Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.
Remember that saying? That referred to the Trojan Horse gambit that was used in the siege of Troy.
And that comes under the guise of other concerns. And believe it or not, it’s also in football.
Indonesia bid for the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. If chosen, it will be the second time that football’s greatest event will be held on Asian soil after the joint South Korea/Japan staging in 2002.
It sounds pretty impressive when our neighbor is mired in similar problems to our PFF. The bid is chaired by a politician, some businessmen, and the local sports body but it is to this day, not openly supported by the national government. Indonesian fans are excited by the possibility but know better as two football officials have used the bid to try to hold on to power or win the local presidency of the Persatuan Sepak bola Seluruh Indonesia or PSSI.
Of course, it sounds impressive and will no doubt be good for Indonesia and regional football, one will have to sift through the whole bid deeper to find distrubing patterns.
The practice of rotating continents to host the quadrennial event is laudable but many people, football officials use it as a bargaining chip to hold on to power. We’ve seen that in South Africa as Sepp Blatter was able to swing the votes from that area as well as in Brazil (that will host the 2014 games). We’ve seen Mohammed Bin Hamman use the promise of financial support to keep his stooges in power here in the Philippines (where is it, Oh, Wise One?).
The problems plaguing the staging of the World Cup in South Africa and Brazil are unlike anything other countries have experienced before. From security (a huge huge concern that to date has not been alleviated) to the availability of stadia to lodging and transportation, there is much to consider. It is a point of view that is shared by Indonesia's Minister for Youth and Sport Andi Mallarangeng who stated that the PSSI should focus on improving the local's standards before looking to host such an expensive venture.
We do not advocate that it be kept in the west forever but countries that are struggling with their economies and other domestic concerns should be eliminated from contention. In choosing cities to host the games, the decision must be made without emotion.
In Brazil, those who oppose the move to host it are under attack by football lovers. It’s not that the critics do not want the World Cup, they believe that their country misappropriates monies that should be allocated to education, poverty, job creation, healthcare, and dealing with their staggering crime problem rather than host football where the windfall is fleeting.
It should behoove one to know that FIFA does not act on complaints by smaller football associations that are supposed to be under the national sports agencies. But how does that help their plight when obviously the local NSA, the PFF in particular, does not even bother to comply?
In Jakarta, Nurdin Halid, the president of the PSSI, the local counterpart of our Pera For Football,s orry Philippine Football Federation, is being asked to step down. As good as the Indonesians are in regional football where they are ranked #134th in the world by FIFA, they are beset by problems ranging from grassroots to finances.
Indonesia has a long history in football and is the first Asian country to compete in the World Cup when they played as the Dutch East Indies in 1938 yet lost to Hungary in the first round. They are the fourth most populous country in the world with around 230 million people scattered across 17,000 islands. The right to host would represent a nice turn around for the country.
People say that there’s politics everywhere. There will only be so if people choose to play the game. Unfortunately, even the world’s most popular game has to suffer for it.
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