Fifa did not make friends

Spare a collective thought for the failed bids by England, Spain and Portugal and the Netherlands and Belgium to host the 2018 Soccer World Cup, as Fifa faces a grilling and backlash from the international media, who are demanding a radical overhaul and reform of the body.

Russia was declared the winner of the bidding process to host the World Cup in 2018. But sporting bodies and governments were united in condemning the current bidding process. Some of the proposals have included giving the world’s 208 nations a vote, and shortening the bidding process.

Norwegian daily Dagbladed named the choice of Qatar in 2022 'the biggest joke in football history' and Sweden's Expressen spoke of a 'miserable' outcome.

'What do Russia and Qatar have in common? Oil income and corruption. Fifa seems to like it,' Expressen wrote.

That summed up most reactions as Fifa, at the centre of corruption allegations in the final countdown to the voting, was accused of going for a combination of politics and money-laden bids instead of the likes of England, the US or Spain/Portugal, reported Sapa-AP.

'Fifa doesn't have to prove that it doesn't care about the fans. What counted was tax freedom. Money in abundance. And (President Sepp) Blatter's vanity to treat the Eastern bloc and the Middle East with a World Cup,' said Swiss tabloid Blick.

In Italy, leading sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport said the choice of Russia and Qatar was the final proof that 'only politics count. It is about business - more or less dirty.'

German broadsheet Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said that Thursday's election showed that something is wrong within Fifa.

'The life of Fifa and its president is in ruins yet again. Many will consider the Fifa motto 'For the good of the game' a joke,' the FAZ said.

The Bild tabloid, in an editorial, called for Blatter's resignation ‘after 'the soul of football was sold for oil dollars'.

'Both yesterday's votes stank. To high heaven. They were victories for good old-fashioned venality,' said the Daily Mirror.

'England did not lose the right to host the 2018 World Cup because of the British media. It lost it precisely because of the corruption the British media was fighting against.'

Former England manager Terry Venables was quoted in The Sun as saying: 'Fifa and the KGB are just about the last two secret organisations on the planet.’

Let’s for a moment pretend that Fifa is a clean organisation, and that they opted for Russia as the 2018 host, or Qatar as the 2022 host because of good legitimate reasons other than mere technical excellence and the abundance of soccer infrastructure.

The global reach and unlocking new soccer frontiers were portrayed as solid motivations for the decision of  to opt for Russia and Qatar.

What was interesting was what the president (Sepp Blatter) said at the end about taking the World Cup to two new territories and, in Qatar's case, mentioning Arab countries. That was the driver.

They have decided to take the World Cup to developing areas, said the Premier League chief executive, Richard Scudamore, in an interview with The Guardian www.guardian.co.uk.

As England’s shaken bid team looked for answers amid the wreckage of their failed bid there was a sense that Fifa's ambition  to use the World Cup to drive into new territories for commercial and philosophical reasons meant that they were always fighting an uphill battle.

There was a lingering feeling throughout the race that with English football's riches and global reach, it just did not need Fifa's greatest prize and cash cow enough, added The Guardian.

Sure, but perhaps England should have realised that this is a bid not a Fifa inquest. It should be a charm offensive to win over divided hearts and minds of Fifa executives, not a Spanish inquisition.

Andy Anson, the chief executive of England’s failed bid, admitted that the three million pounds spent on the bid book was ultimately wasted, as the money could have been spent on grassroots football projects of the kind that Fifa is keen to foster. Differently stated, he acknowledged that England failed to ‘charm’ the executives.

Another factor in England's defeat, claimed The Guardian, were the so-called media "smears" that its rivals so successfully used against it.

With  the London Sunday Times investigation leading to six Fifa officials being suspended and the BBC's Panorama programme apparently implicating four more (including the iWarner) sending Fifa into a tailspin, a furious backlash coalesced against England's bid.

In the final  days the bid team thought that the charm of a prince, a prime minister and a former England captain had helped to placate Fifa . They were wrong.

The timing of the crowd trouble in the League Cup match involving Birmingham and Aston Villa just prior to the bid annoement in Zurich could also not have been worse. After Birmingham beat Villa to reach the League Cup semi-finals, Birmingham fans invaded the pitch and threw flares at rival supporters.

In Zurich, sports secretary Jeremy Hunt said the 22 Fifa executives should look at the "bigger picture'' of England's success in largely eradicating the crowd violence that marred the game in the 1980s.

Hunt says "the English game has made more progress than anywhere in the world in dealing with hooliganism and stamping out racism.

It is obvious now that the Fifa executives did not look at the bigger picture regarding the crowd trouble, and that they might have reacted angrily to the smear campaign by the English media implicating executive members as being corrupt.

In fact, as the Times of London indicated on Sunday, instead of being defensive after the media offensive against them, Fifa’s silence was deafening.

For reform to happen, Fifa will have to admit they have a problem. Blatter, in summing up to the voting executives, referred to the ‘evil media’. It is hardly the words of a man ready to launch a review of Fifa’s practices. If there is to be change  at Fifa you need to think “What is in it for the executive committee?”, as Matt Dickinson of The Times of London described it.

The early in-fighting in assembling the England team and the inability to “work the corridors” as effectively as the Russian team in an effort to convert last-minute doubters to opt for England as the 2018 host were other factors in the ultimate decline of England.

Yet, in spite of the shortcomings of England, the calls by the international soccer media for radical reform will hopefully not die down soon, or be soothed by some clever manoeuvring by Fifa.

The persistent rumours about corruption and political in-fighting have as devastating an effect on the ethos and values of the game off the pitch as bullying or players violence have on it.