- A river runs through it part one - 17th August 2026
- Nigel Farrago - 14th August 2026
- Struck out - 14th August 2026
Criticism is growing of Fifa’s extraordinary announcement that it aims to sell off stakes in its football competitions [including the World Cup (WC) to which Wales qualified in 2022], to private investors via associates of Donald Trump.
The European Union (EU) has said it will investigate the proposed venture, designed to raise up to $4.2 billion for its tournaments, and the governing body of European football Uefa has accused Fifa of “using our sport to enrich themselves and their friends”.Glenn Micallef, the EU’s commissioner for sport, called the “relentless commercialisation” of football “corrosive”. All European nations have agreed to boycott the WC if the plans go ahead
However this is only the latest controversy to engulf Fifa – much of it uncovered by the kind of investigative journalism practised by The Eye’s Editor, Welshman Phil Parry.
In the country where the tournament was held in 2022, to which Wales qualified, gay people may endure a punishment of up to three years in prison, as well as even facing the death penalty under sharia law if they are Muslim, and it is feared that THOUSANDS of migrant workers there could have died building the stadiums.
The controversial sell-off plans of the governing body’s head (Gianni Infantino), have done little to dispel the organisation’s awful reputation.
Like his long-serving predecessors, Sepp Blatter and João Havelange (a Brazilian businessman) he has proved adept at hobnobbing with the powerful, and has received a medal, the Order of Friendship, from Vladimir Putin, as well as inventing one himself, the FIFA Peace Prize, to award to Mr Trump last year.
The bad headlines which have swirled round Fifa have already been something to behold – even before these sell-off plans.
Its former vice-president Jack Warner faced an arrest warrant issued at the request of US authorities, who filed charges against him and 13 others.
In September Mr Warner was subject to a ruling made by a high court in his home country of Trinidad and Tobago which stopped him being extradited to the US – he had received a life-ban from Fifa in 2015 and was charged with wire fraud, racketeering and money-laundering by the US that year as well.
He had allegedly taken a $5 million (£3.7 million) bribe to vote for Russia to host the 2018 World Cup, though he has always insisted that he is not guilty of doing so. But, according to Reuters, two of Mr Warner’s sons, Daryll and Daryan, pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme in the US in 2013.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) indictment stated: “Several of the accounts used to wire money to Warner received or sent wire transfers to or from companies based in the United States that performed work on behalf of the 2018 Russia World Cup bid”.
The man in charge of Fifa at the time (Mr Blatter) has also been accused of corruption, although he was cleared of any wrongdoing by authorities in Switzerland in relation to a massive ‘disloyalty payment’ to a friend and former colleague.
Mr Blatter’s lawyers then described it as “a valuable employment relationship” and said “the payments were valid compensation and nothing more”.
Meanwhile the Qatar World Cup chief Hassan Al Thawadi declared that the tournament changed perceptions of the region and transformed his country, while insisting there should be recognition for improved workers’ rights.
“This was a celebration of the Arab people, of our culture, of our tradition, of our history”, Mr Al Thawadi proclaimed during an interview in Qatar’s capital, Doha. “It was a platform for bringing people together in an unprecedented way. It changed the perception of this part of the world, and allowed us to showcase the best in us”, he added.
Unfortunately these fine words hid a darker world.
The Sunday Times, disclosed that the country had secretly offered £400 million to FIFA, just 21 days before being awarded the event, and once the announcement was made, more alarm bells started to ring.
The country is slightly smaller than Connecticut and had scant soccer pedigree, but in December 2010 the tournament was given to it even so, during a bidding process that, according to American authorities, was riddled with corruption.
Terrible remarks from Khalid Salman, a retired football star from Qatar, and ambassador for the football World Cup, have underscored the awful facts about homosexuality there.
He used an Arabic term for being gay meaning that it was a “damage in the mind”, speaking on the German public broadcaster ZDF. Mr Salman also appallingly said that gay people brought in to Qatar something that was “not good”, and he was worried children in his country might see gay men and women. He was then swiftly cut off by a media adviser.
This medieval approach to being gay in Qatar caused a huge storm, with remarks from politicians adding to it. The then Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly said even before them, that fans should be: “Respectful of the host nation” (which has a TINY population of just 2.9 million people, but with an estimated 1.7 million migrant workers). However Lucy Powell the Shadow Culture Secretary at the time declared: “This is shockingly tone deaf from James Cleverly”.
Under the headline: Why Qatar makes this football fan so uneasy”, The then Times columnist David Aaronovitch wrote: “…it is effectively a monarchical dictatorship”, as well as: “…I wouldn’t dream of going (to Qatar). Even watching from afar feels horribly like collusion. It’s all a bit sad”.
Others though, HAVE gone to Qatar, but for reasons other than those held by some Welsh football fans – to protest about its severe laws. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) campaigner Peter Tatchell demonstrated against them in Doha, where he held up a placard which read: “Qatar arrests, jails and subjects LGBTs to ‘conversion’”.
Under the headline ‘DOCTOR BECOMES ‘FIRST’ QATARI TO PUBLICLY COME OUT AS GAY’ The Independent reported that Nas Mohammed said: “I walked into a gay club and I knew I was 100 per cent gay. I went home and cried – I thought my life is in crisis. I thought I was going to go to hell, my life is damned”.
One leading Welsh football presenter said: “A producer I work with is gay and he can’t go!”.
Even Mr Blatter, stated that the decision to award the WC to Qatar was a “mistake”. We were told this was to do with the size of the country, and not connected to human rights abuses, but his comments only added to the worrying headlines about Qatar.
Mr Blatter’s news came as 10 European football associations (including those of England and Wales) announced: “human rights are universal and apply everywhere”. Peaceful protests were planned by some players, while England’s defeated Harry Kane and nine other captains of European teams (among them the Wales captain Gareth Bale) were to wear ‘One Love’ armbands in order to promote diversity and inclusion.
But it was decided NOT to wear them following a threat from FIFA that players could face an instant yellow card for doing so. Afterwards, a joint statement from the Football Associations of England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands and Switzerland declared. “We are very frustrated by the FIFA decision which we believe is unprecedented – we wrote to FIFA in September informing them of our wish to wear the One Love armband to actively support inclusion in football, and had no response”. They added: “FIFA has been very clear that it will impose sporting sanctions if our captains wear the armbands on the field of play“
Denmark were donning ‘toned-down’ shirts in protest, with kit provider Hummel saying it did “not wish to be visible”, while Australia’s squad released a video urging Qatar to abolish its laws banning same-sex relationships.
Two excellent books laid bare in horrifying detail the darker side of life inside Qatar. It has used the World Cup as a form of ‘soft power’, to boost the profile of the state, however there are serious doubts about the way this has been done.
They are: ‘Hidden Stories From One of the Richest Nations on Earth’ by John McManus, as well as ‘Qatar and the 2022 FIFA World Cup : ‘Politics, Controversy, Change’ by Paul Michael Brannagan and Danyel Reiche. The London Review of Books (LRB), which featured them, has underlined the nature of laws in the state: “Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, and though the organisers of the World Cup have insisted that everyone is welcome it remains to be seen how public demonstrations of same-sex affection will be handled; earlier this year one of the men in charge of security at the tournament Major General Abdulaziz Abdullah al-Ansari, warned that rainbow flags may be taken from fans for their own protection”.
The conditions for migrant workers in building the stadiums were no less alarming, and they placed another question mark over any decision to fly out to Qatar to support the Welsh football team. The Qatari authorities vigorously dispute the high number of deaths, and have said that ‘only’ fifty died. But the respected Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Human Rights Watch [HRW], said it was MUCH higher.
What is certainly the case, though, is that Qatar detained and then deported dozens of migrant workers who were protesting about the circumstances of their work. HRW declared: “These are the people who have literally built the World Cup from the ground up, from the desert up. They are the ones who must receive financial compensation before the first ball is kicked”.
Like those migrant workers, women are also treated like second class citizens in Qatar. Most must be veiled, and they need the permission of a male ‘guardian’, usually a father or brother, to marry, get a government job, or to apply for a university scholarship.
The jubilations over Wales qualifying were not confined to English-language media, either. The Welsh-language magazine Golwg produced a wall chart, showing the teams in each group, and the progress that had to be made to reach the WC final then.
It is doubtful that any wall chart will be produced showing the progress of the sell-off plans.
But you never know..!
Truths like these by Phil, who was gripped by the rare neurological condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
Next week – during 23 years with BBC Cymru Wales (BBC CW), and 42 years in journalism (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), polling figures have always loomed large for Phil, because they show how popular or otherwise is a controversial policy or person, but it was important to be cautious with them in days gone by, as sometimes people GOT IT WRONG!
The story comes soon, about the worries of environmental campaigners concerning Welsh rivers, and the landmark legal case related to them.
