ran for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. But when I read how Japan played out their final quarter against Poland - to avoid goals as well as yellow cards, I decided it was just bad sportsmanship. And they got their just desserts in the next round, bowing out to giant killers Belgium.
So - if the present countries remaining were ranked on more important matters than football skills, or fair play on the field, where would they stand, or sit?
Well, seeing as we're talking about corruption, the easiest place to start is Transparency International's Corruption Index, which placed Sweden and the UK (as a proxy for England) on top among those remaining in the World Cup. Shame then that either Sweden or England will be eliminated in the next quarter final overnight. And it's also worth noting a team that should be there, but isn't: New Zealand (undefeated in World Cup finals since 1986) were actually no 1 overall on Transparency's Index.
Ranking in TI Corruption Perceptions Index:
Sweden - 6
United Kingdom - 8
Belgium - 16
France - 23
(then there's a long way to go to ....)
Croatia - 57
(and even further ........... to)
Russia - 135
....out of 180 states.
Mmm - there's room for improvement there, Mr Putin.
No comments:
Post a Comment