Further turmoil for the Football Associations of Africa’s World Cup Heroes

 

Much has been written about the turmoil surrounding Africa’s teams in the World Cup focusing on player bonus payments, corrupt administrators and indiscipline. The two African teams widely seen as faring the best of all the African nations involved, both on and off the field, were Nigeria and Algeria. Despite this success, both countries Football Associations have found themselves locked in controversy since the World Cup, which saw both teams qualify for the round of 16. 

In Algeria, football has been suspended indefinitely following the death of Cameroonian player Albert Ebosse, who was hit by a stone thrown by fans after his side JS Kabylie's home defeat by USM Alger in Tizi Ouzou in August. It is believed that the stadium in which the attack took place was under maintenance at the time of the game and fans threw loose stones that were lying on the ground. The question needs to be asked why the venue was used when construction works were still in progress.

Algeria's football federation made a statement stating it had postponed the league "in protest at the irresponsible actions of certain fanatics and hooligans who resort to violence in the stadiums which has reached an unacceptable level". 

An investigation into Ebosse's death, and a deeper inquiry into football hooliganism in the country, has also been ordered by the Algerian interior ministry. This comes as a major blow to the Algerian F.A. who have benefited from the positivity generated by the performance of their team in the World Cup and their much heralded support for the Palestinian people.

Nigeria's football championship has also been suspended indefinitely because of a referees' strike in protest at the crisis surrounding the leadership of the countries Football Association. Referees have taken strike action following a controversial Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) ‘election’ on Tuesday, which has split the governing body. The Nigeria players' union and top club managers have also joined the boycott of the Nigerian league.

Outgoing NFF president Aminu Maigari was to preside over a scheduled meeting to design a road map for elections to the NFF executive committee. But Maigari, along with the secretary of the organisation Musa Amadu, was unable to attend because he was detained for "general questioning" by the Department of State Security. In his absence Chris Giwa was elected NFF president by a group of members backed by the country's Ministry of Sport. 

This situation contravenes a directive by football's world governing body FIFA, who said a in a letter to the NFF last week that it must decide on a new date for "an electoral process that is free and open to everybody". The developments have resulted in a situation where Nigeria is in danger of being suspended from world football for government interference. 

The disputes within the NFF have already led to a Fifa intervention, international suspension and the enforced return – twice – of Maigari. Another ban could affect Nigeria's 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Congo and South Africa early next month. 

In addition to the deep divisions in the NFF, the Super Eagles are still without a permanent coach after Stephen Keshi's contract was not renewed after the World Cup.  He has agreed only to take temporary charge of the team for their two upcoming Nations Cup qualifiers, having grown impatient with negotiations over a new deal.

Football is an incredibly popular sport in both countries like it is throughout the continent but this is another example of how administrators and governments are failing the people they claim to act on behalf of.

Germany: Showing that another footballing world is possible

A lot has been said about the reason for Germany’s devastating 7-1 victory over the five time champions Brazil. I personally believe the success is down to the way German football has been structured compared to how other countries organise their game. There is always talk in the British press about how England can adopt the German system. Simply tinkering around the edges will not suffice; a whole revolution is needed if England is to drop its wild west capitalist approach to football and adopt a more social democratic interventionist approach like that practiced in Germany.

If England’s system is bad, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) is the epitome of a crony capitalist system which has continued to centralise power without reforming at all. There has been a long history of corruption within the CBF which has been papered over by the previous success of the national team. Ricardo Terra Teixeira, the president of the CBF from 1989 to March 2012, was forced to resign in July 2012 after a Swiss prosecutor's report revealed that, during his tenure on FIFA's Executive Committee, he and his former father-in-law Joao Havelange (Former FIFA President) took more than $41 million in bribes in connection with the award of World Cup marketing rights. If this was not enough its current President Jose Maria Marin has also been criticised for corruption.  On January 25 2012, during the medal ceremony of the Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior, he controversially pocketed one of the winner’s medals that would be handed to Corinthian’s player Mateus.  Marin was also a member of the party of the old military dictatorship and he has been linked to the death of the journalist Vladmir Herzog in 1975.  Marin had previously made several public speeches criticising Herzog. 

Brazil’s domestic league has also been scarred by hooliganism, falling attendances and the ongoing exodus of young players to Europe. Last season, players conducted a series of protests under the banner of the Bom Senso FC (Common Sense) movement, calling for a reorganisation of the congested and confusing fixture calendar.

On the other hand Germany’s structures have been praised by progressive supporter’s groups around the world. The watershed moment for German football famously arrived at the 2000 European Championship in Belgium and Holland. An embarrassing performance at that tournament went on to trigger the transformation of the German game into a flourishing all-round culture that we have today. Fourteen years later Germany are in the World Cup final, after previous promising tournaments in 2010 and 2012. 

The German national team has benefited from the organisation of their league clubs. While growing stronger on the field, which met its pinicale in the all German Champions League Final in 2013, German clubs have purposefully retained traditions and atmospheres off the field too, attempting to balance the notion of football as the people's game in the super-commercial, globalised era.

In Germany, fans can still pay cheaply in their thousands to stand and watch their teams – 25,000 supporters in Borussia Dortmund's famed south stand Die gelbe Wand (Yellow Wall) pay a mere €11 (£8.95) a match to watch the former German champions. So, younger, older and less well-off fans can still go to games, alongside the high-end payers in the seats and luxury lounges.

The biggest change to the way German football is structured came about in 2001. This change was known as the “50% plus one rule”. This rule ensures that clubs must be controlled, with at least 50% plus one of votes on important decisions, by their members, the supporters. There is not an overseas owner in the league at all and many of its senior figures speak with bafflement at the English parade of foreign plutocrats possessing and funding the great clubs. The president of a Bundesliga club is accountable to and can be voted out by the members. The clubs and the league maintain that system because, they argue, it keeps the clubs rooted in their cities and traditions.

The "50% plus one" rule helps keep the clubs supporting the national team and grounded, focused on the football and fans, not just on the money. The Bundesliga also pays 3% of its TV income and 2% of its ticket income (second division clubs pay 3%) to the German FA to help fund grassroots training, development and social programmes. In Germany the club verein, or association, is a central feature of social life, and most sports clubs tend to be well organised, with decent facilities compared with the many British amateur sports clubs living hand-to-mouth and the rundown state of many local authority football pitches.

Football administrators with vested interests often talk about investing in youth structures to improve the national game.  Even though this is undeniably a good thing those in power conveniently ignore any changes which will affect the interests of the rich and powerful in and around football. These vested interests need to be continually challenged if we are going to get the changes we need to benefit our national teams and our supporters. 

Germany has proved that the system works.  It’s up to us make sure it is implemented.

Soccer Socialism

It is not common for a left wing European to admit his admiration for anything American, especially its “Soccer” team which has been much derided as minority sport in the USA. However, I am delighted that real football is growing in North America and the possibility of it coinciding with a shift to progressive thinking over the pond.

Much has been made of the United States' two previous World Cup matches breaking viewing records. The victory over Ghana attracted the biggest US television audience for a football match - 16m people. The draw with Portugal smashed that record with an average of 24.7m viewers. And the match against Germany in Recife is expected to surpass even that. To put this into perspective this is higher than the finals of the NBA and the Major League Baseball's hallowed World Series.

The right wing commentator and representative of the old dying America Ann Coulter has comically stated that: "Any growing interest in soccer can only be a sign of the nation's moral decay. The same people trying to push soccer on Americans are the ones demanding that we love HBO's Girls, light-rail, Beyonce and Hillary Clinton."

Even though the very premise is absolutely ludicrous, it is clear to me that Football is in no doubt an internationalist sport and if it is adopted as a sport of liberal America it can be a good thing in broadening the often too inward looking USA. This can only be helped by the internationalist nature of the national team which mirrors the USA in general which has seen a decline in power of the old traditional “conservative white order”.

Unlike the country as a whole the USA is more influenced by Europe rather than the growing Latin American population within USA (I am sure this community which loves football will become more influential in the national team in the near future). United States manager Jurgen Klinsmann is famously from Germany but he is not the only member of the American squad with links to the European nation. In total five US players were either born to American families in Germany or moved there as children. Including Jermiane Jones the former Blackburn Rovers player (another reason why I have soft spot for the USA team).

There has also been a growth in progressive analysis of football in America including by Dave Zirin at Edge of Sports, the Howler Radio Podcast and the academic Dr Tim Walters who founded the “Occupy Football” movement.

However, it should not go unnoticed that the US system of sport (such as the NFL, MBA and baseball) despite being more nationalistic and inward looking in nature, is certainly more socialistic compared to football in the way it is run due to the draft system, wage caps and strong player unions. 

Only time will tell whether the popularity of football will remain when/if they get  knocked out of the World Cup, and whether or not it will  be seen as part of a broader shift in social values in the country. This is an area I will be following closely.

Brazil's World Cup has been stolen – FIFA pay your taxes

Give my goals to a better world hopes to launch its own campaign over the coming months linking sport and social justice. However, until that is ready to be launched the blog is supporting a campaign being run by InspirAction, Christian Aid’s Spanish organisation. The campaign is about closing the tax breaks given to FIFA and its multinational sponsors in future World Cups. You can take action here and more information can be found below. I hope you will support this important campaign.

FOUL PLAY

Brazil's World Cup has been stolen.

It doesn’t matter that Brazil is the world's seventh largest economy in 2013, or that it has one of the best football teams in the world. No last-minute wonder goal will rescue the trophy this time round.

Nelson Mandela once said “sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair.” This is true, sport can have this power.

FIFA, football’s governing body, has imposed conditions on Brazil as hosts of the World Cup, which grant huge tax breaks to the World Cup Sponsors. This means Brazilians will lose €200 million that could otherwise help  lift millions of Brazilians out of poverty. This lost tax monies could help improve basic public services like healthcare, education and sanitation.

And it’s the poorest people who suffer the most

Mr Joseph S. Blatter, president of FIFA, can be an example and demonstrate that the game can be played differently. Ask Mr Blatter to give tax breaks for the World Cup sponsors the red card, and never impose these rules on World Cup host countries in the future.

Take action

This is a clear example of how the eradication of poverty and inequality is a political decision.  Mr. Joseph S. Blatter, president of FIFA, can be an example and demonstrate that the game can be played differently. Ask Mr. Blatter to give tax breaks for the World Cup sponsors the red card, and never impose these rules on World Cup host countries in the future.  Take action here.

Allez les Algériens! – Algeria shining a light on why football is more than a game in North Africa

Zinedine Zidane, December 2013: “Algeria might, I hope, create a surprise.”

Like many neutrals, I was shocked and delighted in equal measure with Algeria’s 1-1 draw against Capello’s lack lustre Russian side. This was not any draw, it secured Algeria’s progress into the last 16 of the tournament for the first time in their history. Many have highlighted the poignancy of them now playing Germany in the next round. The two teams famously met in the 1982 World Cup, when Algeria completed one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history with a 2-1 win over West Germany - then the European champions. 

Algeria finished with two wins and a defeat from their three matches, which they completed before West Germany and Austria met in the final group game. A 1-0 win for the Germans would take both sides through at the expense of Algeria, and that was how the match turned out. 

It also shines the light on the role of colonialism and its effects on diaspora, with the majority of the Algerian squad being born outside of Algeria (overwhelmingly in France). Interestingly Karim Benzema, possibly the most in form striker of the tournament, would have also been eligible to play for Algeria if he had not opted to play for France.

Even though these two points alone would merit an interesting blog piece I am going to focus on Algeria’s multi identity and how it links to other football fans around the world. Algeria must be a nation which captures multiplicity of identities shown by the reaction on twitter, the Fenec Foxes do not just represent the citizens of Algeria but they also represent Africa, the Middle East (Arabs and non-Arabs) as well as being taken to heart by the world’s Muslim community (and many non-Muslims such as myself). 

The Agerian defender Sofiane Feghouli stated soon after gaining qualification that: "This win is for all the Algerians, all the Arabs and all the Muslims."

The passion of the Algerian fans has also played an important role in gaining support for the national team with widespread celebrations seen in and out of the stadium. However, other North African and Middle Eastern fans have been involved in issues even more important than the World Cup victories “the fight for freedom." Football club Ultra’s in Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey have played key roles in anti-authoritarian protests.

Unlike the right wing nature of Ultra groups in Europe the North African and Middle Eastern Ultras were anti-authoritarian and anti-commercial. They stood for collectivism and resistance.

“I made my first steps into politics in 2000,” Mohamed Gamal Besheer, godfather of the Egyptian ultra movement and author of Kitab Al Ultras (The Ultras Book).

“I was against corruption and the regime and for human rights. Radical anarchism was my creed. Ultras ignore the system. You do your own system because you already own the game. We see ourselves as organisers of anarchy. Our power was focused on organising our system.”

Originally the Ultra groups were not overtly political but places where ordinary people culturally resisted their governments. There were often public shows of dissent such as the lighting of flares (remember this is within a totalitarian regime where all dissent is crushed) and singing pro-Palestinian songs.

The events of the 2011 Arab Spring further politicised the Ultras and transformed them into revolutionary actors. The fans history of conflict with the military police within a football context was perfect experience for when the revolution spilled out on to the streets. The Football Ultras along with liberals and leftists played an important role in bringing governments down in Egypt and Tunisia and were leading actors in Turkey’s now infamous Taksim square protests.

The story of what happened in Egypt is more poignant. When the Egyptian football league restarted 61 days after President Mubarak’s removal, Cairo’s Military stadium was crowded with 7,000 Al-Ahly (Egypt’s most popular team) fans who waved Tunisian, Libyan and Palestinian flags and chanted revolutionary slogans.

The sense of triumph, rather like the Egyptian revolution itself, did not last. On February 1, 2012, armed men entered the away stands at the end of a match between Al-Ahly and Al-Masry in Port Said, killing 74 fans and injuring more than 1,000. Many fans and outside observers believe the violence was premeditated and politically motivated by Egypt’s ‘secret state’; the army and police force wanting revenge for their role in bringing down Mubarak. These forces are now firmly back in power under the leadership of General Sisi. Even though things look bleak for pro revolutionary forces in Egypt, the Ultras have become a symbol of inspiration to many around the world including the previously mentioned Turkish Ultras and Ukrainian Ultras have also been involved in their respective revolutions. 

I think it would be appropriate for the World Cup to recognise the commitment of the fans that lost their lives fighting for freedom and help them receive justice. Hopefully Algeria’s progress will help shine a light on this important issue.