Six Things to Emerge From the 2009 FIFA Congress

June 3rd, 2009 | by: Daryl |

The FIFA Congress met in the Bahamas (nice choice) today, and held a press conference afterwards. You can see the press conference here or you can keep reading for a nice tidy overview. I’ve watched the press conference, and recommend that you keep reading.

Here are six things that emerged from the 2009 FIFA Congress:

1. FIFA = $£€
World football’s governing body made a net profit of $184 million in 2008. I can’t decided whether that’s good news or bad news.

2. Age limits removed on players switching nationality.
Used to be that a player with dual nationality had to choose his national team by the age of 21. The Algerian Football Association put forward a motion to remove that age limit, which was passed with a 58% majority.

If you play for a senior national team, then you’re still tied to that national team. But now players don’t have to make a choice at the age of 21, which makes perfect sense to me. You don’t know what your future holds at 21. So, basically, if you’re Senegalese and French and you play for the French youth teams but then never get an international call up, you can still play for Senegal.

3. Host cities chosen for Brazil 2014
The 12 Brazilian host cities for the 2014 World Cup will be: Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Cuiaba, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio De Janeiro, Salvador, Sao Paulo

4. Sepp still loves Six Plus Five.
The Seppster says “6+5″ is “only a matter of time”, and he believes the Treaty of Lisbon will make it possible:

“If we get that by end of year – then next year we will be able to announce that we were on the right path and can begin implementing it,” he said. “If there is the political will a law can be amended, a law can be interpreted, all laws can be changed or amended.”

That second sentence is a bit scary, no?

5. But he hates fences.
Nothing official, but Uncle Sepp used the press conference to call for the removal of fences at all football stadia. “Ladies and gentlemen, fences in the stadium are not adequate for (football),” he said.” Who are behind fences? Prisoners and wild animals. Are fans in these two categories?”

6. No decision on Olympic football
It was expected that the U-23 age limit for Olympic football would be reduced to U-21 at this congress. But rather than any firm decision, a task force has been setup to figure out exactly what needs to be done. But the message was that football will remain an Olympic sport. Blatter suggested several different approaches, such as getting rid of the age limit altogether and allowing any player who hasn’t already played at a World Cup to compete.

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martin

Bit of a random attack on fences there by Blatter. I wonder what happened between him and a fence in the past…?
SP

has blatter ever seen a concacaf world cup qualifying match? without fences, i would be seriously scared for anyone on the pitch.
cone

blatter is a fool, what does he want? those who can buy cant, and those who cant will not be able to pay their players what they are worth, a whole world collective where players are paid as little as possible so the owners can make as much as possible.
wob

Fans are often more dangerous than wild animal.
bcde

FIFA Congress and hidden swine flu details

Good news from the Bahamas convention: The global economic downturn is not hurting soccer’s governing body. The International Football Federation (FIFA) said that it turned a $184 million profit in 2008, remaining 13 percent under its own budget and not losing any money on assets during the year. The soccer association collected $957 million in revenue, mostly off additional television and marketing deals struck for TV rights to the 2010 World Cup. The question whether the Bahamas has paid the duties to be allowed to broadcast the last World Cup on TV was still not answered.

The Bahamas – recently shamed and named on the tax haven list at the G20 summit in London and very well known for drug trafficking – receives from the FIFA for their few teams (beside $10m USD every four years for the Caribbean confederation) $1m for the same period. Both Anton Sealey, the President of the Bahamas Football Association and the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Hubert Ingraham, took the chance to describe the country as a tourist destination.

Foreign observers of the FIFA convention criticized that tourists as soon as they enter the real Bahamas, they find out about the local criminals. Many taxi-drivers charged exorbitant fares with no reference to standard rates – and even hit small families with high fares of up to 130 USD from the airport to Atlantis.

It is also serious claimed that at the same day when both FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke and FIFA Executive Committee member Ricardo Texeira arrived in New Providence for the 59th FIFA Congress a tourist arriving from New York was tested a day later (26th of May) positive for the H1N1 virus, better known as swine flu.

It is surprising that the Ministry of Health has hidden the case of the potentially deadly virus for six days. Finally when all participants of the international convention have been arrived a short statement from Ministry of Health submitted by Bahamas Information Service reported that the tourist from New York was tested positive for the H1N1 virus (on May 29) and has since returned home. The statement even did not indicate which facility the visitor was staying.

Not only a few tourist disagree with the slogan “It is better in the Bahamas”. A official survey confirmed that every second visitor is disappointed and would not recommend the Bahamas for family members and friends. The main reasons are high prices, poor service and unfriendly natives. Whereas the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism assures that there is the right climate for the beach all the year round participants of the FIFA Congress experienced different feelings.

In other words: The summer is very hot, the feeling temperature raised already up to 40 C and there is also a high risk of hurricanes. Delegates had to bear a severe thunderstorm which lasted several hours and knocked out power to many areas of the island and caused serious flooding, making many roads impassable. Visitors were unable to pass on Bay Street, as the entire street was underwater.

I guess the FIFA president Joseph S. Blatter did not get any knowledge that a young Bahamian who was being detained at a Police Station, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in the jail cell of the station? I understand that a juvenile can only be detained for 48 hours but this guy was held there already for the entire week? I guess the FIFA president did not get the knowledge that just last week, international human rights group, Amnesty International, blasted the Bahamas for extra-judicial killings by the rampantly corrupt Bahamas Police Force? I also guess the FIFA president did not get the knowledge that the country’s murder count was pushed on the day of the congress opening to 32 when a 33-year-old resident was fatally stabbed about the body. This micro state has one of the highest murder rate in the world but what I know is the following: Blatter reported at a press meeting after the 59th congress that “The Bahamas is small, but it’s paradise”.