Apparently FIFA has football’s best interests at heart. From the laughable decision that Qatar will host the 2022 World Cup to periodic allegations of corruption and bribery over the past 20 years, the organisation is not held in the highest regard by those who love the game.
Its President of 15 years standing Sepp Blatter has certainly not endeared himself to the watching public, in Ireland or anywhere else for that matter, during his time in charge with his oft-controversial utterances. But his latest idea is of the head-scratching variety.
You see the 77-year-old wants to reduce the number of European and South American teams at future World Cups, and increase the places available to teams from the Asian confederation.
Currently Europe is guaranteed 13 spots in the 32 team tournament, while Asia (which includes Australia) gets four automatic places and a possible fifth via a playoff.
Now there is nothing wrong with trying to spread the game beyond its traditional borders and beyond to other parts of the globe. But is it really about improving standards of play in Asian nations?
At a recent conference, Blatter spoke of “balance” citing the vast number of Asian members in FIFA. But the fact that 50 per cent of FIFA’s revenues, and consequently its bank balance, are derived from the Asian confederation was cited as the main reason to give Asia more spots.
It may not be entirely coincidental that Blatter also hinted that he might seek re-election in 2015 (when he will be 80).
On a side note, Blatter tweeted this earlier in the week:
Was honour to present Sir Alex with Award at 2011 Ballon D’Or. Will his longevity at the top ever be repeated? fifa.to/12fw1nc
— Joseph S Blatter (@SeppBlatter) May 8, 2013
Yes Ferguson’s longevity at the top of an organisation could be repeated…by Blatter. And he is making a fair fist of it.
One of his potential challengers is UEFA President Michel Platini. A reduction of the number of European teams could curb the Frenchman’s challenge. Not that Platini would be a huge improvement on Blatter, mind you.
Asia’s new football chief, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain, also backed Blatter for a fifth term in office, while reiterating his desire for Asia to get more World Cup slots.
Asian football is arguably the weakest confederation. Japan and South Korea are very good quality teams that are improving at a steady place but the rest of the continent’s standard of football would range from average at best to whipping boys.
And in any case it does not appear that countries from the Far East are really the subject of interest.
Arabian Gulf
It seems quite obvious that the Arabian Gulf is of huge interest with countries like Qatar, UAE and Bahrain angling for exposure and influence on the global stage. Just look at the investment in European football from that region, while it is unclear how much revenue is used to develop players in their own countries.
But any World Cup increase for Asia would lead to a yawning gulf in class and would be to the detriment of the World Cup. The quality of the tournament is average enough in comparison to the 16-team version of the European Championships. The current FIFA rankings – not a reliable arbiter of quality – only has three Asian sides in the world’s Top 50 (Japan in 29th, South Korea in 42nd and Australia 46th).
African and Asian sides have only made a minimal impact at the World Cup. Only one of the five African teams makes it out of the group stages every tournament, while a side like Saudi Arabia generally gets a spanking like the 8 – 0 defeat to Germany in 2002 and the 3 – 0 loss to Ireland a week later.
On the European stage, sadly Ireland is currently third tier and fairly average. But if the Boys in Green were to qualify, they would provide far more quality than teams like Qatar and Bahrain who have little football pedigree.
There are plenty of other second and third tier countries around Europe and South America who would be unfairly punished by Blatter’s proposal.
Should the likes of Sweden, Colombia, Poland, Ecuador and Serbia (just to name a few second tier European and South American nations) be locked out of football’s global showpiece just because they do not sit on vast reserves of crude oil?
The short answer is never. The long answer is no. And the sensible answer is not a snowball’s chance in hell.
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