This article addresses the diplomacy practiced by Sir Stanley Rous, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) president (1961–1974), and the international history of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea involvement in, and the boycott by African nations of, the 1966 World Cup in light of a number of newly available primary sources. The new materials reveal… Continue reading The Untold Story of FIFA’s Diplomacy and the 1966 World Cup: North Korea, Africa and Sir Stanley Rous
Category: FIFA
Lennart Johansson
Lennart Johansson, who has died in June 2019, had a Vision that had he become FIFA president could have made world football a better place to be. See his manifesto for the FIFA presidential bid in 1998, based on his core Swedish principles of transparency and democracy Adapted from Alan Tomlinson, FIFA: The Men, the… Continue reading Lennart Johansson
Happy Hundredth Havelange
Happy Hundredth Havelange João Havelange’s 100th birthday passed with barely a comment a few weeks ago. He reached this milestone on May 8th 2016, but there were to be no tributes from the football world for the man who established the basis of a modern FIFA that the previous May the US Department of Justice,… Continue reading Happy Hundredth Havelange
FIFA and Leadership: The Fall of Sepp Blatter
As FIFA approaches its most open presidential election in its history, scheduled for Friday February 26th 2016 in Zurich, perhaps this could be the end of the road for the dynastic excesses of its last two presidents - a good time to reflect on the fundamental flaws of its leadership. At the beginning of June… Continue reading FIFA and Leadership: The Fall of Sepp Blatter
WHY and When Blatter should have gone
WHY AND WHAN BLATTER SHOULD HAVE GONE: The Revolt of the ExCo (Executive Committee) in May 2002 As, at the beginning of Christmas week 2015, the last days of Sepp Blatter’s reign as FIFA president were further soiled in his extraordinary, egotistical and paranoid address to the world on confirmation of his eight-year ban from… Continue reading WHY and When Blatter should have gone
Putin’s Placeman and FIFA Ethics
Putin’s Placeman and FIFA Ethics: riding conflicts of interest in Russia’s international sport strategy Qatar has dominated the headlines in the FIFA corruption debate, since the 2010 decision to award two men’s World Cups at once, to Russia for 2018, to Qatar for 2022. Human rights issues, labour exploitation, the absurdity of the careless consideration… Continue reading Putin’s Placeman and FIFA Ethics
Blatter’s first re-election: May Days 2002
BLATTER’S FIRST RE-ELECTION: May Days 2002 Staying power When Sepp Blatter’s first term as president of FIFA was coming to a close, just before the 2002 World Cup Finals in Korea/Japan, he was mired in controversies related to FIFA’s financial problems, based in large part upon the collapse of International Sports and Leisure (ISL), the… Continue reading Blatter’s first re-election: May Days 2002
FIFA on Film
Hagiography has been a consummate skill in the sport-writing world, with ghost writers or tame official chroniclers portraying the lives of superstars or characters and celebrities who have illuminated the humdrum lives of we the fans or less blessed followers for whom the sporting champion can represent some vicarious sense of the heroic. There's been… Continue reading FIFA on Film
Qatarstrophic consequences for Bin Hamman-FIFA alliance
Qatarstrophic consequences for Bin Hammam-FIFA alliance On June 16 2008, FIFA president Sepp Blatter wrote gushingly to the Qatari Mohamed Bin Hammam, thanking him for his contribution to the campaign that, a decade before in June 1998, gained the Swiss the presidency of FIFA. “Without you, dear Mohamed, none of this would ever have been… Continue reading Qatarstrophic consequences for Bin Hamman-FIFA alliance
Professor Alan Tomlinson - Research 