Tag Archives: world-cup

From the colony to the colonised….Football’s not coming home but to new frontiers….and without a dose of “Fair Play” (Part 1)

December 5, 2010 markfiorenti Leave a comment

“And the host of the 2018 World Cup is….Russia…

And the host of the 2022 World Cup is….Qatar”

When the abovementioned hosts were announced just after 2am last Friday morning, I no longer needed my shot of espresso to wake me up. Rather, I needed something to drown my sorrows.

If that wasn’t enough, I became nauseous when I learnt:

England was out in straight sets and finished dead last in the voting for 2018;
Australia was out in straight sets and finished dead last in the voting for 2022; and
The icing on the cake….the results was allegedly known approximately one hour before the tournament. So much for a secret ballot….

I can read the headlines already…. FIFA president Sepp, or should I say Gall, Blatter is remembered as the man who took the World Cup to Eastern Europe and the Middle East (along with Africa).

What won’t be widely reported is that Qatar’s victory gives him a reprieve, for had the World Cup not gone to Qatar, Asian Football Confederation chief Mohamed bin Hammam (Qatar’s bid chief, no less) would have allegedly challenged Blatter for the FIFA presidency. Blatter will now serve a fourth term as FIFA president.

So Hamman gets the glory of winning the World Cup for Qatar (a nice ego check) and Blatter gets to keep his job (and leave a “legacy” behind).

Nice wok guys – ego and political aspirations first, most logical choice and delivering fans a better footballing experience, a distant second.

To 2018….

Russia won the vote in a landslide victory in as early of the second round of voting, whilst England, a favourite, was miraculously sent packing after securing only two votes!

Nevertheless, in the weeks leading up to the vote, Blatter himself stated, “England can organize the World Cup tomorrow” boasting of its numerous world class stadia and the necessary infrastructure to deliver the world’s biggest sporting event.

And what of Russia…? FIFA’s own inspectors graded the bid as a “medium” operational risk and did not appear concerned by:

Travelling distances between host cities;
The need for extensive investment in infrastructure; and
The problem of racism amongst Russian fans (read – the banner erected by Lokomotiv Moscow supporters that abused Peter Odemwingie when he moved to West Bromwich Albion).

I can only guess FIFA didn’t appreciate England’s media recently uncovering new evidence about bribery claims regarding four of the men who voted last Friday morning. Three of those men, Cameroon’s Issa Hayatou, Brazil’s Ricardo Teixera and Paraguay’s Nicolas Leoz were accused of accepting bribes in the 1990’s and the fourth, CONCACAF President, Jack Warner was treated to a renewal of old allegations from earlier this year when he allegedly sold thousands of World Cup tickets on the black market for personal gain….but more on the issue of bribery and these shady characters, namely Hayatou, in Part 2….

It’s a travesty to think that the country which gave the world the beautiful game and continues to give so much to the world through its highly successful league – the most widely followed in the world, no less, scored so miserably in the voting last Friday.

England must now wait in excess of 60 years before football comes home.

I’m all in favour of FIFA’s legacy argument and desire to sail into unchartered waters, but in order to move forward one must also acknowledge and pay respect to our past. Further, a nation should be awarded the World Cup on its respective merits.

England would have been a logical, fair and timely choice.

It appears reputation means nothing in FIFA’s murky corridors of power.

Mark “The F Word” Fiorenti

Podcast

Sportzfan Radio #182.2

December 5, 2010 @packers4 Leave a comment

5 December 2010 182.2 – Daniel and the Professor talk ABL and in particular the ‘rivalry’ round and ask how you can have a rivalry after three weeks of a new league. The Panel talk about whether the ABL will be a success. Stan is not so sure as there have been six or so attempts at starting a league over the years. The Professor believes with the MLB putting money and young talent in, it has its best chance. Some of the up and coming players include Quincey Latimore.

The Panel also discuss emails including the Gabba’s entry restrictions for bags. Daniel wants to know how Wayne Bennett won the coach of the year award over Mick Malthouse. Paul Dalligan weighs in with his opinion and believes Wayne Bennett is not only head and shoulders above all other coaches in the NRL, but he also gives his team an ‘x’ factor, so much so that he would love Wayne to coach the Rabbitohs. Paul believes that Benji Marshall deserved his Golden Boot award and whilst the Professor queries whether the NRL are serious about arranging a World Club challenge in Las Vegas Paul thinks it is a good idea. Although Paul yet to get to a Melbourne Aces game due to wash outs, he thinks it is a bit early for a rivalry round in ABL.

Dr Leslie follows Paul’s segment this week and leads into a discussion of the NBA by the Professor and Daniel. The Professor is amazed that the Knicks are 11-9 and struggles to remember the last time they started a season so well. Axel is a huge fan of David Robinson…the General….no make that the Admiral. Daniel believes the Knicks may make the playoffs but it depends on whether they go after Carmelo Anthony. Daniel finds a way of bringing his team the Clippers into the discussion even though they are on the bottom of their division.

Sean Callanan looks at how social media was used in the World Cup bid and whether Australia used it effectively. He believes it worked engaging fans but not in getting votes. Sean reveals he did the ‘shimmy’ at the U2 concert and was rcognised as ‘the shimmy guy’. The twitter handle ‘the Ashes’, is owned by a US woman who doesn’t know anything about cricket and she is getting cross about people tweeting her about cricket. Sean will pluck the best three or four tweets he sees over the coming weeks to talk about on Sportzfan Radio. He is considering bringing out a ‘how to’ shimmy dvd for Christmas.

Podcast

Sportzfan Radio #182.1

December 5, 2010 @packers4 Leave a comment

5 December 2010 182.1 – ‘Hostilities’ start early with Daniel noting that Stan is growing a beard and is dressing like a metrosexual. Guest panelist Axel Dench is welcomed by the Panel and the Professor comments that he thought the Melbourne Tigers, given their recruiting of seven footers, may have called on Axel to fill out the roster. Daniel is on NBL “import” watch and indicates he thinks Eric Devendorf will survive but Craig Winder from the 36ers was wound up. He also confirms LeBron James did the ‘powder clap’ and that the game between the Cavaliers and the Heat was like an NBA finals game.

Mark Fiorenti comes on to talk about the failed Australian bid for the 2022 World Cup. He is shocked that Qatar won and that the Aussies only received one vote in the first round and therefore was eliminated. Mark believes we may have been too honest and not cunning enought to get the required votes. Axel wants to know how Australia could have been so blind sided by how countries would vote. Mark believes we could have been naive and other countries thought getting Australia out early inproved their chamces in latter rounds. The Professor asks just what we could have gotten for our $45 million spent on the failed bid. Australia’s bid video gets unanimously panned by the Panel and Mark says it looked more like a tourism advertisement whilst Daniel says the sports stars we used may be big here but not to the rest of the world. Mark thinks our next bid won’t be until the 2040 World Cup.

The Panel look at a tweet from Lisa Hayes regarding Tom Brady becoming a spokesperson for UGG clothing. We find out that Daniel is a New England Patriots fan. The Professor has Daniel speechless twice in a few minutes saying Tom is the elder brother the Brady Bunch never spoke about. Daniel says the only thing he likes better than basketball is Star Wars and Axel says he gave out more Star Wars autographs than for basketball.

A tweet from Craig Eyles is also discussed regarding the Australian cricket team and the Ashes. Stan says there aren’t enough players playing cricket and not enough care about whether we win the Ashes or not. He says we should sack the selectors and Daniel actually agrees. Axel believes the Aussie fans are front runners and tend to fall off when Australia is not doing well.

Sports

Australia comes last in World Cup 2022 bidding

December 3, 2010 @packers4 1 Comment

I suppose the good thing about all of this is that we can stop talking about the World Cup until it comes time for the Socceroos to qualify for 2014. Rather than give my own thoughts I thought I’d include some from my fellow Sportzfan radio panelists that have crossed my desk since the decision was made earlier today.

Daniel Eade – With Australia unsuccessful after its $45million bid was rejected by the FIFA voting panel, will the A-League survive?

Do we blame Julia Gillard? The Computer Animated Kangaroo? Paul Hogan? The Marketing Department who green-lit the ‘Bid’ video?

So once again, Sportzfanradio made the correct call before everyone else. Well the Professor and Fiorenti called it. They just made sense to me so I agreed with them.

Paul Hogan appeared in the commercial and he got the Taxman off his back. Coincidence?

Sean Callanan – For mine it was always a long shot but I think it is a bit like the old sporting adage you have to lose one to win one. Or in the case of Qatar have so much money no one will care about sunburn.

Paul Dalligan – I don’t think it is far removed from the AFL with their planned $300 million kitty to conquer Western Sydney

I know the Olympics bid was public money, whereas the AFL’s riches have been raised from the game but you can’t conquer new seas if you are afraid to turn your back to the shore

For Mr Democracy Obama to describe the 2022 decision as “wrong”, perhaps we didn’t lose on merit but were defeated by much more sinister forces!

Mark Fiorenti – Disappointed but like I said yesterday and will continue to say, I don’t think the financial report was the be all and all. If it was Qatar wouldn’t have won the bid – in a landslide, no less. The report placed them at 2nd last, yet they scored 11 votes in the first round!

…and you can add to that “no one cares about not being allowed to drink alcohol at the world’s biggest sporting event”.

I agree with the comment “you have to lose one to win one” quote Sean. How many times did Sydney/Aust lose the Olympics before they/we actually won it? Three times from memory.

Some tweets from last nite –

Doesn’t Russia constantly Snow? If movies have taught me anything, it’s that it’s always snowing in Russia.
I won!! Soccer is so boring. Give me AFL.
Andrew Demetriou is laughing and smoking a big fat cigar.
LeBron James is taking his talents to Qatar.
This might be a silly question, but does Qatar even have a soccer team?
Is Chewbacca from Qatar?
Both ‘Quatar’ and ‘Katar’ are trending. People are stupid
The AFL should’ve expanded to Qatar instead of Western Sydney.

Sports

Australia’s 2022 World Cup bid becomes a Greek tragedy

December 1, 2010 @packers4 Leave a comment

Professor’s Rant #4

I’ll start this rant by repeating what I said on Sportzfan Radio last Sunday (see show #181.2) – I would love Australia to get the 2022 World Cup (a view shared by The Gelding, but not Daniel or Stan – is that OK Daniel?).

The report on the assessment of finacncial return to FIFA from each of the bidding countries, which has only been recently released (more about that later), seems to be a fatal blow to our chances.

Given the findings of the report, what are the chances of Australia getting the nod when the vote is held in the early hours of tomorrow morning? Zero, zilch, zippo, naught, nil, zip. Get the picture?

Why? It comes down to simple mathematics – which Board would vote for an option that reaps the least (that’s right, the least) profit for it? Think about that question for a second or two…now roll it around……easy to answer when you consider it. Let’s for good measure add that the favourite in this five horse race is the USA ,who just happens to be the country that reaps the most reward for FIFA if they are to be successful with their bid. The answer becomes a no brainer!

Even if I am wrong and the USA aren’t successful, there are still three other bids that make more money for FIFA. I can’t see a kangaroo, Hoges and Julia Gillard making up for the giant cash shortfall.

Ask yourself this further question should you still be struggling with the economics of the situation. If you were a share holder in FIFA Inc., would you want the voters to vote for a bid that would give you the least money in your pocket to pay increasing mortgage rates and rising electricity and gas bills?

Yet another question. If FIFA had released the report much earlier (ie when bidding opened) would Australia have run as hard or invested as much money. I think not! Synics like me wonder why the findings of this report have only come to light in the last week of the process. You don’t need to be a Rhodes scholar to work that one out. Why would FIFA reveal findings that would stifle the competition? Another no brainer – they wouldn’t.

On Sportzfan Radio, we have queried from the start the wisdom of making such a large investment in a bid that was against the odds from its very beginning. We felt the money would be far better spent putting resources into growing the game at the grass roots level and enhancing the A League and its teams. Make no mistake, the local product needs to improve significantly if we are to be rated a credible force in world soccer.

So in the end, what will we have?

Nothing for $45 million dollars. Shareholders just love that sort of equation!

To quote Paul Dalligan “ah, yep!”

Podcast

Sportzfan Radio #181.2

December 1, 2010 @packers4 Leave a comment

28 November 2010 181.2 – Daniel wants the Tigers to get rid of their white alternate strip. Stan adds that the Tigers are hopeless at 1-7. Mark Fiorenti talks up Australia’s chances for the 2022 World Cup and thinks the bid looks a lot better than it did three or four months ago. He also thinks the USA are favourites. Daniel believes if Julia Gillard writes a letter of support that will sink the bid. The Professor thinks Bob Hawke should have been asked to write a letter. Mark also wraps up A League and Premier League matches of interest. He thinks it is Chelsea’s title to lose. Dr Leslie’s CSA returns to the show after a few weeks off. Daniel is not happy that the Professor signed off with “We all hope we get the 2022 World Cup”…this then promotes a discussion as to who actually wants the World Cup. Stan and Daniel don’t want it. The Gelding hopes we do get it. Suitably chastened, the Professor re-announces “The Gelding and I both hope we get it, Daniel and Stan definitely don’t”. The Panel then discuss emails about the Australian Test selections. The Gelding thinks the role of wicketkeeper has changed over the years as we now pick a wicketkeeper that is an allrounder. Stan believes it is no good trying to make a batsman into a wicketkeeper. Paul Dalligan is back to talk rugby league….didn’t the season finish eight weeks ago? He talks about Russell Crowe leaking details of Greg Inglis’ contract on a US talk show. The NRL are now looking more closely at the deal. The Professor asks why this deal is different to the Mark Gasnier deal. Daniel thinks it would be good for Crow to team up with Inglis at the Rabbitohs. Paul then goes on to talk baseball and the ABL. Unfortunately, the Melbourne Aces first three home games have been rained out. We give a shout out to a new listener…Lisa Haye’s husband. The Panel talk about Mark “Choco” Williams appointment as Kevin Sheedy’s assistant at Greater Western Sydney. This leads into a discussion of whether Sheedy will actually coach the team in 2012. Stan decides to swing the axe and believes Mick Malthouse and Kevin Sheedy have reached their use by date and should retire as the old guys are keeping the younger coaches out of jobs. Sean Callanan comes on to talk social media and discusses the Dallas Cowboys forgetting to renew their domain name so they were left without a website and thinks the IT man at the Cowboys may be out of a job. The Denver Broncos have been fined $100,000 for filming the 49ers at practice. Sean talks about Vince Young apologising to his coach Jeff Fisher by text and says it is probably not the most effective means of doing that. A listener queries why Young didn’t call Fisher as he had the phone in his hand sending the text.

Podcast

Sportzfan Radio #178.2

November 8, 2010 @packers4 Leave a comment

7 November 2010 178.2 – The Panel welcome the return of John O’Callaghan and reveals he is a Green Bay Packer fan. The Panel talk about athletes who keep on getting into the news for all the wrong reasons – Favre, Fevola, Warne, Newman. Nicole thinks it is “younger man approaching middle age trying to hold on to youth”. John discusses the AFL Grand Final and thinks it now should be an extra time game and not a replay. The Panel again take Mark Fiorenti to task again about the FFA bidding for the 2022 World Cup and the money that looks like it is wasted on a probable failed bid. Nicole thinks Ricky Ponting needs to get some emotion back into his captaincy of the Australian cricket side as he is too full of management speak. The Panel aren’t excited about the coming Ashes series. The Panel ask Paul Dalligan what Joel Monaghan’s scene is… Paul is enraged about the response and believes people shouldn’t be blaming social media. Paul breaks that Greg Inglis may be going to the Rabbitohs instead of the Broncos. Sean Callanan comes on to talk social media who thinks it was apt that his lead in was the theme from Minder as some pro athletes need minders. He says social media is ubiquitous.

Sports

Coming up on Sportzfan Radio #163

July 17, 2010 @packers4 Leave a comment

On Sunday’s show the Professor is back behind the Panel and will have NRL commentator Nick Tedeschi and basketball expert Daniel Eade as guests. Aside from the normal disection of the week in sports they will be talking with US reporter Dan Butterly about Major League Baseball and the National League finally winning an All Star game, NBA free agency and an interesting video from the Mountain West women’s soccer championships of 2009.

We’ll cross to a restaurant in Chinatown to talk racing with The Gelding, who’ll discuss the winners and losers at Caulfield. Also on the show “F” Word’s Mark Fiorenti will wrap up the recently completed World Cup and talk about whether soccer needs the introduction of a match review panel. Paul Dalligan will discuss the revelations about the Melbourne Storm higher salary cap breaches and give his assessment of the likely finalists as the NRL season nears its conclusion.

Tweet us a topic to discuss on twitter @sportzfanradio

Podcast

Sportzfan Radio 161.2

July 5, 2010 @packers4 Leave a comment

4 July 2010 161.2 -Dr Leslie’s CSA gets a run with the approval of listeners. The Sydney Colt texts that the estimated first prize in the Sports World Series of Poker is $9 million. The ‘F’ word talks World Cup quarter finals and Daniel says the Socceroos would win a “make believe” World Cup 4-0. The Panel query who will welcome the Socceroos back into Australia seeing Kevin Rudd has been sacked, but then decide hardly any of them live here anyway. The ‘F’ word also ponders the semi finals and thinks it will be a Germany v Netherlands final, He wants Marcelo Bielsa as the next Socceroos coach. Dalligan talks State of Origin 3 and thinks the NSW team can win 16-14 and hopes they can take inspiration from the example of the Socceroos bouncing back after their defeat by Germany. He also calls the Karmichael Hunt experiment a debacle. The Sports Geek explains his NRL Sports Social Media Index and says the NRL are about 7 to 8 months behind the AFL in social media as 3 teams aren’t even on twitter or facebook. He is currently advising the Southern Football League on social media policy.

News, Punting, Sports

Pim’s on Ice – now for a real coach

July 2, 2010 markfiorenti Leave a comment

The autopsy has been conducted, the eulogy delivered and the culprits drawn and courted so now it’s time for Football Federation Australia to move on and recruit our next national team coach.

The likely replacements include Paul LeGuen, Sven Goran Eriksson, Carlos Alberto Parreira and Marcelo “EL Loco” Bielsa.

Prior to assessing the credentials of these candidates, I should say that the Socceroos prefer to play a confident, attacking, proactive style of football – one that reflects our true sporting culture. We witnessed the benefits of this style of play under Guss Hiddink at the 2006 World Cup. These playing characteristics obviously affect the selection of coach. Further, the coach must instil the players with technical qualities and believe in the youth of our proud nation.

Now for the candidates…..

Paul Le Guen

Le Guen had successful coaching stints at French clubs Lyon and PSG and Scottish giants Rangers. He recently resigned from his post as the national team coach of Cameroon following his side’s inglorious exit from the World Cup after losing all three of its group matches. Further, and despite boasting the talents of players such as Samuel Eto’o and Alex Song, Cameroon were the first team officially knocked out of the 2010 World Cup. The abovementioned results speak for themselves….

Sven Goran Eriksson

Erikkson enjoyed an extremely successful tenure as a club football manager in the Swedish, Portuguese and Italian leagues from 1978 to 2001, most notably with Italian club, Lazio. In the period 2001 to 2006 he coached the England national team. Despite having coached many of England’s “golden generation” of players, Eriksson failed to take England beyond the quarter final stages of both the 2002 and 2006 World Cups and most notably, failed to engineer a win over a ten man Brazil side in the 2002 World Cup quarter final. Further, Eriksson had a disastrous and short stint as the manager of the Mexican national team – in fact, immediately after he was sacked in April 2009 the Mexican fans’ association held a ‘victory rally’ attended by approximately 30,000 angry supporters! In short, Eriksson has been unable to replicate his club football success on the international stage. Finally, he would cost a pretty penny. In my opinion, it would not be money well spent.

Carlos Alberto Parreira

We’re getting warmer now….

Parreira has enjoyed a distinguished coaching career. He coached Brazil to victory in the 1994 World Cup, 2004 Copa America and the 2005 Confederations Cup. Further, he is one of only two coaches that has led five national teams to the World Cup: Kuwait in 1982, United Arab Emirates in 1990, Brazil in 1994 and 2006, Saudi Arabia in 1998 and South Africa in 2010.

Nevertheless, and somewhat surprisingly, he failed to take Brazil beyond the quarter final stages of the 2006 World Cup. This, despite having attacking talents such as Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Adriano and Robinho at his disposal. Further, and like Eriksson, he will not come cheap and frankly, I would prefer seeing Football Federation Australia investing the money in grassroots football and unearthing the next Harry Kewell and Tim Cahill. God knows we need more of them….

So that leaves the madman, Marcelo Bielsa.

Bielsa coached the Argentine national team from 1998 to 2004 and enjoyed mixed success. The team exited the 2002 World Cup at the first round but were runners-up at the 2004 Copa America and won the 2004 Olympic Games. Bielsa is the current coach of the Chilean national team and it is here that he has truly worked wonders. Under his guidance the team has undergone many historic firsts, including their first win over Argentina in official matches and beating Paraguay away from home for the first time in nearly thirty years. Further, Bielsa fast tracked many young talents throughout Chile’s qualification campaign and employs an attacking brand of football – Chile scored the most goals in the South American qualification stages of the World Cup.

Bielsa’s relationships with the media are also good.

His interviews are stimulating and he has been known to field every last question from the assembled media at his press conferences. Further, he once famously stated:

“Every section of the media should get the same attention from me, from the capital’s most prominent TV channel to the smallest newspaper in the provinces”.

A refreshing change from “Pim’s and (very) dry” who, amongst other things, publicly smashed the A-League and later, rather than backing away from his comments reportedly remarked, “I’m Dutch, we’re honest”.

Bielsa is reportedly paid $1.5 million per annum to coach the Chilean national team – a figure less than what Football Federation Australia paid the man who couldn’t get and/or afford a decent haircut.

There are increasing suggestions Bielsa will leave his post now that Chile has exited the World Cup….

As Deborah Harry once sang, “I want that man”.

Mark “The ‘F’ Word” Fiorenti – discussing all things concerning the World Game.