London - It is often said that modern football is all about money, greed and egos.
Gone is the innocence of yesteryear when the football club was firmly embedded in local communities and values.
Nostalgia like hindsight can be beguiling and expedient. In the modern game, talent seems often lost in translation, consumed by an obsession to win at any cost, driven by an unscrupulous club ownership structure of hedge fund managers, private equity purveyors, oligarchs, princes and wealthy businessmen, and a global, regional and national administrative aristocracy whose taxonomies are grossly unfit for purpose.
The long shadow of commercialisation which is pricing swathes of fans out of watching their clubs, let alone the overpriced and poor-quality merchandise, the proliferation of sports betting – both legal and illegal which includes match-fixing, the corruption and entrenched institutional and casual racism and misogyny that refuse to be kicked out, continue to cast their shadows.
In recent weeks as the world gears up for the Fifa World Cup finals in Doha next month, the ugly side of the beautiful game has surfaced with a vengeance that threatens the very claims of inclusivity, sustainability, and diversity of global football.
Spare a moment’s silence to mourn the more than 130 football fans who perished last Saturday in a stampede at the Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, Indonesia.
It was one of the world’s worst football disasters, conjuring up painful memories of past tragedies at Ibrox, Bradford, Hillsborough and Heysel, to name a few.
Kanjuruhan was a disaster waiting to happen. The perversity is that a litany of Kanjuruhans may be waiting to happen unless Fifa, the game’s governing body, steps up to mitigate such tragedies, which are entirely preventable.
It is obvious that Fifa’s stadium safety protocol has tragically failed – the number of fans exceeded the stadium capacity by almost 5 000,stewards were poorly trained, police firing tear gas in a confined space like a stadium that led to the stampede and deaths is a no-no, and several gates locked as people panicked, is tantamount to criminal neglect.
Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s sentiments about the loss of life and injuries are no doubt sincere. What he needs to urgently do is to come up with a new stadium safety and security playbook that puts the interests of fans before owners, administrators, the police and politicians, with the requisite oversight, active monitoring and sanctions.
Let’s hope that the ensuing inquiry will reveal the causes and failures that led to the tragedy.
If the Asian and Indonesian football authorities are found wanting in their responsibilities due to mismanagement and corruption, then heads must roll in addition to any legal recourse for affected families.
The same applies to Fifa, a controversial organisation that in the past has been steeped in corruption, cronyism and institutional inaction and conservatism. There is also the conduct of clubs and the tribal nature of some of their fans. Invading pitches and hooliganism is an unacceptable scourge of the modern game. Had fans not invaded the pitch, would their friends still be alive?
The problem is universal. The UK Home Office recently released figures for the 2021-2022 season that showed pitch invasions and fan violence at football matches in England and Wales were at their highest level in eight years. There were 2 198 football-related arrests, the highest number since the 2013-14 season. This scenario is repeated across Europe, with fans in the 18-30 years group responsible for most of the anti-social behaviour.
Alcohol, cocaine and a breakdown in security and stewarding are the main causes, which if not corrected could see disorder persist for the next two decades.
In Africa, football hooliganism is also on the increase. In Nigeria crowd trouble marred the end of their 2022 World Cup play-off against Ghana; in Dakar, Egyptian officials lodged complaints of alleged racism and violence before the World Cup play-off against Senegal. Mohamed Salah was one of several players targeted by laser pens shone from the crowd.
The World Cup is all about bringing people together. A severe shortage of accommodation has given rise to bed inflation and coupled with an anachronistic visa system befitting an absolute monarchy, may result in many fans losing out.
One British fan was quoted £1 200 (R24 000) per night for a room at one of the cheaper hotels. The price of staying in a prefab container room is £250 per night and camping site tents at £485 per night. Qatar is beset with allegations of human rights abuses of some 30 000 migrants who built the seven stadiums, a new airport, metro, roads and wider venue infrastructure for the tournament.
Several football associations are releasing statements on human rights and diversity, and there is mounting pressure on Fifa and Qatari authorities to set up a fund that will compensate migrants’ wage theft, injuries and deaths since Qatar won the World Cup bid in 2010.
Anti-West critics allude to the above criticism as a throwback to colonialism. This is poppycock. This is not about democratising the beautiful game, but all about exacting loads of money from a gas-rich Gulf state desperate to host a trophy tournament.
Qatar has a 2.9 million population of which 11.6% are native Qataris, and the remaining 88.4% are non-Qatari residents.
Fifa likes to talk about legacy. There is no budget transparency and the real amount Doha spent on lobbying (including alleged bribes and pay-offs) to win the World Cup bid will never be known.
In 2006 Qatar hosted the Asian Games. There was much talk about legacy, especially retrofitting the athletes’ village into a people’s medical centre.
The village was confined to dereliction. What will the Qataris do with seven spanking new stadiums with its air-conditioning systems merrily contributing to a hefty carbon footprint?
Is football losing its mojo? In Brazil the famous yellow jersey once donned by Pele and Ronaldo has been politicised and used – this time by far-right populist President Jair Bolsonaro, who is in an election run-off with his socialist rival La Lula at the end of October.
Parker is a writer based in London
Cape Times