EPL Week II: Week of Most Entertaining (Manchester City v/s Cardiff) and Most Boring (Manchester United v/s Chelsea) Matches

Second week of EPL was not very disappointing. Like first week, there was some special result which turned against expectation. Transfers are still not settled. Some clubs acted smartly to hijack the deal of another one and succeeded. A match which was expected as the most entertaining become the most boring and ended up in a goal less draw. This shows the special one is back without much change. Another match which could ended up as a one sided match become the most entertaining encounter and the best result of the week.

Protest in Emirates worked well and Arsenal managed to win next two matches, one in Champions League and another in Saturday’s Premier League against Fulham. Liverpool continued their streak of success with lonely goal from Daniel Sturridge and reached in the top table next to Chelsea who played three matches. Tottenham repeated the show and got another penalty goal for Roberto Soldado. This result took them to the third position in the league table. Arsenal reversed the result, which they had against Aston Villa a week back, and defeated Fulham. This result took them off from the bottom three to middle of point table.

Unexpected result will be the most entertaining football to watch. The match between Manchester City and Cardiff City was almost equal as a fight between Goliath and David. Previous week Manchester City’s emphatic victory (4-0) against New Castle United made a strong warning about their fire power under Manuel Pellegrini. The money, nearly 90 million GBP was splashed for wingers and attacking midfielders and in the first match they were able to show their attacking power. But, Cardiff, the newly promoted team to Premier League, had different ideas. They decided to stick with their game plan and defend the flowing attack of city by lining up almost all players near to their half and use effective counter attack and try to take advantage from long balls. City, who lost Vincent Kompany, the captain and main defender, in the previous match, struggled to cope up with sudden counter attack of Cardiff. The most entertaining match of the week ended up with a 3-2 success for Cardiff.

A weekday match between two newly appointed managers, one was returned to the same club after years and another one was selected to lead the current champion. Jose Mourinho, who was known as the ‘special one’ in his early stint but he declared before that season that he is a ‘completely changed’ man. His performance in the mid-week match against Aston Villa proved that he is not changed and remaining as ‘same man’. When Mourinho had enough ammunition for a full fledged attacking game, everybody expected he will use his attacking midfield and forwards against Manchester United. On the other hand, David Moyes the new manager of Manchester United, who managed Everton and made good defensive record, did acclimatized to the level of United and tried to get a better result. Instead of going for attacking football, Mourinho opted for a completely defensive approach, by ‘parking the team coach’ in front of the goal post and made the match most boring.

Premier League witnessed an unusual transfer episode this week. Tottenham Hotspurs did everything to get their target Willian from the Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala. The player appeared in North London for his medical tests. But, through the intervention of Chelsea’s Russian owner Roman Ibrahamovic , Chelsea snatched him to West London from under the nose of Spurs and completed the transfer. Chelsea’s hopes to get Wayne Rooney from Manchester United dented and Rooney played his best game of this season so far against Chelsea. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is waiting in front of the gate of Spanish giants Real Madrid to collect the signature of their rejected surplus players. He expects the appearance of Gareth Bale will definitely kick some of their established players out of the team and he can pounce on that occasion. He is still waiting there…with hope.

Next one week is the most important time for player transfer. Most clubs consider the first two weeks as their testing ground for the year and find where, in what position they require enhancement. Many teams were very active in the market but some of the major clubs like Manchester United and Arsenal are yet to enter into market, though they are short of players in many positions due to injuries. 

Gylmar dos Santos: Most successful Goalkeeper said Good-Bye to the World

Goalkeepers enjoys longest career than strikers, midfielders and defenders in football. Many successful goalkeepers extended their international career into their 40s and performed very well in the World Cups. But very few goalkeepers enjoyed glory of success by winning World Cup twice and consecutively. Gylmar dos Santos Neves (1930 -2013) moved into the pages of history with a unique record, a goalkeeper who participated in three straight World Cups and won successive two in 1958 and 1962. He guarded the Brazilian post in the 1966 edition of World Cup but Brazil was defeated by Portugal in the pre-quarter round.

Gylmar born at the same time FIFA started World Cup and played throughout his career in the Black and White era. He was known as Pele’s goalkeeper because of his association with Pele’s famous all winning Santos team of 1960s. He made 94 appearances for Brazil and played for Corinthians and Santos during 1950s and 1960s. Gylmar suffered a stroke in 2000 and died after a heart attack on 24 August 2013. He was 83. Gylmer’s death comes just a month after Djalma dos Santos (23 July 20013), the full back of 1958 and 1962 all winning Brazilian team.

PS. Italian goalkeeper Guido Masetti also figured in the consecutive World Cup winning team of 1934 and 1938. Difference was Gylmar played whole games and Masetti was not in the playing eleven on both occasions.

EPL Week 1: Gunners forgot to fire

First week of the football season in the English Premier League got over. Results were more or less expected and had just one unexpected. Both Manchester teams did extremely well and the champions passed the message that their managerial change did not tamper the cohesion of the team. Third placed Chelsea did well under Jose Mourinho and justified his return to the EPL. Transfer window is still open and all teams are more traffic is expected between clubs in coming couple of weeks. Many refereeing decisions were challenged in the first week itself and a mid week league game ended up in a big spar between managers.

Most significant result of the week was the defeat of Arsenal at Emirates Stadium against Aston Villa. Arsenal was one of the few clubs was not at all active in the transfer market and this inactiveness created huge uproar among the fans and the defeat created very chaotic scenario in the Emirates stadium. Villa ended up as fifteenth position in the last season and managed to escape from the relegation in the last two weeks. Before the season started, Arsenal released a good number of unused or non-performing players, sold out many fringe players and loaned out some of the first team players. But they added only one player who was from a French club playing in the second league of the country and it was a free transfer.

Much before the transfer window opened, the media was propagating news about Arsenal by saying they have 70 million GBP in their bank and will use it in this year to rebuild the team. Their flirtation with Luis Suarez, the star striker of Liverpool, and the bid of 40million plus 1 pound become the most frustrating element in the pre-season transfer saga. Liverpool rejected the bid and refused to sell Suarez at any cost. By the time, on the other side of London another transfer saga has grown into a different level. Real Madrid showed an interest in Gareth Bale of Tottenham Hotspurs and attracted whole attention to other side of North London. Spurs was very much active in the transfer market and brought established players to fill the vacuum expected by the transfer of Bale.

Inactiveness in the transfer market and over action of the rival club just across the city added fuel to the agitation of Arsenal fans and they demanded removal of Arsene Wenger, the longest serving manager in the EPL, at present. Villa took advantage of handicapped Arsenal who lost a contingent of players without proper replacement. Banners and placards appeared against Wenger and the Arsenal supporters trust demanded to stall the contract extension talks between club and manager. A red card of Laurent Koscielny and an injury of Alex Oxlade Chamberlane, which keeps him three months out, depleted the depth of team.

It will be unfair to take credit of the performance of Aston Villa against Arsenal. They played against gunners with a proper game plan, conviction and had good fire power in Christian Benteke and found enough energy to unsettle Arsenal in Gabriel Agbonlahor. Paul Lambert did his homework and implemented his game plan in right way. Depleted team, injuries and physicality of the opposition team dented the game plan of Wenger ended up in ugly scenes.

Manchester City, who spent nearly 100 million GBP, made a 4-0 victory against New Castle United, Chelsea who brought back their favorite manager defeated the new comer Hull for 2-0 margin. The holding champion, Manchester United who was also very inactive in the transfer market, under their new manager David Moyes managed a 4-1 away victory against Swansea. Liverpool and Tottenham defeated Stoke City and Crystal Palace respectively with a score line of a solo goal. 

Briefing before the season starts

Football season is back in Europe. German, Dutch and French leagues are started and English, Spanish and Italian are about to start in another few days. Sports pages of media is celebrating the transfer stories, analysing the strengths of each team and predicting their wishes. As usual, most of them are not behind the news and more interested in controversies. On the other hand, the clubs are also getting ready for another long season. Let us look at the specialities of this season.

Absence:

Most important name is Sir Alex Ferguson. He declared his innings at a high. Then Tito Vilanova, ended his career with a sublime finish with Barcelona but sadly called off his innings in between his career due to medical reasons. Roberto Mancini did well but not enough to keep his position. After spending huge amount of money, the second position in a league is not acceptable for the owners of the neo-rich.

Merry go round:

Jose Mourinho called himself ‘special one’ when he joined as the manager of Chelsea just after winning his first Champions League medal with Porto. At Chelsea, he developed a strong team and won the Premier League continuously but Champions League eluded him and the rich owner of the club lost his patience. His first episode with the blues ended up there. He appeared as the manager of Inter Milan and won both league and Champions League title and showed that he is special one and still has something special with him. This achievement caught attention of Florentino Perez, the Chairman of Real Madrid and brought him to Santiago Bernabeu to win everything possible. He managed to win the league title but Champions League stood away from Real. In the third year, he struggled to repeat the show in the league and lost trust of leading players of the club and forced to resign on an amicable ground.

Carlo Ancelotti managed Chelsea after the Mourinho but was kicked out when his team lost few matches in the league. He moved to France and lead the neo-rich club PSG to the league title. When Mourinho left Real Madrid, they approached Ancelotti and Mourinho was recalled by his former boss Roman Ibrahamovich. The merry go round goes on and on in both place...in Chelsea and Madrid. Mourinho, Avram Grant, Scolari, Hiddink, Ancelotti, AVB, Roberto Di Matteo, Rafael Benitez, Mourinho ..in Chelsea and in Madrid Del Bosque, Carlos Querioz, Camacho, Remon, Vanderly Luxemburgo, Fabio Capello, Brend Schuster, Juande Ramos, Manuel Pellegrini, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti... may be Vicente Del Bosque...

No trophy but regime continues:

Arsenal won their last trophy at Highbury and then they moved to Emirates Stadium but on the way they forgot the winning formula and learned selling formula. Arsene Wenger managed them for last one and a half decade and won several trophies in his earlier years. For the last eight years, they haven’t won anything. Still, Wenger manages a team... the board trust him and still people watches his team’s performance.

Madness with money

Whenever a club was brought over by a new owner, first question from the fans, pundits, commentators and analysts will be how much money he will spend on new players. In England, Spain and France appearance of the wealthy neo-rich owners from West Asian countries and Russia changed the concept of spending money in Football. To check this imbalance UEFA introduced Financial Fair Play in football, a policy to force the clubs to spend money from their own source and protect them from financial meltdown. Chelsea, Manchester City, Malaga, PSG, Monaco...the list is continuing. The followers and fans expect the club to spend more and more money every year and get the best talent for their club. This approach creates high level inflationary tendencies in the market.

This year, the spending power started from France. A.S. Monaco, with the money power of their Russian investor Dimitry Rybolovlev, moved out quickly from the French Ligue 2 and promoted to Ligue 1. Though they are not qualified for the prestigious UEFA Champions League, they were successful to convince their target about the prospects of their future plans. Monaco’s prime capture was Radamel Falcao, the Colombian forwards from Athletico Madrid by paying 52 GBP million and they added James Rodriguez and Joao Moutinho from FC Porto for another 45 million. Spiral effect was immediately appeared in French Market when Paris Saint Germain paid 56 million for Italian club Napoli’s Uruguayan striker Edison Cavani and a 19 year old Brazilian centre defender from AS Roma for 27 million GBP.

Transfer episode in La Liga started with the signing of Brazilian forward Neymar to Barcelona for near 50 million GBP. All rich clubs were behind including Real Madrid this striker with huge money offer but it was his choice to join Barcelona rather than biggest offer. Real Madrid, the club of Gelaticos were little bit slow to splash money this year but they spend more than 50 million GBP for two emerging Spanish talents Asier Illarramendi from Real Socidada and Isco from Malaga. At present they are equal of a little bit ahead to Barcelona in spending but they are waiting for a world record move to capture the service of Tottenham Hotspurs goal scoring defender turned midfielder-striker Gareth Bale. If it happens, Real will cross 150 GBP for this year.

In England buying managers were more important than spending on players. First three positioned clubs in the league changed their managers and Chelsea and Manchester City spend good amount of money in the football market. Chilean manager of City Manuel Pellegrini spent more money to make the attack more sharp by adding Jesus Navas, Alvaro Negredo, Fernandinho and Stevan Jovotic for 96 million GBP and now looking for defenders. Jose Mourinho preferred to stick with the existing squad and add players in selective positions. Biggest spending from Chelsea this season is 19 million GBP for striker German Andre Schurrle. They invested another 8 million in young midfield player Marco Van Ginkel from Holland. Jose Mourinho is keeping a tab on Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney and if it happens, it will be the marquee sign of Chelsea for this season and could cost more than 20 million GBP.

The Premier League champion Manchester United is yet to get into the transfer market. Their new manager David Moyes is struggling to find extraordinary midfielders to fill the gap left by Paul Scholes. For Moyes, first priority is to keep Rooney with the club and then add substantial talent in their team. It will take little more time to get a clear picture of United.

Arsenal, the fourth placed club in Premier League declared that they will spend big money in the transfer market for this time. They made the biggest bid of the season for a player in the English League by offering 40 million plus 1 GBP for Luis Suarez of Liverpool. This offer got into trouble and become a fight between egos of both club. Apart from this bid, their transfer activity so far restricted to the free transfer of French player Yaya Sanogo from second tier of French league.

Interestingly, English league is more competitive than Spanish, Italian, French and German leagues. So, it reflects in the spending powers of clubs lower than fourth place. Traditionally strong Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspurs spend good amount of money to build up their team to compete for the first four places and a space in UEFA Champions League. First priority of Liverpool was to retain the service of their mercurial striker Luis Suarez who expressed his wish to leave the club for Champions League football. Strong decisions of the owner and the manager helped them to keep Suarez in the fold and also strengthened striking position and goal keeping by adding Iago Aspas and Luis Alberto along with goal keeper Simon Mignolet.

Tottenham lost just one point to beat Arsenal to be in the fourth position and qualifying for Champions League. Performance of their most advanced player Gareth Bale helped them to achieve this position and at present they are struggling to turn down the World record bid from Real Madrid. While transfer battle goes on, Tottenham did not waste time to bolster the team and added talents of Roberto Soldado, Paulinho and Nacer Chadli for around 50 million GBP. They are trying to add a defensive midfielder and will look forward to add more players if Gareth Bale departs the club to Real Madrid.

Great Expectations and troubles ahead

In most of the leagues, present champion expect to retain its position and the clubs in following positions will try their best to be in the pole position.

Bayern Munich: the present European Champion and German league champion expects to repeat the show in this season too. Pep Guardiola, the new manager of Bayern has a colourful track record of winning multiple trophies in same year with Barcelona. It will be a very difficult task for Guardiola to overcome the achievements of Bayern under the guidance of Jupp Heynckes. Any shortage will be criticised well and could be end up in sacking.

Manchester United: the shadow of their all time great manager Sir Alex Ferguson and his achievements will be the biggest challenge for David Moyes. Main task for Moyes is to keep up the league position handed over by Fergusons and take the team further high. Everyone including the club management knows that expectation and reality are in different level but potential is there and will take little more time to achieve it. Even though United failed to perform like last year, Moyes will remain in the job for sure.

Real Madrid: Expectation, Club policies and Reality are in lying in different directions and it is difficult to get together in same place, especially under club chairman Florentino Perez. Managers were the victims of expectation and reality and the musical chair will continue. Money power will allow them to capture the best talent from anywhere in the world but coherence of the team suffers badly. Carlo Ancelotti is one of the most successful and experienced manager but Madrid’s expectation is much more than he can expect. If he fails to deliver quickly, he will be sacked and the musical chair will continue.

Barcelona: the current Spanish Champion replaced Tito Vilanova with Gerardo Martino. For the first time, Barcelona moved out from Dutch influence and attracted criticism of their god father figure Yohan Cruyff. Martino is less known figure among the managers and has no exposure in Europe. Lack of European experience is considered as a handicap especially when Barca plays against European opponents in UEFA Champions League. If everything goes well Martino will get complete support of the club management and supporters, otherwise the club chairman will face the heat and will forced to get back to their Dutch tradition.

Manchester City’s Chilean manager Manuel Pellegrini is first time in England but he has enough experience in high level management. He took Villarreal to the semi final of Champions League in 2006 and worked for Real Madrid before Mourinho joined. He was the key person behind the development of Malaga as a force in Spanish league that performance attracted Manchester City’s attention. After spending huge money on player transfer, the expectation is very high. If he can manage any trophy this year, that will allow him to next year but expectation will be high. For city, UEFA Champion ship is the aim and league title will be a bonus. If he fail to deliver these, he can look for another club.

Chelsea: Mourinho is brought back by the owner who sacked him some time back. He made Chelsea a successful club but lost out to the rejuvenated Manchester United and failed to win Champions League. Roman Abrahamovich expects attractive football from Mourinho rather than his old winning formula. Roman supported him with money and a good squad still Mourinho fails to deliver, Roman will be ruthless again.

Tottenham Hotspurs: Fourth position in the English league is very important and crucial for many clubs. Tottenham Hotspurs are expecting to break into the top four and trying hard to place above their traditional rival Arsenal. Daniel Levy, the chairman of Spurs supports his managers with money but has a history of ruthlessness when it comes to result. Andre Vilas Boas is a young manager did wonders with Spurs last season and lost the fourth position for just one point. This year, Levy expects a lot and provided enough fund to get best players from all over the world. So, pressure on AVB is nothing less than the same on Guardiola or Ancelotti.

World Cup Year

Self expectation for each player will be very high for this year. The players who are playing in top European clubs expect call from their national team managers and the managers expect that their players will have a good season with more number of games and playing time.  

Politics of Hosting Football World Cup: Batting for the rights of Asia and Africa

·     Next World Cup is in Brazil scheduled for 2014. FIFA decided that they deserve it but now Brazilians are not sure about it.

·      World Cup of 2018 is allotted to Russia. Western Europe is not ready to accept this benevolence of FIFA because so far it was considered as a right some special countries.

·         The 2022 World Cup football tournament is at least nine year far from present day: it is a fact but European imperial powers are not ready to accept the ability of Asia.

·     Football World Cup is won by either European country or a Latin American country: it is a truth, but it doesn’t mean that Africa and Asia has enough organisational skill to conduct a big event like football world cup.

·      All countries in Arabian Gulf region has very strong summer: it is a reality and not a new thing but it was daily remembered by European newspapers and they forgot to mention that the region has a nice winter season too.

·         Some countries believe that football is a game played only in cold regions in the world and the world cup will occur only in the summer days of those places.

•  FIFA, the international organisation for football is ruled by few Europeans and just one Latin American for more than a century: may be true but at present major clubs in the Europe is controlled by Russians, Americans and Arabs. 

Very recently, while going through the web site of an international news agency, suddenly come across some news items about the weather conditions of Qatar. In the first sight, nothing felt wrong but when it connected with football, one could easily make out that it was a sheer campaign against the hosting rights of 2022 Football World Cup. The article was detailing about the hot and humid condition of the region and how it will affect the common people and the impact of such hot weather on football players and the viewers.

Interestingly, Sepp Blatter –the President of FIFA publically announced his personal interest to consider change of schedule for 2022 world cup. When the bid was taken place, Qatar also boasted its capacity to host the World Cup in 2022 summer but slowly they retracted from it. Recently, Blatter again appeared with his argument for a winter world cup in 2022 and he spun the ball into a public debate. Now his statement is gathering momentum and media started publishing for and against arguments about it.

Resistance against change of schedule comes from the European football leagues. It will disrupt the traditional schedule of the clubs who controls the world renowned players. According to Michel Platini, the President of UEFA –the football federation of Europe, the change of schedule for the 2022 is possible and there is enough time to make such changes in the European league schedule. But Premier league is adamant against the change in timing of the World Cup and they quote that “we are opposed to the concept of a winter world cup for very obvious practical reason that would impact all European domestic football”. Interestingly, the Premier League is challenging the authority of UEFA in decision making.

Here, the power of money of football elites becomes stronger than the wish and ability of the countries in Asia and Africa. One can see the tone of colonial mentality between the lines when the European Leagues push their arguments. In fact, the football leagues of West and South European countries holds control of the best players in the world and they are not ready to accept any disruption in their yearlong tournament schedules. So, FIFA and its regional bodies were forced to accept the arguments of the Football Associations in England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Holland and Portugal.

In the bidding process, Qatar defeated bids from South Korea, Japan, Australia and United States to win the ballot of FIFA’s 22 executive members. Among the four, three has already hosted football world cup and their bid for another round within the span of 20 years is not reasonable. The continent Asia has many more countries than South Korea and Japan and countries in the West Asia has equal or better tradition than Korea and Japan in participating in world cup. Among the West Asian countries, only Qatar was there in the final round of bidding and it shows that there is mutual acceptance among the countries in the region. Nobody can challenge the financial ability of this oil and gas rich country.

In such condition, the best weapon to challenge them is building up the argument based on climatic condition of the region. Yes, the desert region is hot and humid especially in summer. All of a sudden, articles started appearing in web sites questioning the climatic environment and human adaptability to play in such conditions. Just for the sake of argument, a recent article appeared in Washington Post quoted that the temperature of the Qatar region reaches 122 degrees in summer. They deliberately missed the unit of the temperature whether it is in Fahrenheit or Celsius scale. The figure is intentionally used to frighten the common people.  

Some of the articles pushed to further extend by saying the losers of the bid should go to court and challenge it and pursue for a re-vote. What is the relevance of such challenge and re-vote? Bidding is a right of any country who feels that they have the ability (economically and politically) to conduct the tournament and it is not reserved for some particular countries. There is also an argument found from a former German soccer federation president who believes that the rescheduling of tournament to winter season will badly affect the European League and will threat the “unity” of German football. Theo Zwanziger continues that it better for FIFA to cancel the bid of Qatar and give it to other country rather than rescheduling it.

West Asian region has gone through political turbulence for quiet long time but they produced decent football teams and reached in the finals of world cup several times. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Iraq, UAE etc., produced stunning performances in several editions of the tournament. Their leagues are not well established as European leagues but they use their resources to improve the standard of their leagues by buying some of the best talents of world football. If FIFA is aiming to promote the beautiful game all over the world, then they should obey the rights of other countries apart from South Korea and Japan.

When the articles appeared in the web medium highlighted the hot and humid condition of West Asian region, they deliberately forgot  or ignored that this region have a reasonable winter and it is suitable for conducting the tournament. On the basis of climatic conditions FIFA and European league try to refuse the right of Qatar to conduct the World Cup in 2022 in reality they are refusing the rights of many Asian and African countries who naturally located in the Southern hemisphere.

Qatar is not even asking for any change and they are willing to host it in June-July summer in the air-conditioned stadiums. At the same time they are ready to adjust the timing according to the winter season which would not require a drastic change in the timing of the tournament like moving the fixture to January or February. Small adjustment will be enough to organise the tournament in a better and feasible way. Qatar has an autumn season in the month of April and May which is not very hot and evening are more close to European weather.  In fact, FIFA has history of adjusting the timing of the tournament according to the climatic conditions of the hosting country and Mexico who hosted twice organised the tournament in May-June rather than the usual time of June-July. If FIFA really wants to promote the football as a global game, they have to accommodate the climatic factors of the regions and especially the hosting countries and should stop keeping such things in favour of European football elites.  

Football is one of the most globalised games in the world and has reached out to almost all places in the world. It has a higher viewership than Olympics or any other sports event. So, football globalised the world before the information technology did it. FIFA and the decision making regional authorities of World Football forget the fact that the game football has grown beyond their thinking limits and now it become a fight between money and viewership power.

Football is a colonial contribution as well as the football leagues and the colonial powers continued the football administration further. Even though, the game is globalised very much, still one can trace the colonial connection works better in many occasions and FIFA or any of its regional authorities could not do anything against it. In fact, FIFA keeps a closed eye policy towards the transfer market activities in the Europe especially against the moves from Africa and Latin America.

The debate on hosting of Qatar World Cup 2022 will continue in the web and print medium. The European football elites will always have a better edge in these discussions just because of the power of their colonial languages. Somebody has to come out to challenge them in same way and counter their arguments with proper answers and counter arguments. If Qatar faces these challenges today, then India or any other Asian country apart from South Korea and Japan or any African country except South Africa, because of its climatic advantage, will face it tomorrow.

FIFA and UEFA should remember few things. At present, good number of major football clubs in England, France, Spain, and Italy are brought over by Asian or Russian money. Europe is still struggling with its economic recession and will take much more time to come out of it. Once FIFA accepted the fact that they will rotate the World Cup venue between continents, it becomes a right of countries belongs to each continent to participate in the bidding process. Africa is producing best talents, not money but they will have a big say in hosting World Cup in Africa because it is their right. According to their financial capacity and infrastructure facility, they can bid for the venue and if they successfully convince the executive members of FIFA in the process, they will get it.

FIFA cannot go back from this announcement by saying this continent does not have any country who is capable to bid for the venue. As part of promotion of football, it is the responsibility of FIFA and the regional bodies to develop football in all countries to world standard. Still there is high level pressure on the international football authority to reduce the chances of Asia and Africa and consider more chances for Europe. We all are living in the age of democracy and organisations like FIFA also should become more democratic and transparent in their activities. Democracy was the concept promoted by Europe but they forget to introduce it to FIFA. In many places football was more than a game and was closely associated with the concept of liberation. Equal participation is a right and not the benevolence of the former colonial powers.