Money changes everything!

FIFA Uncovered (2022)
Miniseries (Netflix; 4 episodes)
Direction: Daniel Gordon.

It is the same story all the time. Something starts small with noble intentions but ends up filled with filth so much that it hits the ceiling so high that its stench fills up to high heaven.

We are aware of the Indian Congress Party, which the British Raj established to give the natives a false sense of control of their administration, who steered the nation towards self-rule and have, over the decades, become a self-destructive political party. In the 21st century, its place in society is suspect. 

In the same vein, UMNO (United Malay National Organisation), which had a pivotal role in claiming independence from the British, is now a power-hungry, corruption-ridden tyrant out to mill the country. 

Of course, naysayers would insist that these parties were connivingly handed the rein of the country purposefully. The British still wanted to hold the purse strings of their former colonies and exert a stronghold on how their economies should be steered whilst ensuring their own interest.

In the same way, FIFA started as a genuinely non-profit entity with the noble intention of wanting to improve football standards around Europe. Over the years, when money got intertwined in the equation, it grew too big for its boots. Soon everything had a price, from advertising to sponsorship to hosting to even a vote for a seat in the executive committee.

The path to hell is paved with good intentions. In 1974, a Brazilian industrialist, João Havelange, decided to incorporate business into this body. Their bank accounts became fatter and fatter. Other governing bodies (CONCACAF, AFC, OFC, CONMEBOL) from different parts of the world soon joined suit. With an obedient general, Sepp Platter, promoting the game to the remotest part of the world, their coffers grew. Contribution from the sponsors did not reach their intended targets but allegedly lined the FIFA officials. 

In their zest to stay in power in FIFA, officials were bribed to buy votes. Over the years, investigative journalists exposed their shenanigans in the open. The coup de grace came to light with the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 hosting of the World Cup by Russia and Qatar, respectively. One by one, the ugly crimes of the heads of various soccer bodies were uncovered. FBI came into the picture. James Warner of the Carribeans, Charles Blazer of the USA and 14 executive committee members of FIFA were implicated in vote buying and widespread corruption within organised games. 

FIFA is run like a Mafia-like establishment. Sepp Platter is portrayed as the godfather of what is supposed to be a charitable body to genuinely promote the game of soccer. At one point, Platter is even accused of having narcissistic tendencies, harbouring the intention of wanting to receive the Nobel Peace Prize!

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Laundromats, Laundering and World Cup!

I used to be fascinated with the term 'money laundering'. At face value, it looked simple enough - to cleanse money obtained via unsavoury means and to put them in circulation whilst giving them a legitimate source of origin. Was it a coincidence that Al Capone used a laundromat to store and 'cleanse' his ill-gotten gains during Prohibition? 

As the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup is in progress, another word frequently mentioned is 'sports washing'. Traditionally sports have been utilised to cement friendships between nations. It has also been used to spur nationalism among its own citizens. For years despotic regimes whitewash their sins with the glamour of sports. During the 1936 Olympics, Hitler tried to paint a new image of a rejuvenated Germany after the humiliating defeat in the trench War and to prove his supremacist Aryan race theory. Sadly, Jesse Owen's achievement simply threw dirt on Hitler's face. Then it was the Argentinan junta who tried to whitewash their political witch hunts and extra judicial killings by organising the 1978 FIFA World Cup. For a moment, the world thought the world of Argentina had risen from ashes. 

Is Qatar following in the footsteps of the above?

From the word get-go, Qatar has been hogging the headlines for all the wrong reasons. True, the media giant was established with free-flowing Arab petrodollars to paint a more accurate picture of the Arabic and Islamic world; no paint brushing can hide the ugly truth. How it won the bid to host the pinnacle of the world's favourite sport is suspect. How the hell did the FIFA Executive representatives feel that Qatar, with its desert heat and a summer temperature of 50 degrees C was a better choice than Australia and the United States? 

Even before the coin toss or kick-off, the death toll and abuse of its migrant workers had hit the ceiling. The narration of non-payment of wages and non-compensation for injuries sustained during its many infrastructure constructions is common knowledge.

Now that the game has commenced, more and more of their shenanigans have come to light. The Wahhabi-infused Qatari royalty has decided to showcase how a halal football tournament should be carried out. Revellers who flew in to join the merriment of their winning teams in style had to contend with non-alcoholic beverages. They are also strictly told not to display their sexual preferences on their sleeves.

Migrant worker death toll at 1,400

So when someone told me that he was excited that the first two preliminary matches revealed unexpected results. Saudi Arabia, which had a 251 to 1 odds of beating Argentina, did precisely that. And who is the right kind would have thought the minion Japanese who have ousted the four-time world Cup winners Germany? The bookies would have thought so, too, since they would ensure the best returns. Nothing is surprising anymore in this money-raged world of moolah and how businesses control every aspect of our lives. 

In the organisers' zeal to showcase how an Islamic country has a 'secular' event, they decided to use the occasion to proselyte fans. Who can be the best evangelist with an incredible track record to prove this than the fugitive Dr Zakir Naik? He had been specially flown in for the occasion from Malaysia.

Interestingly, Qatar insists that Dr Naik is not on the invitees' list.

Is the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar's way of sport washing its world image as the premier sponsor of terror? Do they expect the world to forget all about the state-sponsored madrasahs and ulamas after organising a memorable display of world-class football? Villains become valiant defenders of truth?

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Chalice of hope or despair?

© FIFA

Almost like a ritual, it turns up regularly every four years in the Northern summer. Nobody bothers about the Southern hemisphere anyway. One says that games are on this summer, it refers to summer in the Northern hemisphere, not South. Many a couch potato who had seen better times at running after a ball, all turn out to be expert football pundits and fantastic football strategist; many times over than the world's highest paid football managers. These podgy characters start their day in the afternoon with puffy red eyes and husky voices after staying up the whole night to the wee hours of the morning at nightspots cheering for teams whose players would not even be able to place our country on the globe.

My exposure to this most loved started way back in 1978 when Argentina hosted this quadrennial fiesta. My mathematics teacher, Mr Chang, besides teaching us probabilities and possibilities, he also exposed us to some of the FIFA world cup related trivia. Brazil, at that time, was the only country to have turned out three times* and it was the only country that had won the cup when hosted outside the continent the winning team is from**. [Brazil won it in 1958, 1962 and 1970; they succeeded in Sweden]. Much has changed since then. * Germany and Italy has won four times and Italy three; ** Spain won in the African continent and Germany in South America in 2014.

100-ruble Bank of Russia commemorative note.

features great Russian goalkeeper Lev Yashin.

Is it not all about the money?

Over the years, much has happened in the way football is played and the tournament is run. The governing body and its members are drowning in alleges of bribery and match-fixing. The numbers of countries participating in the finals draw have swelled by leaps and bounds. After the 1994 US-hosted WC, commercialisation has reared its ugly head. Sometimes one wonders whether any outcome of a game is real anymore. Do the best team ever win or is it that the invisible hands of inter-continental bookies who have the final say?

Again and again, host countries have failed to make any money from these games. Their level of football never changed. The economy was not spurred. Monumental stadium out in the wilderness like the one in Manaus became white elephants which cannot generate income to sustain itself. Political unrest instead comes out as the homeless stare cluelessly as their host country sweep their poverty figures under the proverbial carpet. Don't even go near Qatar if one does want to know the number of humans if one takes migrant workers as one, sacrifices made in the name of showcasing the scorching desert kingdom as a host to this game in the heat of summer!

Are football enthusiasts given their money's worth? Do the final games give them enough fix to last another four years? I do not think so. Gone are the days, sportsman gave their heart and soul to the glory of the nation. Now it is dollars and cents or whatever denominations that matter to them. Footballs, like all commodities, have a shelf-life. Within their short span of soccer productivity, they have to enrich themselves. Their participations at club level roll in the dough. Medals and pride do not fill up the belly or maintain their lifestyles. Hence, we only see half-hearted participations and non-committal involvements in the World  Cup finals.

At the end of the spectators are taken for a ride whilst cronies of politically connected people in business laugh all the way to the bank. For others, it is just a month of chaos, blurry-eyed civil servants' service and loads of medical certificates issued for absenteeism.

 https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

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Blame, shame, name game

The question is whether an occurrence can solely be put on one event is questionable. It appears that our national pastime is playing the blame game and to shame the alleged perpetrator(s) in the hope that if someone can be pinpointed to have caused the gaffe, we can put closure to a catastrophe. And they hope to prevent the shortcomings in future.

It all sounds noble but unfortunately life is not so simple.

Not every bad incident has a simple etiology. Most often than not it is multi factorial. Like in Murphy's Law, when something is doomed to go wrong, it will go wrong. Airline industry have considered a 'no blame' policy but to identify the precipitating events and to take a collective approach to improve safety.
On the other hand, is a leader culpable to take the brickbats if his subordinates faltered? Should he be made to answer or just take the easy way of saying, "it wasn't me. It is not easy to control so many people's actions, you know!"?

That reminds me of a small civil court case where a minor road accident had occurred. A driver coming from the opposite side had hit him at a traffic light. The aggrieved driver insisted that he was right as the traffic light on his side was green. The learned judge decreed that he also had to take 20% of the blame as it was his duty too to ensure that his lane was clear before he started moving!

Just another day in real life!

A Brazilian soccer fan cries as she watches her team 

get beat during a live telecast of the semifinals

 World Cup soccer match between Brazil and Germany, 

in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Now that the nights are spent in slumber land, the eyes are becoming less congested and the mush in the brain is slowly clearing up, I can write. It is amazing how a game, after all a game, can exert so much effect on events around the world. Perhaps, it was meant to be thus. Average Joe being side-tracked by events that are clearly not going to determine the fate of mankind, as, they, the capitalists create a sense of urgency and fascination amongst the lay people and laugh all the way to the bank. If not, how would you expect a supposedly non profit organisation like FIFA to have 5 billion USD in their account, leaving a trail of heartaches as they count their loot. And the money is development of world football, really?

Soccer is just another tool for the powers that be to achieve their agenda. Back in the 1930s as Brazil was developing as a nation as the white masters, black slaves and the mullattos start to develop the nation, the powers that be decided football would be the unifying cement something like how ANC used rugby to unify a young post apartheid South Africa. Brazil became all excited with the young mullattos and their fancy footwork. They were initially a second tier team following the shadows of great teams like Uruguay and Italy. With lot of hope, they hosted the 1950 World Cup. With their high scoring games in the initial games, they were set to win the Cup easily then. In fact, the papers on 15th July 1950 printed pictures of the Brazilian team with the caption 'Tomorrow's World Champion'!

What followed shook the nation for years to come. 

Brazil lose 2-1 against Uruguay in the1950 World Cup

final held in the Maracanã Stadium, Brazil. 

Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty

Brazil lost the game to Uruguay in the final game 2-1 to a devastating crowd who were prostrating in grief. The Maracanã went completely silent when Uruguay hoisted the cup! The ghost of 1950 Uruguay had started. The players were ostracised for years to come. Some went into depression. Mention of the ill-fated game angered many citizens. The ghost was finally buried in 1958 Sweden final with the new kid of the block, Pele. It then went on to 5 World Cups and have the bragging rights of being the only country to win outside their continent.

The prelude of this World Cup (2014) included massive demonstrations by the poor homeless as the disparity between the haves and have nots escalated over the years. Grandiose commercially non sustainable projects like the Manaus Stadium angered them further. The Government was thinking of hoodwinking the public by giving the 'feel good' euphoria showcasing their samba hospitality to the world. They thought this would nicely fit in as the country was due to move into a fresh set of elections.

Looks like history had repeated itself. If the 1950 loss to Uruguay 1-2 was a national tragedy, how would the ghost of 2014 be exorcised? The team, which has a long following the world over, hailing from a land where football is a religion, were humiliated by Germany 1-7 in a highly emotional semi finals. It took 8 years in 1950 before they turned themselves around. Now, how?

As the World Cup comes to an end, the nation has to pick up the pieces, feel the emptiness left after a month's high of activities and pacify the forlorn nation who has to sort out the bread and butter issues too. The politicians are also seeing stars. Are the people going to return to their seats of is it time for them to pick up their money and run?

The lesson the lay person would learn would be, 'Cows may come and cows may go but the bull here stays forever'! The guests would have returned. It is time to clean up, get back to life and get back to reality.

Life lessons learnt from FIFA World Cup 2010

Life lessons learnt from FIFA World Cup 2010 (under the hypnotizing hum of the vuvuzelas..)

A living day is a learning day in the voyage of life. We all sail, somewhere. Some wade along aimlessly, some claim to know the way whilst others follow blindly but there is no Google map to follow.... The destination may be variable but endpoint is the same!
Now, what can we learn from the FIFA World Cup 2010.

• France: if there is no mutual respect between coach (leader) and player (citizens), the team (country) is bound to go nowhere. Just like that, the 1998 world champions fizzled out after the first round with dismal performances.
• Argentina: do not write off people too easily. Everybody deserves a second chance. In the qualifying stage, Argentina just managed to scrape through as a representative of South America. In the first and second match, they showed the world the  real way to play football, shutting up their critics.
• Primadonnas never shine: Look at Italy (the last WC winners) and their humbling 2-3 defeat to Slovakia, all at once eliminating them at the first rounds! The arms that hoisted the world cup in 2006 is now supporting their fellow sobbing team mates!
• Mind the minnows! Knowing that the Japanese are inferior in physique and stature, they excelled in speed and 'never-say-die' samurai spirit. South Koreans, out to prove that their last outing was no fluke and a flash in the pan, are giving their opponents a run for their money in this dogfight! (could not resist the pun). Do not forget the Fernleaf country with more sheep than human, New Zealand! Even though they have part time footballers and no big guns to shout about, they exited the 1st round without losing a single game!
• Team spirit is important. Just like the previous WC, the African teams are not doing so well. No, thanks to their internal squabbling.

The football pundits say, "Life's a pitch". If that is true, we can learn a thing or two of lessons in life from the football pitch (field). Well, it is not over yet. The world cup action is just heating up and the best is yet to come!

In conjunction with the FIFA World Cup 2010

11.6.2010

FIFA World Cup 2010

(# denotes FIFA ranking as per 24^th May 2010)

In the spirit of FIFA World Cup, we Malaysians (#147), can only contribute by sucking up all the World Cup merchandise and memorabilia by paying exorbitant prices and rejoicing by seeing other teams which were below or at most at par with us showing their prowl at world football rankings. South Korea (#47), who were our archrivals in the 1970s at our Merdeka tournaments, have consistently represented Asia in eight World Cups and even emerged semifinalists in 2002 when they co-hosted the finals with Japan (#45), who were many rungs below us in the 1970s. What can we do but stare blankly into the sky and blame everybody else (except ourselves) whilst others leap by bounds over the moon! We (the dumb cows) can run with the spoon. And you can reminisce about the fine Malaysian footballers of yesteryear. Maxis, in their effort to promote their 3G phones for viewing soccer matches, are capitalising on this sentiment to boost their profits.  

Have a look at our compatriots in the Merdeka tournament. See where they are now, while our royalties and politicians run the soccer bodies just as they run their households. Just look at the Kelantan royalty and our learned politician from Kinabatangan Bung (Dung) Moktar Radin and the mess he is in with polygamy and his mid-life crisis (he should try running instead, but he must be worried about his complexion after all the facial treatments and rejuvenations! UV light in the sun may be damaging and his trophy wife might just abscond!).

Australia #20	Tunisia#55	Oman#91	Singapore#127	Myanmar #147
Algeria#30	Iran#61	Kuwait#97	India#133	Bangladesh#160
Ghana#32	Saudi Arabia#66	UAE#100	Indonesia#137	Nepal#161
Japan#45	Iraq#80	Thailand#106	Hong Kong#139	Philippines#170
SouthKorea#47	China#84	Vietnam#117	Malaysia#146	Laos #174

We can only dream about the dreams we had and the glory of yesteryear.

We can think about… (list is by no means exhaustive)

• Spider R. Arumugam, the best Asian goalkeeper;
• Chow Chee Keong, Malaysian bred, in the Hong Kong league;
• Soh Chin Aun, the Datuk defender;
• Santokh Singh, the cool Singh;
• M. Chandran, the composed Malaysian Captain;
• Shahruddin Abdullah;
• Jamal Nasir;
• Reduan Abdullah;
• Namat Abdullah;
• Abdullah Ali;
• Ali Bakar;
• Bakri Ibni, who gave a curved banana kick from the corner post;
• Isa Bakar, a hard worker;
• Hassan Sani, the typhoon from Sabah;
• James Wong, aka King James;
• And of cours,e the legendary Super Mokh, Mokhtar Dahari!

Read all about it and cry….

Mokhtar Dahari : Malaysian football player (1953 - 1991)

Tuesday, 30 March 2010 17:39 History - Biography

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Mokhtar Dahari (13 November 1953 – 11 July 1991) was a Malaysian football player from Setapak, Selangor (now Kuala Lumpur). He was one of the best players in Asia in the 1970s.

Born in Setapak, Mokhtar Dahari showed interest in playing football at an early age. He played for his school and later for his home state, Selangor FA. He was only 19 years-old when he first played for the Malaysia national football team in an international game. Mokhtar helped Selangor FA win the Malaysia Cup 10 times and scored 177 goals altogether. In international games, he helped the Malaysia national football team score a total of 125 goals in 167 caps. He was the best striker in Malaysia. His first game for Malaysia national football team was against Sri Lanka national football team in 1972.

The Merdeka Stadium was his second home. Roars of "Supermokh" was all over the crowds including the young generation who tried to imitate his move.
Along with goalkeeper R Arumugam, defenders Santokh Singh and Soh Chin Aun, midfielders Reduan Abdullah and Shukor Salleh and Mokhtar's partner upfront Isa Bakar, Mokhtar Dahari's Selangor FA and Malaysia national football team were powerful forces in the '70s.

In 1975, he represented the Malaysia national football team against English giantsArsenal F.C.. Malaysia national football team won the game 2–0, with Mokhtar scoring both goals. After the game, Mokhtar was rumoured to have been offered a chance to play for the Gunners. He also famously scored a goal in a 1–1 draw against England national football team's B team in 1978, dribbling past half of the opposing team coached by Bobby Robson. Paul Mariner was on the scoresheet for England that day.

He won his 100th cap for Malaysia national football team when he played in a Merdeka Football Tournament match against Japan national football team in 1976. This number 10 of Selangor FA also had a friendly game against another number 10, Diego Maradona's Boca Juniors of Argentina in January 1982. The match ended with a 2-1 result; won by Boca Juniors of Argentina.

Mokhtar Dahari retired in May 1986 after winning the Malaysia Cup for Selangor FA and himself the man of the match. He also gave his number 10 jersey to Raja Muda Selangor. He came out of retirement in January 1987 to play one more season for Selangor FA.

In January 1988, he joined Kwong Yik Bank and won the Selangor League that year.

Mokhtar died at age 37 years-old of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at Subang Jaya Medical Centre (SJMC) at 8:25 am on 11 July 1991. His body was laid to rest at Bukit Permai, Taman Keramat Permai Muslim Cemetery.