Where FIFA got it wrong in Brazil
By Cletus D Kuunifaa
The World Cup has come to an end with
Germany grinding it out to a lone goal victory in extra time,
courtesy Mario Gotze’s 113th minute goal. While Brazil has
been praised for a successful organization of the event, Sepp
Blatter and his coterie have a long to-do-list to check to deal
with to improve the game. Not only is there disappointment
about FIFA’s ranking system which I find to be rubbish and
wrote about it ( See Sports Features of Wednesday, 2 July
2014), but I am equally appalled about the distribution of the
officiating officials at the just ended World Cup in Brazil. As
readers might be aware, when the world football governing
body, unveiled the list of 25 trios and eight support duos,
making up a total of 91 officials, that would oversee games
this summer, conspicuous absence was officiating officials
from Ghana and Nigeria. Africa was represented by officials
from La Cote D’Ivoire, Burundi, The Gambia, Cameroon,
Rwanda, Algeria, Morocco, South Africa, Senegal and Kenya.
The two soccer power houses in Africa were absent. (http://
www.fifa.com/worldcup/organisation/referees/index.html).
FIFA explained that, “the referees selected for the World Cup in
Brazil have been chosen based especially on their personality
and their quality in football understanding by being able to
read the game and the teams’ tactical approaches towards
each game.” What a load of absolute nonsense!
Understanding the game? And yet we saw biased officiating
from a host of these officiating officials. The Mexican team
coach will blame their exit on poor calls from the officiating
officials, while the Brazilian team has been protected in most
of their games until they met their nemesis in the hands of the
Germans in the semi-final match. Nigerian coach, Stephen
Keshi, would lash out at the referee after his side lost 2-0 to
France in the World Cup last 16 in Brasilia the other day. Keshi
said, “The referee is a human being and is bound to make
mistakes, but a lot of mistakes are questionable,” “I’m not
happy with the officiating.” He opined. (http://article.wn.com/
view/2014/06/30/
Nigeria_coach_Stephen_Keshi_hits_out_at_referee_after_France_8/)
FIFA is supposedly wary of fair play as well as campaign
against racism, but painfully lacks the little things that need to
be done to propel it as the fair and unbiased international
institution that it claimed to be. The purpose of this piece is to
further push and pin FIFA against the wall for the glaring
oversight to observe a minute silence and or construct
whatever form of recognition via print, audio or video, which
would have attracted international attention for the over 200
Nigerian girls abducted (including the casualties) by Boko
Haram, a terrorist group. What a perfect unbiased idea it
would have been for a minute silence to be observed for the
unfortunate incident that happened in Nigeria in one of their
matches! Yet, that did not happen because FIFA did not find it
expedient and compelling to do so. Malala Yousafzai is even
better than FIFA. The little Pakistani rights activist, Malala
Yousafzai, met Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan to
press for more action to free the more than 200 girls held by
militant Islamists. Malala met relatives of the girls, expressing
solidarity with them at a meeting in Nigeria's capital, Abuja,
on Sunday. She said, "I can feel... the circumstances under
which you are suffering," "It's quite difficult for a parent to
know that their daughter is in great danger. My birthday wish
this year is... bring back our girls now and alive." http://
www.myjoyonline.com/world/2014/July-14th/malala-
meets-goodluck-jonathan-over-chibok-girls.php This was a
simple gesture from a little girl in her bid to draw attention to
the fate of the girls in limbo to be compared with how FIFA
would have drawn a bigger, bigger attention to the plight of
these abducted girls. Instead, FIFA found time at the slightest
notice to slot in time to observe a minute silence for one
Argentine Alfredo Di Stefano who passed. FIFA decided
together with the Argentina Football Association and Real
Madrid, that the global football community will pay tribute to
one Alfredo Di Stefano at the FIFA World Cup semi-final match
between the national teams of the Netherlands and Argentina.
Truly, a moment of silence was held ahead of the match in
memory of Di Stefano and a picture of him shown on the
stadium’s giant screen. Furthermore, Argentina’s national
team wore black armbands. (http://
fansided.com/2014/07/09/world-cup-semifinal-will-honor-
alfredo-di-stefano-moment-silence/#!be24CV) I do not care
about the exploit of an 88 year old who passed. I do rather
care about the future of these young girls abducted in Nigeria
and a minute silence for the casualties and some verbalized
statement would have been a huge accomplishment from FIFA
in their fight against racism and bias. Had FIFA offered a
minute silence for these young girls (the casualties), it would
have been considered one of the greatest moments in soccer
history. It would have been a simple and elegant show of
respect and fairness, much as it would have drawn
international attention to the plight of these girls. When these
innocent girls, yet to achieve their potential are deprived of
their fundamental human rights, I trust the World Cup would
have been a legitimate venue to denounce such acts.
Unfortunately, FIFA could not pass this test to instruct a
minute silence to show respect to Nigeria in particular and to
Africa in general. What a shame especially that Nigeria and
Argentina were in the same group. This goes a long way to
explain how FIFA is a sham and we must protest against this
ill-treatment meted out to African teams. Instead of our
football authorities to be concerned about the lapse of
judgment on the part of FIFA and argue for better treatment for
Africa teams, we see them present themselves as stooges and
tongued tied on pertinent and thorny issues regarding Africa
teams. When will this mediocrity end from our football
authorities ? By Cletus D. Kuunifaa, LIU Post, New York. TMC
Group Can be contacted at dipnibe@yahoo.com or Follow him
on twitter @ckuunifaa
Source: Kuunifaa, Cletus D
http://mobile.ghanaweb.com/wap/article.php?ID=316976

Interesting!