(UEFA) Football Thread - Football not Soccer

[Angel4576]

Interesting piece from David Bond at the BBC;

Bloemfontein, Zurich mark one and now Zurich mark two. After last year's World Cup and World Cup 2018 vote English football has been given a harsh lesson on Fifa's world stage.

As he made the agonisingly long walk to the congress lectern this morning FA chairman David Bernstein might not have expected the angry backlash he would face.

After making his lone appeal to postpone the re-election of Sepp Blatter, he could only watch as, one by one, delegates from the rest of the world took it in turn to attack the FA's last minute move.

Haiti, Benin, Congo and Cyprus all publicly criticised the FA for making what they - bizarrely - viewed as an undemocratic request. It was against the agenda, they said, and England weren't playing by the rules. They rounded on the British media for creating a crisis without any real evidence.
The most brutal attack came from the long standing Fifa vice president for Argentina, Julio Grondona. He used his address as head of Fifa's finance committee to plead with the English to leave the Fifa family alone and criticised Bernstein for his intervention.

He added: "We always have attacks - mostly with lies and with the support of journalism which is more busy lying than telling the truth."

Not one mentioned the fact that two executive committee members - including one who was supposed to be running for president - had been suspended just three days ago pending a bribery investigation set up by a third member of its executive.

But the vote told a slightly different story. 17 countries backed England's call and another 17 abstained meaning 34 countries - or around 16 per cent of the eligible nations (206) - were expressing some doubts about this election.

Whether they were supporting the FA or acting in their own interests is difficult to tell. Many of those 34 votes may have come from delegates angry at the treatment of former presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam, suspended last Sunday and ruled out of the election.

The 172 votes against the postponement revealed, again, Blatter's strong power base and the FA was never likely to win the argument today. But Bernstein will be pleased he wasn't completely humiliated in the vote.

Having said all this, if anyone at the FA wondered if English football was isolated inside Fifa, then there can be absolutely no doubts after today's backlash.

Much of this is historic. There is deep resentment at the way Britain gets an automatic vice presidency on the Fifa executive committee. With England's Geoff Thompson standing down after four years, this is due to be taken up by Northern Ireland's Jim Boyce later today. Some hospital pass that.

In his attack on England, Grondona raised the issue of the vice presidency and one outcome from all this might be a move to finally end this anachronistic privilege which has been woefully utilised by Thompson and the British FAs over the last few years.

There is also resentment at what many of the smaller countries - particularly in Africa and the Caribbean - see as English arrogance. This is reinforced by the financial might of the Premier League.

On top of that, the fall out from the England World Cup bid has left many asking whether all of the attacks on Fifa are being motivated by revenge. It is certainly true that while the Fifa story has been dominating the news bulletins and front pages in Britain, it is not making the same kind of headlines elsewhere - even in Europe.

So what now for England? With Blatter likely to be re-elected later (don't be surprised to see hundreds of delegates rise to applaud the president afterwards) any hopes of rebuilding bridges will have to be put off for the next four years.

The Bin Hammam and Jack Warner bribery inquiry could prove them right if there is another round of bloodletting causing the Fifa crisis to widen.

Their best hope might be to align themselves with Michel Platini, the favourite to succeed Blatter in 2015, although Brazil's Ricardo Teixeira is also likely to stand and he is unlikely to look favourably on England.

David Bernstein said that by making his stand today he was standing up for principles. Most people back home will applaud this and will be extremely angry at the way Fifa has circled the wagons today.

But the FA can only hope that Sepp Blatter means it when he says he will now make real reforms. They will be watching from the sidelines.

As much as I love watching England in the WC, and as much as I love watching English teams in Europe I'd quite happily back the FA in pulling us out of Fifa, and if necessary Uefa.

Having a purely domestic-game doesn't do American Football any harm. The Premier League and English football is a huge global brand. The only problem would be the ability to attract players without the lure of European football. I guess then though the better teams could pay whatever wages they like as they wouldn't need to worry about Uefa's financial fair play rules.

Even in the worst case scenario, where the Premier League struggles to attract foreign players, or certainly the numbers that it currently does, is that such a bad thing?

Plus we could fuck off all these crazy rules that Fifa/Uefa come up with, like getting yellow cards for celebrating goals!

 

[Starkers]

There's no way in hell the likes of Man U, Chelsea etc would ever let the FA pull out of Europe unfortunately.

I think the real test for FIFA isn't what we do (and lets face it we should have spoken up before the WC bid was tanked) but they might start to take notice with the sponsers making noises about not being happy.

Apparently one of the countries who voted with us did so by accident (Thanks Vietnam!)

 

[HappyDayRiot]

That'll be the same Grodona who believes Jewish men are not fit to referee at World Cups, and other assorted racist remarks and backhanders over the years.

Prime example of the corrupt shower FIFA is made up of.

The whole thing is a white-wash. Short of beaming video footage of Blatter and co pocketing their millions onto the face of FIFA HQ, nothing will ever come of this - no matter how many trenchcoated journos we can throw at it.

 

[Jax]

ENG play in about 1 hour and you would expect them to win at home to the Swiss but this is England . Fabio has named his XI and am surprised he dropped Young for can't get in the Man City team James Milner who stopped being a winger after the 2010 World Cup. I would of prefered Young with Theo or Johnson on the wings but hey I don't get paid £6 million to flop at a major summer tournament

Hart
Johnson
Terry
Ferdinand
Cole
Walcott
Lampard
Parker
Wilshire
Milner
Bent

EDIT - Johnson over bench, Downing gets his place FFS.

 

[Eyes]

The real England's back folks!

 

[Count Zero]

Jesus Christ, 1-2??

 

[Eyes]

Swiss had two goals in about 3 minutes. We got a penalty from Lampard, but I think we'd be lucky with a draw now.

 

[Count Zero]

The goalie didn't look too good with those goals and what the hell were the guys in the wall doing before the second one?

 

[Eyes]

I don't know. I'm only half paying attention. We've been getting far too confident with winning against Wales and Bulgaria and whoever else we've smashed since the World Cup. We were frankly lucky to win over the Swiss last time.

Since we've won a few games, everyone now thinks we're going to sweep the Euro. Hah.

 

[Jax]

How long do we have to put up with this loveless marriage, capello came out and said the players were tired. It had nothing to do with leaving Young on the bench then? and when things were bad you had Downing to call up instead of the very untired and tricky winger in Adam Johnson. Even Terry was building up Adam Johnson this week after training. England were so slow and the Wembley atmosphere was SHIT even before the Swiss scored.

Hart (4) - Was at fault for both goals along with others and looked sketchy all day long. Failed to follow the ball for the 1st goal and not at his near post for the 2nd goal.

G. Johnson (5) - Missed a great chance early on and then resorted to pathetic long balls and his typical average defending. Micah Richards and Martin Kelly are superior right backs.

Ferdinand (5.5) - Missed the ball for the 1st goal and looked like he has not gotten over his CL drubbing from Barca.

Terry (6) - Tried to marshal the defence but needs to push it up more, lack of pace always makes them drop too deep.

A.Cole (6) - Looked fine until he went of injured, pity for ENGLAND.

Walcott (4) - Apart from two runs, he was invisable for the rest of the match. How many poor showings does he have to make Capello? ENG tempo not fast enough for him like at Arsenal and it doesn't help he's not really a winger.

Parker (5) - Clearly not fit as shown in the final games for West Ham. Slow and easily outdone and really hes better than what he shown.

Lampard (5) - Scored a very poor penalty and then did nothing. Gerrard is better and should be dropped when Stevie returns.

Milner (5) - Looked better in the centre, which is his best position but still shown why hes' not in the Man City team anymore. Has lost all the promiise of 12 months ago sadly.

Bent (4) - Missed two great chances and the 2nd one I think had Redknapp shouting his missus would of scored that. Hes no Owen or Rooney sadly and should be a squad player NOT a first XI player when everyone else fit.

subs...
Baines (6) - Did a solid shift and looked decent going forward but nerves still plague him at this level.

Young (7) - Best ENG player though hes less effective on the left and should play on the right. Took his goal so well and troubled the swiss when he got the ball.

Downing (5) - Did nothing when he came on and just the fact he gets got ahead of Johnson is a joke in itself. Downing never has and never will be ENG class, simple as.

Come on Bulgaria ey do us a favour

 

[Angel4576]

Bulgaria drew 1-1 so we still top the group. Montenegro still have to play away in Switzerland as well, which in itself will be a tough game for them.

England were woeful today. We were carrying far too many players and lacked any real invention in midfield. Terry was poor, Johnson was his usual self (the good and the bad), Parker was outclassed, Hart was at fault for both goals arguably, Bent was wasteful, Milner was sh1te, Walcott was clueless etc etc etc.

Young looked like he should have been playing from the start, and I absolutely have to agree re Downing - I got a ticking off from the wife when I labelled him a c**t for missing that sitter at the end, which now gives me even more reason to dislike the twat.

The reassuring thing I guess is that we were woeful for the majority of the game, yet could still have won it. Although, against better opposition, I fear the worst unless some of these players are able to raise their games.

 

[Jax]

I don't understand why the FA are not tired of Capello I mean £6 million a year and he just has a habit of picking the wrong players and playing others out of position. This is a guy that took a young attacking midfielder in Jordan Henderson and put him in the holding role against FRANCE almost ruined him after 1 cap...

He took Jarvis who had been playing all season on the left and put him on the right for his 45 min cap and refuses to touch Richards despite playing better than Johnson all season and played very well during his only 45 min show during the Capello era. Plays Rooney on the wing in this 4-3-3, Wilshire started in the anchor role originally and had Lampard playing deep as you can go for the first 2 years of his reign. He refuses to touch Owen the best natural finisher of his generation and forces ENG to play at a snails pace.

Just GO AWAY Fabio no one wants you, I want to be out of this loveless marriage who is using us for our overstreched wallet.

 

[Angel4576]

It's quite clear that the FA are just letting his contract run down so that they don't have to pay him off. Means that we'll limp over the qualification finish line for the Euros and then have another wretched finals before he's finally arsed off.

I'm quite confident about England's future, when you see some of the young talent that we have ready to come through - Smalling, Jones, Henderson etc - the future looks pretty bright. Just need someone who knows where the fcuk to play them!

 

[HappyDayRiot]

I didn't know there were internationals this weekend. But I was soon made aware by the usual 'England failures' headlines. Plus ca change.

 

[Jax]

I'm quite confident about England's future, when you see some of the young talent that we have ready to come through - Smalling, Jones, Henderson etc - the future looks pretty bright. Just need someone who knows where the fcuk to play them!

English players under 25 years of age...

Kelly, Flanigan, Robinson, Walker, Jones, Smalling, Richards, Gibbs, Cleverley, Albrighton, Rodwell, Henderson, McEachran, Sturridge, Carroll, Wilshire, Johnson, Walcott, Lennon, Agbonlahor, Welbeck

Do offer hope no doubt and lets not forget ENG under 17-19's have seen success in recent years either by winning tournaments or getting to finals/latter stages. Hopefully the Football Academy when opened in 2012 will boost the future so it will take several years to really make a difference.

For Euro 2012 I would like to see Richards as the number 1 right back and most likely only one of Rio/Terry will start in the XI because as a pair they both lack too much pace now. I would like to see Gerrard play the anchor role in his latter years like Scholes but with one difference, Gerrard can tackle. Wilshire than carry on with his current role and Rooney could play the attacking midfield role almost Bobby Charlton esq.

If you want Rooney to play his normal game in this 4-3-3 then a forward midfield role is the only answer not the wing nor the sole striker slot...Bent or Carroll would most likely occupy that strike role though I don't care about age if OWEN is fit with games and goals under his belt because then Owen gets the nod everytime. Michael Owen movement is still the best and his finishing has NEVER been in question, who needs brutal pace when you have his movement.

Young & Johnson on the wings for me with their bag of tricks and abiity to use either foot and play on either wing...Pace & Tricky is always a must on the wings unless you have a David Beckham esq player, which we don't anymore.

 

[Jax]

Peter Crouch has quit ENGLAND and said he refuses to play for ENG again until Fabio leaves. This is turning into a fucking joke now and Crouch no even when Capello leaves you can still fuck off.

Saying that The FA still needs to really consider Capello's future now, his squad hates him.

 

[Starkers]

I'm quite confident about England's future, when you see some of the young talent that we have ready to come through - Smalling, Jones, Henderson etc - the future looks pretty bright. Just need someone who knows where the fcuk to play them!

Yeah but how many times have we had great young talent coming through? I can remember when Beckham, Owen, Ferdinand et al were all great young talent.

 

[Angel4576]

Yeah but how many times have we had great young talent coming through? I can remember when Beckham, Owen, Ferdinand et al were all great young talent.

Fair play though, we always qualified and got to the latter stages of the big tournaments. At the moment that's difficult to see without new blood coming into the side. It's reassuring to know that that talent IS there though as without it I think we'd be entering the football wilderness about now otherwise.

Next to Germany we've probably got one of the strongest young squads in Europe.

 

[Starkers]

I know, I've just gotten very pessamistic about England lately (I say lately, been a while really!) I still think we'll win nothing until the expectation levels drop, or until we get a truly world class, and I almost hate to say it, English manager. I still think McClaren could have been that man if he'd gone away and managed in Europe before getting the England gig.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I do think England's problem is primarily about expectations. It seems to me that many fans and media still see the English national football team on a level with Brazil, Germany, Spain, etc. when you're really more like Turkey, Croatia, Portugal - teams that can do very well if the circumstances are perfect and you have a little bit of luck; maybe even win the tournament if you get some enthusiasm and momentum behind you. Which is pretty nice too, relatively. But you won't have a team that can challenge for the win every time. If a couple key players are injured or not motivated you are in trouble very quickly.

It's weird, most of English football fans support clubs every week that never win shit (since only a few clubs ever win stuff in England ) and you still come back every time and allow yourself to get emotionally involved in an activity that leaves you sad and humiliated time and time again.
And in international football you're doing the same thing, supporting a team that's maybe the equivalent of Everton, or if I'm generous Arsenal, yet if you don't score 4 goals against Argentina before halftime you suck.