IS THE EMBRACE REAL?

"My heart is very saddened for my little boy, because there’s gonna be a time and a place for me to speak to him about the world – how the world is gonna be for him as a black man, and I have no words to even put together."

Last summer in France, the eighth FIFA Women’s World Cup broke new records. After an exhilarating final, won by the USA, a little while after the dust had settled, as the players started to let their achievements sink in, my eyes were drawn to Jessica McDonald and a little boy, standing in the middle.

A mother and son, sharing a very special moment, showering each other in the left over ticker-tape. The same son, who McDonald talked about in an excellent piece in The Athletic this week, with seven of the USWNT, by Meg Linehan.

As a father of three kids, that quote hit me. Hard. In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, I did what I suspect many did. Read. Read some more. Got angry. Sad. Felt guilty. Had some conversations with my kids. 

My rather consistent take on the modern world for at least 12 months has been simple: the world is regressing. The surge in popularity of far right ‘politics’ and parties. Increasing cases of documented discrimination in the UK, fueled by some of the narratives around Brexit. Gay women punched in the face on a night bus in London, the city that was my home for 11 years.

Since 2008 I’ve lived in Switzerland. A country governed by a coalition, where the most popular party since I moved here, had campaign posters that stoke racism and islamophobia. Displayed at bus stops and public advertising boards.

So…where am I going? It’s Saturday evening. And in a true reflection of this sporadic Blog’s name…I’m rambling. By the time I’ve written this and pushed it live, the UK Sunday papers will start to come online. As is the norm in the Mail on Sunday, a journalist who I admire (and on many occasions, guided and supported me on projects I was trying to raise awareness of, when I worked in PR at The FA) will have his weekly column live.

They are generally hotly debated on Twitter. I suspect, tomorrow, he may find an unusually high number of people agreeing with him. Ollie, for those who don't know, has been one of the longest-standing advocates of the Rooney Rule in British sport.

As per his tweet earlier this evening, the question he is asking, is the following:

“Is the embrace of anti-racism by the NFL and FIFA real, or is it just corporate sport’s favoured mode of crisis management?” A topic that Jonathan Liew examined earlier in the week. Before FIFA’s statement was published. And before the NFL’s Roger Goodell published his video.

This is not about calling him out. Just trying to provide a bit of insight, from my viewpoint.
It’s not my place to critique another sports body, whose inner-workings I have no insight into. Where I’m slightly better qualified to write, is in relation to FIFA. Where I have worked since October 2008.

When I first started in the press office, one of my jobs, was to update a factsheet, documenting FIFA’s historical contributions to fighting discrimination. A list of dates and milestones. Yet whenever a small fine was handed out to a Federation whose fans racially abused players in a World Cup qualifier, this factsheet soon lost any credibility. 

In November 2011, approximately 15 months after an historic World Cup in South Africa, which was hoped would help to unite a deeply divided nation, came another memorable blot of the copybook. I remember it like yesterday.

The FIFA President had conducted a TV interview with CNN. The Producer and interviewer I’d got to know well in previous years. As the only mother-tongue English speaker in the press office, it was often me they would call when new stories broke.

Two of my senior colleagues sat in on the interview. And when they returned to the office, I remember clearly asking: “How did it go.” The answer it seemed, was pretty well. Until I asked for a couple of topics. I was curious. What followed next, made me swear. Loudly.

I walked hastily down the corridor, into the room that they were using to edit the piece. Said hello. And one of them said: “Wow Alex. This is going to be big. We’ve just sent the first part over to London. And I’ve just tweeted that this is going to make quite a splash.” It did.

A quote as oft-referenced in the next 8-9 years, as the one about ‘tight shorts’:

"There is no racism. There is maybe one of the players towards another - he has a word or a gesture which is not the correct one. But the one who is affected by that, he should say: 'This is a game. We are in a game, and at the end of the game, we shake hands’."

Just short of three years later, a German guy joined FIFA in a new role: Corporate Social Responsibility Programme Manager (for Equality and Anti-Discrimination).  

Gerd has 20 years experience in football. As an activist working with FARE. The DFB. Curating exhibitions. Speaking at conferences. Writing a Doctorate on Discrimination and Anti-Discrimination in English and German football. Ironically, in 2001, he was invited to the FIFA Congress in Buenos Aires. Where he addressed the world’s football federations. And FIFA made its first declaration in the fight against discrimination. (a bullet point on that factsheet I mentioned earlier).

As part of the CSR team, he has done a huge amount of education work. Travelled around the world to work with Federations. Introduced an annual Diversity Award with a well-respected panel. Supported the development of initiatives such as the ‘three-step procedure.’ And the introduction, with FARE, of anti-discrimination observers at the 2017 Confederations Cup. And in every 2018 FIFA World Cup stadium.

Needless to say, he spent a huge amount of time before that tournament, working in tandem with colleagues on the Local Organising Committee in Russia. Sharing his experience and advocating best practices, to try and ensure a World Cup that in many quarters was feared, would be a celebration. 

A lot of this work seems unknown. It was however, considered more effective than a committee that seldom met, and even more seldom, generated outcomes. Rather overlooked, when a few people share round a link or two on Twitter, is the quote from one of the members: "We never had a single meeting under his chairmanship. I wrote him, more than once, asking for when a meeting would be held. But I never received a reply from him."

That Chairman had got off to a flying start, impressing everyone, myself included, at a media briefing on the sidelines of an IFAB AGM in Edinburgh. The less said, the better.

In 2019, after no update in 15 years, FIFA's Disciplinary Code was also updated. In consultation once again, with FARE. One element of that change, was also the commitment to launch a dedicated FIFA website (legal.fifa.com) where the outcomes of cases would also transparently published. Removing much of the perceived 'cloak and dagger' of gently rapping Federations on the knuckles. 
The work done by a small team in Zurich however cannot change history. It shouldn’t. But, back to Ollie’s question.

On 13 May 2016, FIFA appointed a new Secretary General. In old money, a new CEO.In May 2019, Fatma did an interview with CNN. Them again. This time, the answer to a similar question eight years ago, was slightly different. 

"There are idiots in the life. There are people who think that they want a world where everybody is the same and I think this is totally wrong.

"It's the whole sports world that should be fighting racism," she said. "On the pitch, through communications, through education, through demonstrations, through sanctions. We have all to pull our efforts together to make it happen. But racism has been as old as any other evil in society, and it's for everybody to combat and to fight it. I'm sure in the eyes of some people I was not supposed to be there (at FIFA). But they have to deal with it.”

On Wednesday morning this week, I woke up. As usual, turned on my phone, and scrolled through Twitter. Two tweets were near the top of my timeline. Posted at 3.23am. From Fatma.

“Last week #GeorgeFloyd’s life was brutally taken from him. The footage of #Floyd being restrained by police & saying “I can’t breathe” shocked me to the core & I wish to say this: There is no place for racism anywhere in society nor is there ever any excuse for it.

“The killing of black people by police follows a depressing pattern in US history & this is wrong. #Floyd is not an isolated case, the list is long. It’s about time for the US culture of systematic racism to change. The US can & must do better. Our prayers go to #Floyd’s family.”

As the week developed, a number of former players – Legends – were mobilized by FIFA to spread a simple message: Stop Racism. Stop Violence. Stop Discrimination. It’ll take more than a t-shirt to achieve those things. But when you’re talking about Yaya Toure, Ronaldo & Roberto Carlos, I think they know that already.

So, after nearly 1500 words, I’ve got just a few ones left, to answer the question:
“Is the embrace of anti-racism by FIFA real?”

I think it is. To everyone who read this/got this far, now ask yourself the same question too. Let's make this more than just a black square on your Insta, a blog written late at night, or a newspaper column every few years.

IT’S A FUNNY OLD GAME

Following events of the last week, the Saturday lunchtime catchphrase of Jimmy Greaves sprung to mind. Although if you care, it doesn't feel funny at all.

FIFA - The Fédération Internationale de Football Association  "has 211 member associations and its goal, enshrined in its Statutes, is the constant improvement of football." In my almost nine years, football is often the last thing FIFA is associated with.

FIFA has been 'bashed' for years. Spawned books. I first read 'Goal' back in 2007, on the flight to the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup draw. I was happy that the people who I then saw in real life, that dragged the name of where I work lower than a snake’s belly, finally got their comeuppance.

This week I was not in Bahrain, but Zurich. An old hangover of having worked in the press office for 4 ½ years, my Google Alerts were on overdrive. New stories are still appearing. Sentiment analysis would struggle to put too many in the ‘positive’ or ‘neutral’ category.

On Thursday I listened to the FIFA Congress in my office. Watched the keynote speech. Saw a part of Twitter light up by the Sports News correspondents there. Many of them have tried to hold FIFA to account for many years. Many I know well. Respect. I also know they don’t rejoice in the stories they often write. Well, not too many!

Later when I got home (bear with me), I saw an article in The Guardian. It described how Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘leaked’ Labour manifesto was the best thing since sliced bread. Sadly, due to the power of the Tory media, and the (perceived) lack of ‘wow factor’ of Corbyn, there was little chance of a tidal wave of support for it. It made me think. In recent times, the oratory, fear-mongering and clownishness of the likes of Trump, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage has swayed huge opinion, and lead to some seismic decisions affecting millions and millions of people.

So (coming back to where I rambled off) when I listened to the FIFA President speak in Manama, then saw the reaction, part of me understood why I read what I read. However, it also made me think: are people really fully listening anymore? Some of us joke that even if FIFA announced it had found the cure for every form of Cancer, some reports would still be negative.

Since my early days at The FA, trying to find creative ways (and boring the hell out of patient journalists with my over-eager ‘pitches’) I’ve often realized one of the contradictions of elite football. On one hand, the aim is to develop football. On the other, the way business sometimes must be done is to organize glitzy, high-budget events, involving lots of suits staying in nice hotels. Money that could also buy boots and ball. And this, is where, after 500+ words (unsurprisingly for me!), I get to my point.

At FIFA, we are the guardians of a game played by more than 300 million people. FIFA is not just about politics. Committees. They DO play a role. Yet they meet 3-4 times a year. The rest of the work is done by 500+ professional employees in Zurich.

This week, one of my colleagues was in Brazil, speaking at a conference alongside huge names of men’s football. And CONMEBOL’s Head of Women’s Football Development. Trying to help drag a country that boasts Marta, forward into creating structures (and jettisoning years of malpractice) to create more Marta’s in the future. Maybe leading to a first FIFA Women’s World Cup star on that yellow jersey.

Another colleague has 20 years of background in fan activism, fighting every form of societal discrimination imaginable. I bumped into him this week meeting FARE. Despite the wording of a letter that announced the disbandment of FIFA’s Anti-Discrimination Taskforce (there is as always, a different story behind this), does it really mean FIFA doesn’t care about tackling discrimination? To quote my old FA boss David Davies: “Off-the-record: Bollocks. On-the-record: Bollocks.” I sent direct messages on Twitter in midweek urging two hugely influential and senior British media to request a chat with this colleague, and his boss. Find out the truth. Whether they did or not, I don’t know. But you can read a lot about his work here.

Another colleague was in Ukraine, helping educate coaches on developing Futsal, so they can spread their knowledge within local communities. Educate more coaches, and inspire more young kids to play, especially during freezing cold winters.

Some of the much debated FIFA Legends played football with some kids in Bahrain. Met fans in Sochi. And next week, will help launch the sale of tickets for the FIFA U17 World Cup in India, and meet kids at a grassroots festival, part of the tournament’s intended legacy to introduce 11 MILLION boys and girls in schools, to football. As Rob Harris of AP tweeted late on Thursday, when he actually spoke to a few: they enjoy doing this. And learning more what we do. Like Alex Scott who i've known for years. She had her eyes well and truly widened in Papua New Guinea.

In the job I’ve now done for four years, leading Social Media, there is, as ever, a huge opportunity to shed a better light on who FIFA really is. We’ll still be dragged down by stories, like that of the former Guam FA President. But we'll keep fighting to show the other, less shiny side of the coin. Not front or back page news. But the 'real' FIFA.

After the former President left FIFA, I was half-minded to try and get five votes to be able to stand as a Presidential candidate, with a manifesto that was exclusively written by FIFA staff. I discussed the idea with with my Dad; thought I may even have had a chance. Just to get a different message, and different image across about the organisation, and where WE thought it needed to improve. But I thought a boy from Yeovil may have forgotten his place. So the idea flickered and faded.

On stage in Bahrain, our new President said: "If there is anyone in this room or outside, who still thinks that he can enrich himself and abuse football, I have one clear and strong message to tell him. Leave. Leave football. And leave football now. We don't want you." Amen to that.

Being the leader of anything is harder than it looks. It's easy to criticise from the outside. Pick over anything and everything. But you have to make decisions; have a thick skin at times. Indecision and paralysis by over-anaylsis is also not what FIFA needs right now.

I remain optimistic. I love what I do. Know it can be so much better. I read and see fan comments every day, that acknowledges there are many different sides to FIFA. Helping to make the organisation ever-better, drives many of us daily. We'll keep trying.

If you made it this far, thank you. Have a great weekend.