The last to know

The night was foggy and the environs of the Royal Bafokeng Stadium poorly lit.

We had just finished a nightmare journey to reach the England v USA clash at last summer's World Cup on-time, though little did we know the absurdly delayed drive to Rustenburg from Johannesburg would be as nothing compared to the never-ending story that was the trip back.

Two hours after the final whistle we were still waiting to leave the car park, or rather the strip of wasteland commandeered to house the many vehicles used by fans visiting the 42,000 venue; Rustenburg had no railway station.

What was FIFA thinking handing the World Cup to a place like this, I thought. A veritable nightmare for visiting fans, by some margin the most inconvenient of the six World Cup finals I had attended. Then I got my answer - a military helicopter, searchlights beaming through the gloom, hovered in to land. The doors opened and a posse of security ushered US Vice-President Joe Biden into the stadium.

Biden doubtless had a five-star experience of the World Cup like all FIFA dignitaries did, and the TV feed did its job in pumping the games into people's homes across the globe.

But what about the real fans, those of us who had shelled out to be there in the South African winter in person. Did anyone care about our experience of the World Cup?

Talking of winter, and in South Africa the thermometer dipped below zero on many nights, a winter World Cup in the Middle East in 2022 looks ever likelier now the International Players' Union has come out in favour of it.

FIFPRO has added to calls from Franz Beckenbauer and Michel Platini, endorsed by Sepp Blatter and Jerome Valcke, for the Qatar tournament to be shifted to the European winter months, presumably January when the African Nations Cup takes place to avoid that continent's oppressive summer heat.

"Tourists are advised not to travel to Qatar in the summer months," said FIFPRO's spokesman Tijs Tummers. "Inhabitants of Qatar leave the country en masse during this period."

Tummers went on to note how supporters would suffer in the 50C midday heat "The summer months in Qatar do not provide suitable conditions for a festival of football."

Did someone mention supporters? Those quaint old aficionados who pay an arm and a leg to support multi-million pound stars across the world instead of watching it at home on their i-Pad. Since when were they a consideration for the game's decision-makers in Switzerland?

South Africa was a challenge for them: The distances between venues was vast, the public transport next to non-existent and the road network wholly inadequate for a show of the World Cup's magnitude. The clogged one-lane highway in and out of Rustenburg will live long in this European fan's memory.

Brazil, the World Cup host in 2014, has equally vast distances and poor transport options compared to recent European and Far-Eastern host nations, plus a crime problem at least as worrying as South Africa's. 2018 host Russia has more enormous distances to cover in addition to a train network below Western European standards, problems shared by Euro 2012 hosts Poland and Ukraine. And then there is Qatar.

The fans, the lifeblood of the game after all, as it is they who provide the lion's share of club revenues in their ticket purchases, have become the last thought, if considered at all, by the game's decision makers.

What visiting this summer's World Cup finals, and witnessing Russia and Qatar win the right to host future ones confirmed to me was that TV rights, sponsor revenue, FIFA politics, moneyed suitors and geo-political pulls have left fans, the real ones that is, facing more mammoth journeys and myriad inconveniences in their unwavering, unchallengeable, yet increasingly unrequited love for the Beautiful Game.

(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile

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The New World Cup stadia

BRAZIL 2014



RUSSIA 2018



QATAR 2022



-Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile

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-Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile

Ten ways to change FIFA

Now the whole world outside Russia and Qatar agrees that FIFA is bent and not fit for purpose, what do we do about it?

Former England international Viv Anderson was one of a number of voices this weekend to advocate withdrawal from FIFA and the establishment of a rival organisation. The Football Association did leave FIFA before, from 1928 until 1946 over a dispute over paying amateurs, of all things. And England missed three golden opportunities to win the World Cup.

The alternative to establishing a rival organisation is to reform FIFA from within, increasing domestic representation (only seven Englishmen work in FIFA's 34 committees at present), and urging a purging of the endemic corruption.

This will take time and hard work. But in a perfect world, I wish the following would happen tomorrow to the World Cup decision procedure:

1. Suspend Jack Warner, Issa Hayatou, Ricardo Texeira and Nicolas Leoz from the Executive Committee immediately and let an independent body investigate the serious allegations against them raised by Andrew Jennings, Espen Sandli & Togeir Korkfjord and the BBC. Suspend Julio Grondona until the Wall Street Journal's allegations are dealt with too. Allow this body to probe further allegations of corruption made by Mel Brennan, David Yallop and various media outlets. Sepp Blatter's anger at the "evil media" is an admission of guilt.
2. End the practice of concealing FIFA demands on potential hosts' governments. No nation should be bullied, as the Netherlands were this time, into becoming a temporary tax haven for FIFA.
3. Open up the World Cup vote beyond the 22 men on the Ex.Co. There are 208 FIFA member nations and until 1983 all had a say.
4. Never again schedule two hosting votes simultaneously - the potential for collusion was just too great, as Spain/Portugal and Qatar duly proved.
5. Make the ballots open and require voters to explain their decision to the press. Ensure every voter receives the bid books - only three requested England's 2018 presentation!
6. End this obsession with 'legacy' and 'new lands'. Create guidelines for deciding on the host which stress football heritage, existing ability to host the tournament and financial potential. It is ludicrous that bidders are being punished for having the best stadia and infrastructure already in place and that FIFA's own technical and commercial criteria (the Evaluation Reports and the McKinsey study) were blatantly ignored by the Ex.Co. No more than one out every three World Cups should be on virgin soil, not the three out of four we have at present. The game's heartlands deserve the lion's share because that is where football is most supported.
7. Impose financial limits on bids as political parties have in UK constituency elections. Russia outspent Spain/Portugal three to one and Qatar's largesse was well-documented.
8. Adopt the strict IOC rules on Olympic bid lobbying - no voter may holiday in a bidding nation, be approached outside of bidding conventions or even have a drink bought for them by a bidding representative.
9. Make integrity a bidding factor. Countries guilty of human rights abuses, money laundering & organised crime and restrictions on press freedom should not be rewarded with the world's biggest party.
10. Leave Switzerland for a more transparent country. FIFA should depart the land of secret bank accounts for somewhere which wants to engage with the world, preferably a small European Union nation like Belgium, Denmark or Luxembourg, where business and politics are more open and less shady. The whiff of corruption at FIFA H.Q. goes with the territory at present.

(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile

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Breaking down the World Cup voting

The fall-out from yesterday's double-shock in Switzerland continues after FIFA selected Russia and Qatar as hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

England were humiliated with only two votes, one of which came from their own representative Geoff Thompson, and Spain/Portugal, the favourites, were left scratching their heads after Russia romped home 13-7 in the second round.

2022 provided a bigger shock as, despite its small size and searing heat, Qatar beat the USA 14-8 in the fourth round of voting. Australia, once seen as the front-runner, crashed in flames with only one vote.

World Cup 2018
1st Round Russia 9, Spain/Port 7, Neth/Belgium 4, England 2
2nd Round Russia 13, Spain/Portugal 7, Neth/Belgium 2

World Cup 2022
1st round: Qatar 11, South Korea 4, Japan 3, USA 3, Australia 1

2nd round: Qatar 10, South Korea 5, USA 5, Japan 2

3rd round: Qatar 11, USA 6, South Korea 5

4th round: Qatar 14, USA 8

The identities behind the 22 votes are kept anonymous by FIFA, who used blank ballots, but it appears clear that Russia won by picking up two of the Low Countries' supporters, plus Geoff Thompson and England's other supporter, believed to be Junji Ogura or Issa Hayatou. Spain/Portugal had seven key backers but could not move up from seven.

The 2022 decision went two more rounds because South Korea maintained a core vote of five and Japan two, four of whom eventually transferred to Qatar, who actually went down a vote between rounds one and two but maintained a comfortable lead over the USA throughout.

Qatar, Japan and the Netherlands/Belgium all saw their support reduce between particular rounds, proving certain FIFA delegates changed their minds during the process, while only Spain/Portugal had an unchanging block of votes.

Qatar finished with three and Russia with four more votes than they began with, but the USA showed the most improvement across the decision process, increasing its votes by five between the first and final round.

We may never know which delegate voted for which country, but the breakdown could have been thus:

2018 - 1st Round
Russia - Mutko, Blatter, Warner, Blazer, Salguero, Beckenbauer, Anouma, Lefkaritis, Hayatou
Spain/Portugal - Villar Llona, Leoz, Grondona, Abo Rida, Bin Hammam, Makudi, Teixeira
Netherlands/Belgium -D'Hooghe, Chung, Erzik, Platini
England - Thompson, Ogura

2nd Round
Russia - Mutko, Blatter, Warner, Blazer, Salguero, Beckenbauer, Anouma, Lefkaritis, Hayatou, Ogura, Chung, Erzik, Platini
Spain/Portugal - Villar Llona, Leoz, Grondona, Abo Rida, Bin Hammam, Makudi, Teixeira
Netherlands/Belgium -D'Hooghe, Thompson

2022 - 1st Round
Qatar - Bin Hammam, Leoz, Grondona, Teixeira, Abo Rida, Makudi, Villar Llona, Platini, Hayatou, Anouma, Lefkaritis,
South Korea -Chung, D'Hooghe, Erzik, Blatter
Japan - Ogura, Thompson, Mutko
USA - Warner, Blazer, Salguero
Australia - Beckenbauer

2nd Round
Qatar - Bin Hammam, Leoz, Grondona, Abo Rida, Makudi, Villar Llona, Platini, Hayatou, Anouma, Lefkaritis,
South Korea -Chung, D'Hooghe, Erzik, Blatter, Texeira
USA - Warner, Blazer, Salguero, Mutko, Beckenbauer
Japan - Ogura, Thompson

3rd Round
Qatar - Bin Hammam, Leoz, Grondona, Abo Rida, Makudi, Villar Llona, Platini, Hayatou, Anouma, Lefkaritis, Ogura
USA - Warner, Blazer, Salguero, Mutko, Beckenbauer, Thompson
South Korea -Chung, D'Hooghe, Erzik, Blatter, Texeira

4th Round
Qatar - Bin Hammam, Leoz, Grondona, Abo Rida, Makudi, Villar Llona, Platini, Hayatou, Anouma, Lefkaritis, Ogura, Texeira, Chung, Erzik
USA - Warner, Blazer, Salguero, Mutko, Beckenbauer, Thompson, Blatter, D'Hooge

As for the motives for voting, that debate is only just beginning...

-Sean O'Conor

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The only men who matter

2018 World Cup Decision - Zurich

Hours of debate and acres of column inches have been expended debating the pluses and minuses of the various 2018 World Cup bids, and the FIFA Executive Committee have their exhaustive technical study to go on (which rated England and Spain/Portugal as the safest bets) as well as the McKinsey report (which claimed the English bid would be the most lucrative).

Recent news has hurt several bids - the military exchanges between the two Koreas, the looming financial crises in Portugal and Spain, the Wikileaks diplomatic assessment of Russia as a gangster state and the pitch invasion at the Birmingham derby in England. Only the low countries' bid seems to have avoided the bad headlines, but it has missed the good ones too. The Dutch government's reluctance to turn the tournament into a tax haven for the tournament and bankroll FIFA to the tune of 300 million Euros probably dealt their bid the coup de grace.

Yet at the end of the day, the two-year lobbying process, which has become frenzied in Switzerland as the hours count down to the vote, tell the true tale about how World Cup hostings are decided - by forming alliances. With 22 different nationalities on the Executive Committee, international networking is a must.

According to all accounts, the low-key Spain/Portugal bid has been the most successful in making friends, despite a budget one third of England's or Russia's. The Iberians appear not only to have worked their cultural heritage in bagging the three South American votes on offer, but also struck a potentially winning alliance with Mohamed Bin-Hammam of Qatar, whose influence is believed to extend to two further members. England's repeated courting of Jack Warner seems to have translated into an understanding that CONCACAF's three votes will support them, although Rafael Salguero of Guatemala may be tempted to join his Hispanic brothers.

Cultural heritage is clearly a factor, which means not only the North and South American votes will head back to their ancestral homelands but also that the Egyptian delegate Hany Abo Rida is more likely to follow Mohamed Bin Hammam from the Asian confederation than vote with other (sub-Saharan) Africans. If Korean Chung Mong-Joon plumps as expected for the Dutch/Belgian bid, it will partly be down to his federation has hired four Dutch coaches in the last ten years.

Personal friendships and sentimental reasons will be factors too, as well as old sores and prejudices. Predicting the outright winner is only an approximate exercise given the voting format where the lowest-scoring bid's votes will be allocated elsewhere with each successive round until one nation has an overall majority. And who knows, one or two wavering candidates may even change their mind between rounds in the anonymous ballot boxes.

If England and the Iberians have say seven votes apiece to begin with, that still leaves six second preferences to swing it either way. All that does seem sure going into the final day is that the Dutch & Belgians have no hope of winning and that Spain & Portugal have a slender lead over England, who are narrowly ahead of Russia. Vladimir Putin's last-minute decision not to fly to Zurich while Prince William and David Cameron press the flesh sounds like an admission of defeat. Iberia is the favourite for now, but Angel Maria Villa Llona's boast that "all the fish is sold" a week ago may come back to haunt him if England turn an ear or two at the last minute.

Predictions are inevitably risky given the difficulty in reading the minds of 22 diverse men and the secret nature of the ballot renders prognostications doubly moot, but these nevertheless are mine:

2018 decision - possible first round voting intentions

Spain/Portugal
Julio Grondona (Argentina)
Angel Maria Villa Llona (Spain)
Nicolas Leoz (Paraguay)
Ricardo Texeira (Brazil)
Mohamed Bin Hammam (Qatar)
Worawi Makudi (Thailand)
Hany Abo Rida (Egypt)

England
Geoff Thompson (England)
Jack Warner (Trinidad & Tobago)
Chuck Blazer (USA)
Senes Erzik (Turkey)
Junji Ogura (Japan)
Rafael Salguero (Guatemala)

Russia
Sepp Blatter (Switzerland)
Franz Beckenbauer (Germany)
Vitaly Mutko (Russia)
Marios Lefkaritis (Cyprus)
Jacques Anouma (Ivory Coast)
Issa Hayatou (Cameroon)

Holland/Belgium
Michel D'Hooge (Belgium)
Michel Platini (France)
Chung Mong-Joon (South Korea)

(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile

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2018 Cup race leaves sour taste

On Thursday afternoon we will know the venues for the 2018 & 2022 World Cup Finals and a sorry 21-month multinational spat will blessedly come to an end.

What FIFA had wished would be a smooth process has degenerated into an unseemly mess. As wealthy nations squabble for victory, a public tired of perceived corruption in football politics sigh as their suspicions are reinforced. Whoever wins the 2018 race will not remove the whiff of a grubby power-grab of claim and counter-claim, backroom deals and illicit bribery that has dogged this latest World Cup bidding war.

Don't kill the messenger. The press has every right to shine a light anywhere on FIFA as much as on any form of government: Quis custodet ipsos custodes...FIFA is a nation-state with a global influence approaching the Vatican's, given the way world leaders genuflect before President Sepp Blatter when he visits and leave their domestic problems behind to jet into Switzerland for last-minute lobbying. Yet transparency before the law has been slow to catch up and the continuing presence of the likes of Vice-President Jack Warner at high table and the closed vote for the hosting decision do not help clean up the general consensus that FIFA is far too secretive for such an internationally pervasive body.

The UK media, sensing a hefty, hard-to-miss quarry, has trained its guns on FIFA Headquarters in Zurich and scored some hits, notably bringing down Reynauld Temarii and Amos Adamu, removed from the 24-man Executive Committee who select the winning bids.

Yesterday the BBC broadcast persuasive allegations that three other Exec. Com. members - Issa Hayatou, Ricardo Teixeira and Nicolas Leoz, had trousered kickbacks from FIFA's now-collapsed marketing company ISL. England's bidding team had feared the show would derail their bid at the last minute, but in reality the impact is unlikely to tell, given the whole organisation has been under the spotlight for a while and the murky goings-on with ISL, highlighted by investigative reporter Andrew Jennings and others already, date from 1995.

The 2018 race has been particularly unseemly, with Russian bid leader Alexei Sorokin openly sledging against his rivals in breach of FIFA rules, claiming London had a problem with crime and juvenile drinking. Qui accuse, s'accuse...

Spain/Portugal have seen CONMEBOL come out in support of them before the vote and were cornered with stories they had struck a deal with 2022-bidders Qatar, allegations bolstered by Asian Football Confederation Mohamed Bin Hammam's confirmation of an "excellent relationship" which was "not breaking any rules." Iberian bid boss Miguel Angel Lopez in turn accused The Football Association and US Soccer of a similar pact and criticised English hotels.

England had a great bid on paper with no obvious drawbacks but has had to contend not only with its seemingly perennial lack of influence in FIFA corridors (as Jack Warner reiterated during the bidding process), but its own media's lust for blood: F.A. Chairman Lord Triesman resigned in ignominy after being secretly taped claiming Spain and Russia were working together to bribe referees at the World Cup and form a mutual voting pact.

FIFA evaluated England's and Spain/Portugal's bids to be the lowest-risk and England's bid was also judged to be largest potential money-spinner by management consultants McKinsey, in a FIFA-commissioned appraisal. A diplomatic trident of Prime Minister David Cameron, soccer superstar David Beckham and the recently engaged HRH Prince William will be unleashed on the 22 delegates on Thursday morning in the hope of persuading them to forsake their alliances and back the home of football's bid on its merits alone.

The least controversial of the four bids and another perfectly valid one, Belgium & the Netherlands', is perhaps not coincidentally the least likely to win. Despite Johann Cruyff's electrifying presence, Ruud Gullit's enthusiasm and the greenness of the bid, elimination in the first-round of voting looms.

The sour grapes can be tasted already, the recriminations as sure as night follows day. As when Germany 'stole' the 2006 hosting from South Africa at the last minute, expect a burst of 'we wuz robbed' outrage and trans-European finger-pointing.

It has been an unpleasant and dirty trek to the final vote in Zurich, and for those of us who wish football were a beautiful game both on and off the field, Thursday cannot come quickly enough.

2018 bidders - Netherlands/Belgium, England, Russia, Spain/Portugal.
2022 bidders - Australia, USA, Qatar, Japan, South Korea

(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile
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English press puts Russia in pole position

England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup looks shakier by the day as its media turns up the heat on football corruption.

Today the BBC revealed that the Football Association's bidding team feel they have suffered a serious setback after the Sunday Times forced FIFA to act on allegations that two Executive Committee members were selling their votes.

President Sepp Blatter has already signalled his organisation's panic against the British media probes, with England's 2018 bidding team nervously praying FIFA will not take out their anger on them instead. According to the BBC, the FA believe that the recent publicity around FIFA members selling votes (hardly a surprise) has "significantly harmed" England's hopes of hosting the tournament in eight years' time, and that further revelations would deal their bid a fatal blow.

"One can ask whether such an action is appropriate, trying to set traps for people," said Blatter."We are asking ourselves why did it happen and why did it happen specifically by English journalists? We are looking at that."

With FIFA's Ethics Committee due to discuss the allegations leveled at Nigeria's Amos Adamu and Tahiti's Reynald Tamarii in a couple of weeks, the proximity of the World Cup vote on the 2nd of December will ensure the other 22 Executive Committee members stay on their guard against further revelations, with BBC's Panorama preparing another special edition.

While any spring-cleaning of FIFA's house is welcome to ensure transparency prevails, the losers could well be the FA should the 24 Executive Committee members choose to punish them by association. This would be unfair as the FA were the victims themselves when the Mail on Sunday exposed their chairman Lord Triesman's extra-curricular dalliance with a secretary, forcing him to resign ignominiously in May this year.

The UK media has long taken a lead in investigative journalism surrounding the sport's governing body for a while - David Yallop kicked it off with 'How They Stole the Game' in 1999, exposing Joao Havelange's crooked hi-jacking of the FIFA Presidency and his subsequently tainted business practices, following the civilised reign of Sir Stanley Rous.

Andrew Jennings then took up the baton four years ago with his equally explosive book 'Foul!', which shone a harsh light on Blatter's realm and his unscrupulous lieutenants, particularly the uber-knave Jack Warner of Trinidad, whom Jennings has pursued ever since.

Britain's football press has not been patriotic for years. Since the 1980s, Fleet Street's soccer hacks have never missed an opportunity to derail an England star or manager with prurient exposés of their private lives and would surely leap at the chance to show their World Cup bid was corrupt, which it does not appear to be.

Reporters will defend their investigations as in the public interest, but their primary aim is the thrill of the story. As long as they get their scoop, they will not care about denying their own country a chance to host the greatest show on earth.

The irony of this Sword of Damocles is that it will fall on England and allow Russia, the epitome of a bent country in Europe, to sneak in and steal the hosting rights to the biggest prize of all.

(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile

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The week that was

Wayne Rooney is threatening to leave Manchester United after another row with nice Mr Ferguson...Didn’t Beckham, Stam, Van Nistelrooy and Ronaldo fall out with Sir Alex too before heading for the exit at Old Trafford? I still seem to be the only person who does not think Fergie is a football genius.

Former Manchester City coach Malcolm Allison, who died this week aged 83, was best-known for his 1970s image – the fedora, cigars, nightclubs and glamour girls, as well as his rebranding of Crystal Palace as ‘the Eagles’, but he also had a shrewd soccer brain. He had realised by the early 1950s that English football was tactically obsolete, but unlike most, fought hard to do something about it through innovative coaching. He won the league and European Cup Winners’ Cup with City (the last all-English champions of England), turned down Juventus and won a Portuguese championship with Sporting Lisbon. Charismatic and flamboyant in public to the point of ridicule he was, yet he remained a sound judge of the game, and like many a English manager with continental leanings, was consistently overlooked by the myopic Football Association.

After the Sunday Times splashed the shock news that certain FIFA Executive Committee members are inviting investment in return for World Cup votes, their next assignment is to reveal that the earth goes around the sun.

This is no scoop. What is the Nigeria or Tahiti representative supposed to do other than try to boost the football infrastructure in their either poor or rugby-swamped nations? FiFA is always talking about developing the game in such places. And why are the bidding nations playing friendlies in places like Trinidad or Qatar other than to curry votes from the local members of the Executive Committee. This is politics, not cricket, like it or not, and FIFA have muddied the waters of the Corinthian spirit.

Yes, soccer is bent, inevitably so with so much money at stake you might say. At least an unnamed FIFA member let slip that England are not bribing for 2018...So that’s Russia’s in the bag then.

Fulham skipper Danny Murphy has kept the tabloids in business this week with a curious dig at Wolves, Stoke and Blackburn for playing too physically. Football surely is cleaner now than in the past, due to the banning of tackles from behind and the two-dozen cameras covering the pitch. If it seems rough it must be due to the pace of modern tackles flying in, or this year’s World Cup Final...It is not that Murphy does not know the sport began as a brawl between medieval villages; he is just a fiery lad. I recall watching a game at Craven Cottage in his presence and there was a brooding menace in the air, perhaps just what you want from a midfield enforcer. As I was exiting the press room toilets he was marching in and threw me a look of ‘get outta here you hack’.

Fabio Capello’s second England honeymoon juddered to a halt with a turgid 0-0 draw at Wembley against Montenegro this week, with uncomfortable echoes of the Algeria game in Cape Town this summer, the most painfully soporific 90 minutes I can recall. From high up in Wembley I saw the white shirts’ predictable approach fail to bear fruit, but watching the tape the next day, the Montenegrins’ organisation looked quite impressive. Top of the group, they could ruffle some more feathers soon...

The same night Serb thugs got the Italy v Serbia clash in Genoa called off. For once, Italian teppisti were not to blame. Coming only days after extreme right-wing yobs (perhaps the same ones) viciously attacked a gay pride march in Sarajevo, Serbia seems hell-bent on winning the crown of being Europe’s bad boys. I have heard a few football chants in my time, but nothing as vile as those coming from the orifices of Yugoslavia fans at the 1998 World Cup in Nantes - ditties boasting of Serb militia atrocities in the Balkan conflict of the early ‘90s to be precise.

Liverpool’s flirting with doom is the other main story here this week. Second to bottom with Gerrard and Torres in the team? How times have changed. The Liverpool of my youth were one of the few teams I have watched (along with Milan of the early 1990s) who at times appeared unbeatable. The new American owners have no background in the game, but surely they cannot be worse than the previous duo.

(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile

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Eurovisions

The verdicts on the 'Gang of Five' who destroyed the harmony of the French camp at the World Cup were announced just like any criminal trial's results, complete with mugshots of the offenders.

Nicolas Anelka, the instigator of the pathetic rebellion with his foul-mouthed attack on coach Raymond Domenech, got an 18-game ban from the national team, Patrice Evra got five for failing in his captain's duties, Franck 'underage' Ribery got three as the ironically named vice-captain and Jeremy Toulalan must sit out one match me for penning the excruciating players' statement which the hapless Raymond Domenech read out to the press, willingly or not.

Anelka predictably laughed off the ban but is unlikely to wear bleu again, while the reaction from the French players' union, which blamed Domenech instead of the boorish players, showed it is not just England's PFA who stand up for overpaid yobs in public.

In view of the damage done to the national team, the hopes of millions of Frenchmen and women back home and their sense of self-pride, let alone the image of the country across the world, the punishments handed out were mild in the extreme. Never before have I heard people telling me they were ashamed to be French.

*** The Spanish press, well Marca and AS that is, are agog over Mesut Ozil's arrival at Real Madrid. What struck me was how meagre the fee was in the end for one of the world's most talented youngsters, who had an impressive first World Cup finals. At £12 million, Real have themselves a bargain, especially considering Manchester City have just shelled out more than twice that for the prosaic James Milner.

More proof that the Premier League still plays second fiddle to La Primera when it comes to bagging the top stars, and how England shoots itself in the foot, complaining about the lack of opportunity for its youngsters while hugely over-valuing the ones that do get the chance.

And what about Tottenham's exodus in the Champions League? 3-0 down after half an hour to a Swiss team lacking any star names; are English teams over-hyped as well as over-paid?

** FIFA's inspection team are currently being wowed in Russia by Vladimir Putin and others. Russia looked a dark horse at the start of the bidding race for the 2018 World Cup but seems to grow stronger all the time. That said, oligarch billions may not be enough to allay fears among the Executive Committee of the risks of 13 new stadia, long distances between venues and the permanent whiff of corruption that Russia brings. England still appears the safest pair of hands after the worries of South Africa and Brazil, but this race will go down to the wire, with second preference votes crucial for victory.

(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile

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