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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Sad decline

How Malaysia never reached the World Cup
(Harimau Malaya's 40-year chronicle of failure)
Author: Lucius Maximus

With such a depressing title, as expected, one can only read about heartaches and heartaches of the Malaysian fans over the 4 decades as the administrators of the national football team made more and more promises in vain to bring the national team to the World Cup finals.

We, the children of the 70s had many fond moments, glued to the radio sets visualising in our minds how our national team was then giving a good fight and even defeating many teams which are considered powerhouses of Asian football - e.g. South Korea, Japan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia. If we were lucky, we would have the pleasure of Malaysia pulverising minnows like the Philippines (15-0) and Burma in a padi-field like muddy fields of Stadium Merdeka. In fact, there was an urban legend then that Malaysia had a regular in-house bomoh (shaman) who had a 100% success rate in bringing in the rain. You see, Malaysia fared better in drenched situations.

The author painstakingly researched and re-enacted those nail-biting moments of the glory days of Malaysian football. A time when we were ranked easily as one of the better teams in Asia before FIFA ranking came to fore. In August 1993, we ranked #75 in the FIFA ranking. Today we are #156.

For starters, Indonesia actually partook the 1938 World Cup as Dutch East Indies where they were thrashed by then a superpower of football, Hungary 6-0.

After Malaysia's high achievement of making it the Olympic in 1972 and defeating USA 3-0, their interest to indulge in the World Cup must have started. Never mind that they lost the remaining 2 games and the U.S.A. was a novice then.

With a string of talented and dedicated players, we actually had a crack at high-level football. We had a few memorable games with international teams who were impressed with many of our player, for example, Mokhtar Dahari.

The journey to the coveted final rounds of the World Cup, however, had been by lousy luck, heartaches and horrible management. From 1974 to 2014, we had made 11 unsuccessful attempts in our pursuit to play amongst the best. Each journey pretty much starts and ends in the same way. We would kick up dirt to boast of yet another new attempt with a new foreign coach with an excellent track record and a local assistant which an illustrious career. The team will go on in a lot of pomp and splendour. The first matches would be not so promising but barely scrape through. They would promise of a better show in the next but would end up worse off than the first! They would miss the World Cup and had to contend watching the finals over the telly.

Excuses were aplenty, but the truth would be lousy planning (like training in Frasier's Hill for a game in Dubai, indiscipline, factions amongst players, cronyism, the mismanagement by the F.A.M. officials (from the most vibrant association it had become one of the most amateurish and poorest) and possibly intervention by bookies!

The author went as far as to suggest a few steps to help to improve the state of football in the country.

P.S. I met a F.A.M. official in a social function recently. Engaging in small talks revealed the old dogs are still quite passionate that the board should continue to be led by royal figurines. He alleged that only they had the charisma and potential to lure financial support for its continuity. Lest he forgot that any successful venture would automatically draw positive attention and money would start rolling in like an avalanche!

P.P.S. When you team starts losing to teams which have more killing fields than playing fields (Laos) or get whipped by groups known as whipping boys (Philippines) or countries with more mountains than fields (Nepal), you know you are in trouble. The trouble is you fail to realise than your contemporaries reached the Quarter Finals of World Cup while you have become more amateurish and shoddy. Japan who learnt from Malaysia on how to build a football league has now an enviable association while you struggle with mediocrity and a semiprofessional league comprising overweight stars who are way past their shelf life!

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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.