Arrogance, Lack of Perspective Doom USA to Embarrassing Disqualification

Last night's 2-1 loss to Trinidad & Tobago means that the United States will miss the World Cup for the first time since 1986. This is an unacceptable result for a national team fan. This is hardly a country built on soccer, but the manner of last night's defeat displayed the difference between a fan's disappointment and anger at defeat. USA fans should be upset.

There are plenty of reasons to be upset. One of them is not because Costa Rica, Panama and Honduras, who qualified ahead of us, have about the same combined population as New York. Size does not matter in soccer. Iceland has been a top-10 team in the world over the past eighteen months - they play with spirit and emotion. Our team doesn't have either and doesn't have enough talent (like Argentina) to overcome tricky opponents when not playing well.

One of the main reasons to be upset is because there were so many mistakes made during this qualification campaign that could, and should, have been avoided. We made a criminal mistake by pulling an England - firing our foreign manager halfway through the campaign to hire someone from our home country in a vain attempt to unite the team. Pulling an England in anything soccer-related is never good (see:Iceland) and while I voiced my displeasure with Jurgen Klinsmann, the solution was obviously not Bruce Arena. Bruce did a great job to take the team to the World Cup in the 2000's - the manner of our defeat in the group stages in 2006 showed that he was not a top-quality manager. It was established at that time that he had taken us as far as he could - something I praise and commend him for. So, 8 years with the LA Galaxy took him to another level? You've got to be kidding. Analysts spoke of his "long undefeated run" prior to last month's home defeat to Costa Rica, despite the only win of merit in that entire run being a 2-0 home win in the Gold Cup against Costa Rica, which was easily cancelled out considering we drew two competitive matches with Panama. The manager doesn't have the quality required and he was only hired because he is an American. Pull an England and you're going to be out of whatever tournament you're playing in. This mistake was visible from the beginning.

The players did little to help. Our players aren't overly talented but without question are more talented than at least Panama and Honduras. They played with no focus and no discipline under Klinsmann, which was somewhat understandable given that Klinsmann was never known as much of a tactician, and the players clearly lost faith in him prior to their heavy defeat in Costa Rica. Perhaps it is more disturbing that this did not change under Arena, who was brought in to be a uniting force. That we could lose to a terrible team who had nothing to play for, a team with one win to eight losses in their previous nine matches, says quite a bit about the fight our team possesses right now. We deserved to lose as well. We have several good players but they never seem to be on the same page, and once things go against us, there doesn't seem to be much belief. We picked up only three points from a possible fifteen in our road matches. No spine whatsoever.

It shouldn't be difficult for us to qualify for the World Cup, but expectations are completely out of whack with this team. I think Americans are used to thinking they are the best at everything, or can be the best at everything eventually, while any neutral fan can see that we are nowhere close to top quality. When Arena spoke of the difficulty of qualifying from CONCACAF this week, specifically "challenging" a European team to consider how difficult it is to qualify in North America, it showed a shocking lack of perspective. He is not incorrect that CONCACAF offers a unique challenge - weather and pitch conditions in Central America are no picnic. But I can assure Bruce that Germany would much rather play in a qualification zone where they only have to finish in the top 4 (out of 6!!) to either be in or reach a playoff. UEFA requires a first-place group finish to automatically qualify, while only eight of the nine second-placed teams go to playoffs. Italy, Croatia and Switzerland are among the playoff teams in UEFA; Panama (ranked 60th in the world) has an automatic berth. Bruce, watch some soccer outside of LA. CONCACAF is little league - UEFA and CONMEBOL (South America) are the majors.

After all that, there is a lot of hope for the future. Step one will be getting an experienced manager who can handle a number of different styles. It is clear that the players have not meshed well during the campaign and I believe this to be a result of half of the team playing in Europe and the other half in the USA. Obviously European clubs are of better quality, but it is the contrasting styles that are giving our team the biggest problem. Neither Klinsmann nor Arena could find a system or starting eleven that worked. Our new coach has to be able to combine the finesse game of Europe with the physical nature of the MLS. If we can set a tactical game plan, we have the best talent we've ever had in Christian Pulisic growing into a superstar. He will be good enough to carry us to the World Cup on his own in four years, so hopefully we don't take his talent for granted. I am embarrassed for our team last night, but can see how some relatively minor changes in attitude, from management all of the way down to fans, will yield much better results. The bright side of losing last night was sparing us the further embarrassment of being pounded in the World Cup next summer - maybe our team could learn more by watching than playing.

FIFA's Ugly Corruption is Deeply Seeded

The FIFA corruption headlines come as a surprise. It’s not because the bribing, racketeering and money laundering, among other types of corruption, were hidden from the public. It’s because national governments finally took the long-needed action to crack down on what is possibly the most corrupt international organization in the world. For decades, FIFA has been run in a manner that takes advantage of the large football audience to benefit a select few people, and in some cases, countries. The biggest question that remains is: will the arrests finally bring about any change in FIFA?

FIFA, if run properly, should be a heralded organization – one that is known for growing and improving the quality of football internationally. As with any organization, the people running it must be morally sound, and officials must truly have the best interests of the game in their heart. While it is also a business, a fan of the game would hope that FIFA would emphasize the development and quality of the game as much as possible.

Instead, FIFA is run on cash alone. Officials in all regions of the world – but especially in the least developed ones – have requested and/or accepted bribes for decades. It has become commonplace. Jack Warner, one of the men arrested on Wednesday, is one of the worst offenders. Warner became president of CONCACAF, which covers North American countries large and small, in 1990. Warner’s presidency was filled with positives, including the first World Cup in the United States, the rise of many CONCACAF teams from irrelevance to the international stage, and a parabolic increase in revenue for the confederation. His home country, Trinidad & Tobago, qualified for their lone World Cup in 2006. However, it was clear that Warner was actively accepting bribes or requesting them in order to gain his cooperation. He resigned from FIFA in 2011 after many of the allegations against him garnered full attention of the media, and of FIFA’s ethics committee (yes, they do have one).

So when Warner resigned, what happened to the investigation? FIFA ended it. They chose to let him go without further charges (minus banning him for life from football activities, which is meaningless) and although they have never paid his pension, they allowed Warner to avoid a criminal investigation, which is thankfully coming now. Here are some of the allegations against Warner:

• ·         Profiting over $1 million through indirect ticket sales for the 2006 World Cup that were supposed to be done on behalf of the Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) FA
• ·         Attempting to collect payments made to the T&T FA into his own account
• ·         Requested funds (in the millions) in order to support England’s 2018 World Cup bid
• ·         Funds intended for Haitian earthquake relief were paid into a bank account controlled by Warner
• ·         Concealment of his ownership of land that CONCACAF built a $25 million development upon

This is not to mention that Warner’s two sons have already pleaded guilty to fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and the structuring of financial transactions. It’s one thing to be greedy and selfish (not good), but it’s another thing entirely to steal money from people in your own country, especially when those funds are meant to further develop the youth and sport within it. Not to mention that Warner recently quoted satirical newspaper “The Onion” when defending himself. CONCACAF’s former representative has not only been gluttonous and dishonest, but also incredibly incompetent and arrogant. T&T hasn’t come close to qualifying for a World Cup since 2006. Should this be a major surprise?

The center of the spotlight on this investigation lies around the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. It seems both illogical and impractical that Russia and Qatar would be awarded those World Cups, respectively, and while Russia was not invading Ukraine when the bid was awarded, it was still a surprising outcome. However, despite the political issues, Russia has the infrastructure and full capability of hosting a World Cup. The Qatar story is completely different. Allegations of bribes were present from the beginning, because how else could Qatar get the World Cup? The average temperature in June is 111 degrees Fahrenheit, and the country has never been to a World Cup (or made it close to qualifying). None of the stadiums needed for the event had been built yet. It obviously doesn’t make sense. There will be a time when we have the technology to have a legitimate World Cup in Qatar - right now it's irresponsible. It will almost certainly come out that officials took bribes, probably in the millions of dollars, to support the Qatar World Cup. Whether FIFA will revote on the bids is still up in the air, but it should. The Qatar World Cup is unsafe for the players and irresponsible given the controversy not only surrounding the bid, but the human rights violations pertaining to the stadium workers. If FIFA had the best interests of the sport in mind, the bid never would have been awarded.

FIFA has done nothing but hold back the sport from further development. The president, Sepp Blatter, is the face of this corruption. That begs the question – why was Blatter reelected?

It’s a simple but disturbing answer. Each country gets a single vote in the election, so there can be no bias towards one region. Most football associations partake in crooked practices. Blatter’s departure would likely bring about sweeping change, as well as more attention to past corruption. Because the corruption within FIFA is so widespread, football associations, especially those in poorer, less governed regions, would prefer Blatter stay in charge so that they can avoid more scrutiny. Instead of embracing the opportunity for change, it is clear that most associations would rather be corrupt – it is more profitable that way. I have yet to see a breakdown of the votes – I have a feeling they are not published – but I would wager that most of UEFA, the United States, and Middle Eastern countries were Prince Ali’s supporters. These associations have their own interests in mind as well, but clearly, the corruption is so layered throughout the system that it can’t change on its own.

This is the sad state that FIFA is in. It is a true reflection of leadership, and Blatter’s defiant comments about a witch hunt targeting him show how out of touch with reality he is. He can’t fix FIFA. He IS this FIFA. And this FIFA is stunting the growth of the game. Football associations are exploiting their own players and doing so for personal profit. While Blatter may not be directly involved with much of the corruption, he is responsible as president. Since the associations have grown so corrupt that they won’t vote him out, it’s now up to the authorities to trigger a change in the organization.

Regardless of the outcome of these first arrests, stay tuned to the FIFA story. It’s going to evolve and get much, much bigger. Hopefully, when the investigation concludes, FIFA can actually achieve its purpose of enriching and spreading the beautiful game. It clearly can’t fix itself. 

Because this is only one issue. Two words: match fixing. That could be even worse. Again, stay tuned.