FIFA’S house of shame
Out there are people whose daily duties sustain life itself. I am thinking of doctors, nurses and allied professionals whose jobs are not for the faint-hearted. They need above average IQ to qualify but what do they make in a lifetime? Talk about soldiers; policemen and women facing armed robbers or doing sundry duties come […]
Out there are people whose daily duties sustain life itself. I am thinking of doctors, nurses and allied professionals whose jobs are not for the faint-hearted. They need above average IQ to qualify but what do they make in a lifetime? Talk about soldiers; policemen and women facing armed robbers or doing sundry duties come rain or shine – they put their lives on the line for us to live. What about journalists – they work to their bones to either inform or misinform us. They have no holidays, no weekends, only paltry paid leave. Yet some of us would be walking to our deaths if they are not there to warn us of happenings even around us. What do they get paid? Where do they live? What kind of cars (if any), do they drive? When we talk about teachers, we derogatorily say that their rewards are in heaven, but footballers and their administrators get theirs on earth!
The best teacher will or may never make it into a news story except, of course when they step out of line. When they do, the rest of us forget the wonderful things they have spent their lives doing and crucify them. We make sure they are ruined to the level that they never rise again. The average footballer is a school drop-out with a cocky attitude. What he plies is his dexterity with the round leather and he may refuse a draft to fly his national flag. He jets from place to place distributing tension, high blood pressure, insults and insolence and very occasionally, even death.
I don’t know who invented football, but I don’t care. If all people are like me, the high-flying stars will be drafted to farm where they can help feed the poor. Whoever invented football must have died long before he could benefit anything from his invention – others are making mega fortunes out of it. Football is not like old wine, no; its stars are most useful when they are young and agile. This is why the likes of Segun Odegbami have no home in Asokoro or Lekki. They played before the glamour took over the game; wearing the national colours with a deep sense of patriotism that comes from personal understanding of being primus inter pares.
Today, most youngsters do not know the name of their national team not to talk of their players except if such players play in the so-called global league. Youths and fans are pre-occupied with foreign teams and would lay down their lives or take those of others if their team loses. David Beckham is more popular than the Queen of England. Football is a house of scandal. Its fanatics know that the drain-pipe called NFA is a cesspit of corruption, so is FIFA, its international arm according to those who negotiated for England to host the mundiale and lost. Maybe they are just sore losers, like the demented fans.
Last year, Nigeria entered the international scene not for winning the World Cup but for the exportation of corruption by its officials. FIFA quickly excommunicated the corrupt officers and went on to award the hosting right for the next mundiale to Russia. It all seemed to end there, but now other revealed mind-blowing deals are showing that FIFA is synonymous with graft. The demands from its officials are damn ridiculous showing that most corrupt officers’ simply perfect acts which began at their home turf.
Football is a game of chance and most countries play to win inside and outside the pitch. FIFA, the body that manages the sport is an international house of scandal. Its human members know that there is money to be made. Most of them are retired but untired bones out to harvest the fortunes they did not make in their prime now that they are quarter to their six feet home. They are out looking for any opportunity to hit the jackpot. By the time this scandal is done and dusted, one wonders what would be left of the game of glamour and scandal other than an inspiration for a series hotter than Footballer’s Wives! Maybe the football bubble has taken in too much air and is about to burst. The best is for most of the world to face its many problems and win itself of an expensive sport that harvests more scandals than leisure!