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The Coalition Government’s sports minister Hugh Robertson is determined to sort out what are generally agreed to be dysfunctional governance structures of the national game at the Football Association (FA). However, he recognises that it would be best to wait for the outcome of England’s 2018 World Cup bid in December.
Fifa tried to be conciliatory after the Nigerian Government banned the Super Eagles from international competition for two years following their poor performance in the World Cup. But now their patience has been exhausted and they have given Nigeria until Monday to withdraw the ban or face suspension from Fifa.
After the woeful performance of the Super Eagles in the World Cup, President Goodluck Jonathan has suspended the national team from international competition for two years. This decision is not likely to go down too well with Fifa who have already warned France about political interference in football.
Should goal line technology be used in football? Most England fans would have said ‘yes’ immediately after the decision which denied Lampard a clear goal against Germany. However, it could be argued that a world class referee should have recognised that the ball had crossed the line or that his assistant should have done even though he was not in line with the goal but had a clear enough vantage point.
Fifa supremo Sepp Blatter has sent a stern message to President Sarkozy of France warning him not to get involved in football matters or France may be banned from international competitions. Fifa has strict rules which aim to keep politics out of football, although in practice this is rather difficult. Even the harsh military regime in Argentina got a popularity boost when the national team won the World Cup.
Wigan boss Dave Whelan thinks that the Premiership should take over running the England team. It’s a bit of an off the wall idea that won’t go down well with those who think the Premier League is the problem not the solution. But I suppose there is a kind of crazy ‘world turned upside down’ logic to it. Certainly he has a point when he talks about the Football Association being an amateur body running a professional game.
It was England’s worst ever defeat in the finals of the World Cup. Now an inquest begins that will rumble on for weeks and indeed months. If England’s overall performance had not been so inept and the German win so well deserved the focus might have been on the wrongly disallowed goal. There will still be discussion of the need for goallline technology, but Sepp Blatter has said no and Fifa is his personal fiefdom.
What he thinks is the Spanish system of running clubs has been bigged up by Sepp Blatter as a model for Britain. He claims that the fans run the clubs there. In fact only four clubs are run on those lines, although they include Barcelona, Real Madrid and Athletiico Bilbao.
Former Football League club Chester City have won their appeal against being placed in Step 6 of the non-league system in the North-West Counties League. The phoenix club is now likely to be placed in Step 4 and the Northern Premier League. The club reckons this will make a big difference in terms of season ticket sales. They are hoepful of selling between 600 and 750 season tickets.
