FIFA should turn the page

Just a week ago, on the day of his election as FIFA president for a fifth term, Joseph S. Blatter remarked: “We don’t need revolutions, we need evolutions.” After resuming office he went further and said: “Why would I step down? That would mean I recognise that I did wrong.” However, days later, in a widely welcomed move he resigned, saying the organisation needed a “profound overhaul”. It is unclear what prompted the hard-nosed football administrator, who displayed such Machiavellian ability to stay in control of the body even as it was engulfed in a series of corruption scandals. Whether it was because the noose was tightening around the FIFA general secretary and his second-in-command, Jérôme Valcke, alleged to have authorised $10 million in bribes for World Cup bidding votes, and fears that it would finally reach him, or pressure from the Michel Platini-led UEFA, or ultimately his own conscience, remain questions. Mr. Blatter believed he was a part of the solution and not the problem, although hardly anyone accepted that. In politics it is said ‘perception is reality’, and in the political theatre that FIFA had become over the years it was no different. Any effort to turn FIFA around would have rung hollow with him at the helm. Accountability has to begin at the top, and Mr. Blatter’s resignation is the first step towards that.

Going forward, the need is to transform the way FIFA works. In 2011, before starting his fourth term, Mr. Blatter engaged Mark Pieth, a Professor of criminal law at Basel University, to create a road map for reform. His recommendations included fixing term limits for the president and executive committee members, proper scrutiny of candidates nominated to the executive committee and greater financial controls. None of these has been acted upon, and the time to do so is now. The deeply entrenched quid pro quo system between Mr. Blatter’s regime and regional football associations, with the development funding route turning into a tool to buy votes and thereby creating divisions within the footballing fraternity, has to end. But that shouldn’t mean a throwback to an era when Europe dominated the football scene: that was precisely the reason why Mr. Blatter was so popular in the developing world. It is imperative that a truly democratic system is put in place. And the leader should work not just for his backers but for everyone. The selection process of World Cup hosts should become more transparent. The mess that a flawed system can create is there for everyone to see in the fact of Russia and Qatar having become hosts. It is high time the lessons were learnt.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-on-fifa-after-sepp-blatter/article7282986.ece

TFA, State govt. racing against time

Barely months ago, Chennai was nowhere in the picture as one of the prospective venues for the 2017 FIFA under-17 World Cup to be held in India. It seemed to have passed up every opportunity to make its bid count.

Yet, it has managed to come back into the reckoning. A few question marks over other venues and the good conduct of the inaugural Indian Super League (ISL) matches in 2014 meant that the city was named as one among the prospective venues. As project director Joy Bhattacharya recently told The Hindu in Kochi, “FIFA is waiting for that big push from the Tamil Nadu government to get things moving.”

Add to that the fact that the tournament authorities might be looking at expanding the list of host cities to include more than six centres has given it hope. “The under-17 World Cup is a development tournament,” said Bhattacharya on Saturday. “FIFA has picked India as the host for the 2017 edition only to promote the game in the region. Chile 2015 has seven venues, so even in India there can be more than six venues, as long as it is commercially feasible.”

But how did things reach such a stage where Chennai has to play a catch-up game? From the time the original shortlist of eight host cities was made in late 2013, the administrative limbo, first in the Tamil Nadu Football Association (TFA) and then the State government, has ensured that it has missed every deadline.

“We got the TFA’s letter of interest after the deadline had expired,” AIFF secretary Kushal Das had told The Hindu in April last year.

“But, we made an exception and asked them to submit the required documents related to the host city agreement.”

It is to be noted that the bid documents have not been sent till date. The effort to finalise the bid documents had in fact started in July 2014, when the general secretary of the TFA wrote to the State government, through the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT), seeking permission to use the SDAT Jawaharlal Nehru stadium. The list of FIFA-mandated requirements that a host city needs to fulfil was also attached.

The government, within days, sought clarifications on certain technical issues through its legal team to take the process forward. Almost a year has passed since then, but the TFA is yet to reply.

When quizzed on the delay, its president, Jesiah Villavarayar, who took over in September 2014, refused to dwell on the past and said he was hopeful that everything would turn out well in the end.

“We are meeting the Sports Minister in the first week of June, and are hopeful that things would move quickly,” he said. “We are trying our best to make it happen. We are in the process of readying the bid document. We continue to maintain a good rapport with FIFA.”

But, the task seems daunting. Four cities — Guwahati, Kolkata, Kochi and Mumbai — have already been given provisional nods after the recent round of inspections. The certification, as Bhattacharya said, “allows the selected venues to speed up the work and avail themselves of necessary central funds”.

Goa and New Delhi may have encountered a few hiccups — relating to one of the training venues in the former’s case and discussions with the stakeholders (the State and Central governments) in the latter’s — but they are expected to be resolved soon.

The ISL has no doubt given a much-needed facelift to the Nehru stadium, but more needs to be done outside it too (see box).

One among those is with respect to the practice grounds. It is learnt that in the report the FIFA inspection committee submitted last December after its visit to Chennai, the four practice grounds — MCC Tambaram, University Union ground, SDAT Nehru Park and Nehru Stadium ‘B’ ground — weren’t rated highly.

“The FIFA team will visit Chennai if and when the local organisation shows some tangible progress,” said Bhattacharya.

The onus is thus on the TFA and the State government to show that.

(Additional reporting by K. Keerthivasan & Ayon Sengupta)

What comprises the bid?

A snapshot of what the bid document consists of:

Stadium agreement: Stadium plan and the fulfilment of norms as listed by FIFA. For example, the pitch size has to be 105x68 metres and with three to five metres of grass around. Commentary box and media centre with 100 workstations having cable, internet facility, four equal size dressing rooms, match official rooms, one for dope testing with refrigeration, VIP area, 40 TV monitors with live match feeds etc.

Host city agreement: Four practice grounds, exclusive zones identified by FIFA in which the host city has to ensure that commercial and non-commercial activities shall not operate, environmental concerns, comprehensive public liability insurance to cover possible losses, bodily injuries, property damage etc, and the same is to cover FIFA and its personnel etc.

Government guarantee 1 (Security): VIP guest protocol and traffic clearances.

Government guarantee 2 (Taxation): An undertaking regarding exemptions with respect to indirect taxes without any pre-conditions.

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/football/tfa-state-govt-racing-against-time/article7265296.ece

FIFA under a cloud

The arrest of some current and former FIFA officials by the Swiss police for extradition to the U.S. over federal corruption charges, and a subsequent raid in Zurich in a parallel investigation into the allotment of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting rights to Russia and Qatar respectively, have brought to the fore yet again the worst-kept secret in the sporting world — that football’s governing body is steeped in endemic corruption. Since the days of João Havelange, who was FIFA president from 1974 to 1998, and then through the tenure of the incumbent, Joseph S. Blatter, charges of financial misconduct have been routinely levelled. But they merely shook the edifice; none actually hit the top of the hierarchy. However, the current round of charges are grave. The U.S. Department of Justice has alleged a “24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer” and booked people for fraud, racketeering and money laundering conspiracies. The bribes and kickbacks centred on sports marketing deals could be worth more than $150 million. One revelation is of an alleged $10-million payment to some FIFA executive committee members to vote for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup.

This has come two days before the FIFA Congress, where 209 countries are to vote on a fifth term for Mr. Blatter; the circumstances are thus far from ideal to hold the election. True, none of the investigations have so far named Mr. Blatter. But with the alleged misdeeds having happened under his watch, there is a need to fix accountability. Four years ago when he was re-elected unopposed after his Qatari rival, Mohammed bin Hammam, had been banned amid bribery claims, he asked: “Crisis? What is a crisis?” This time he cannot be in denial. The other consequence of this scandal concerns the choice of Russia and Qatar as World Cup hosts. The race to host them was chaotic and controversial. Of the 24 voters who were to decide the claims of the two cities in 2010, two never made it to the board room, following bribery allegations. Now almost half of them stand discredited. Also, the choice of Qatar as a host was made despite concerns over its summer weather and widespread reports of its poor treatment of migrant workers. FIFA might now say the investigation was a result of its own report submitted in November 2014, but it is a fact that the organisation’s ethics committee had closed its investigation into the bidding process, ruling that breaches, if any, were only of “very limited scope”. Football is perhaps the only truly global sport, and it is loved by millions of fans as the beautiful game. For it to remain that, the need is for democratic governance and not the current, allegedly corrupt, fiefdom that has seen just two presidents in four decades.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/fifa-under-a-cloud/article7256662.ece

Signs of feet of clay!

In a sport as global and as competitive as tennis, it is tough for players to create fiefdoms. The ones who did succeed can be counted on our finger tips. Bjorn Borg did it in the late 1970s, winning a hat-trick of the Wimbledon-French double; Pete Sampras did it in the 1990s at Wimbledon and so did Roger Federer in the 2000s.

Yet, has any male athlete, in any sport, owned a surface, anywhere in the world, like Rafael Nadal has at the 21-acre Le Stade Roland Garros in Paris? Though the players mentioned above dominated, they did suffer the odd crushing defeat in their prime — Borg in 1981, Sampras in 1997 and Federer in 2008. But not Nadal.

Ever since the day he made his debut as a 19-year-old in 2005, the clay has been his real home. It seemed that all he had to do every year was to navigate through a field of tall weeds. Even amidst a crowd which has always been quite reluctant to support an ‘unsophisticated Spaniard’ like him, he felt safe doing it. In the process, he created history but was never burdened by the weight of it. He lost there only once in a full decade — to Robin Soderling in 2009 when both his mind and body were fragile — and pocketed nine titles.

So, it’s intriguing what has happened this year to a man as confident in his abilities as Nadal. He has stumbled from one failure to another since his comeback from injury at the start of the season. He looks so far removed from the universe he once ruled and instead seems to be inhabiting one which is full of contradictions. His body was all along tipped to break down sooner than his mind, but as ironic as it sounds now, he spends most of his time explaining away his mental issues.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen (at the French Open),” he said after his defeat at the Rome Masters, but hastened to add, “I feel great. No, I’m not tired. I’m fine.”

These days, the 28-year-old’s routine forehands either end up hitting the bottom of the net or are shanked into the audience. As a consequence, his losses no longer come only against tennis kings like Novak Djokovic. This year, the rank and file have beaten him. Fabio Fognini twice, Andy Murray, who had only one clay court title till then, once and Stan Wawrinka, who hadn’t won a set in his five matches on clay against Nadal, once.

In some ways, the situation seems a tad similar to the one that prevailed in 2011. Djokovic was on a bull run then. Djokovic is on a bull run now. The Serb had beaten him on clay both times they had met that year — the finals in Madrid and Rome which were straight set-affairs. This time he beat Nadal in straight sets in the Monte Carlo semifinals.

He entered the French Open then on the back of a 39-match winning streak, with four Masters’ titles and 13-0 against the top-10. In 2015, he is on a 22-match winning streak, with four Masters’ titles, including Monte Carlo and Rome, and 14-1 against the top-10.

Even as all these point to a title-challenge from Djokovic, it didn’t really happen then. But it looks likely to happen now. Nadal, then, and in the subsequent years, found ways to arrest slides of varying proportions, dust off the rust after injury layoffs and present a fully polished texture in time for Paris. But now, for the first time in 11 years, he will go to Paris having not won a clay title in the lead-up and with a ranking prefix of No.7.

Djokovic’s transformation from a genuine threat on clay to a top contender is almost complete and has, crucially, coincided with Nadal’s regression.

Ever since the shattering loss in the 2014 Open final to Nadal, Djokovic has gone from strength to strength. With every match he has bred belief. He seldom breaks in tight situations, has learnt to win ugly if need be and he traces the home stretches almost always in a canter.

“The only thing that I am sure of is I’m going to try,” said Nadal. “The goal in Paris will always be the same one. I feel I’m playing well. I didn’t play with nerves most of the time the last three weeks, and that’s the most important thing for me. If I am able to control that, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m going to fight for it.”

In effect, the 2015 French Open will be a battle between form and history. Can Nadal, who is 90-1 in best-of-five-set matches on clay, retrace his victorious step on the red dirt or will a new champion in Djokovic occupy the turf for his maiden title?

“Regardless of what anyone says to me he’s the favourite,” said Federer “The guy’s only lost (at Roland Garros) once in 10 years. There’s no way past that guy being the absolute favourite for that tournament.

“Novak at this point probably has to win, with the results he’s shown this year. Maybe Rafa isn’t having the same success as before but nevertheless that remains the situation for me. But it’s all talk because in the end his racquet’s going to do the talking.”

Interestingly the 33-year-old Swiss, after a runner-up finish in Rome, doesn’t want to count himself out too.

“I don’t want to get myself too down because it was a good tournament for me...I really hope it’s not just the two of them. I hope there’s going to be some other guys who will be a part of that group and I hope in particular myself.”

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/stories/20150530501100500.htm

The Barca supremacy

FC Barcelona, the Catalonian club in Spain, is widely followed and its present generation of footballers revered for their style of football instilled and honed by Dutch footballing legend Johan Cruyff. The club’s heyday under former coach Josep “Pep” Guardiola is understood to be over following his departure and the inevitable aging of some key players such as Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta. Others such as goalkeeper Victor Valdes and defender Carles Puyol have left the club. When Luis Enrique took over as manager at Barcelona from Gerardo Martino in May 2014, the club was said to be facing a mini-crisis. It had failed to win any major honour in 2013-14 — for the first time in six years. This was a far cry from the period of 2008-12 when it won 14 of the possible 19 trophies. When in January, midway through the season, the club trailed its bitter rival Real Madrid in the Spanish La Liga standings, there were questions galore for Enrique to answer. Four months on, the coach stands vindicated for his unrelenting optimism. Barcelona was crowned the league champion last weekend after winning 18 of its last 20 games. It is now on the cusp of a possible triple win as it is in the finals of the Champions League and the Copa del Rey. The performance of arguably the world’s most devastating front trio, of Neymar, Luis Suarez and lynchpin Lionel Messi, is evidence that Enrique’s approach of man-management rather than total reliance on tactical know-how has worked. The three have had a combined tally of 79 goals and 28 assists in La Liga this season.

While the win will soothe the nerves of Barcelona and its fans, the symbolism outside Spain is not to be lost. Till 2012 the apex of world football was in Spain, built on a style that made absolute control of the ball paramount. In the seasons since then, that emphasis shifted when clubs, especially in Germany, took the style to a new level by adding ruthless efficiency and rapid transition from defence to offence. The high point of this was the combined 7-0 thrashing of Barcelona by Bayern Munich in the 2012-13 Champions League semi-final legs, and the 2014 World Cup win for Germany. Barcelona this season has added these elements to its game. Barcelona no longer just attacks; it counter-attacks too, as was seen in its 5-3 defeat of Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-finals. The club’s front line, representing the best of the waltz and tango that South American football is known for, has been instrumental in this. Whether this would kick-start another era of dominance by Barcelona and whether with that a shift of the apex back to Spain would happen is too early to say. But victory in Berlin over Juventus in the Champions League final could sow the seeds for such a turn.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/the-barca-supremacy/article7232194.ece

Mumbai breaches Fort Chennai

Mumbai Indians (MI) rose, yet again, from the dead to hand Chennai Super Kings (CSK) its first defeat in 11 matches at the Chepauk — stretching back to 2013 — with a six-wicket win here on Friday.

The victory was MI’s fifth on-the-trot, sending it to fourth place, and keeps CSK waiting for one more game to seal its playoff spot.

It seemed a lost cause for MI, with 30 needed from 12 balls. But Hardik Pandya smashed three sixes off Pawan Negi in the penultimate over to turn it around completely. The effort, along with three catches and a solitary over conceding four runs, earned him the man-of-the-match award.

Chasing 159, Mumbai coasted along in the first ten overs, with openers Lendl Simmons’s and Parthiv Patel’s batting a far cry from the home batsmen’s travails. But R. Ashwin, who recovered sufficiently to play the game, brought CSK back into it.

In his final two overs, he gave away only three runs and dismissed both Parthiv and Simmons, who had an opening partnership of 84 runs from 10 overs, in the space of three deliveries.

It was soon three wickets for three runs as Dwayne Bravo ran out Kieron Pollard when a single was attempted after Suresh Raina couldn’t hold on to a tough Rohit Sharma catch at slip. With the score at 105 for three, du Plessis dropped Rohit at long off. Thankfully it didn’t prove costly.

But Ambati Rayudu stepped up and reduced the equation from 51 runs off 24 balls to 34 off 18. Nehra had a bruising time, getting hammered for 45 runs in his three overs. 

A brilliant 18th over by Bravo — four runs and a wicket — seemed to signal another shift, but Pandya’s brilliance sealed it for MI. What was until then an excellent evening for Negi, whose innings (36, 17b, 4x4, 1x6) gave CSK a chance, had turned sour.

Earlier, CSK got off to a fine start, scoring 44 runs in five overs, quite in line with the recent pattern. But the loss of Brendon McCullum, at the fag end of that period seemed to put the brakes completely.

In the next three overs only 15 runs came. It also saw Marchant de Lange (4-1-30-0), who replaced Lasith Malinga in the playing eleven, bowl a maiden. Suresh Raina tried to force the issue but ended up holing out to Pandya at deep mid-wicket off J. Suchith (4-0-21-1). 

From there the home side’s journey seemed even more laborious. While coach Stephen Fleming had said that much depended on how the side could marry style with substance, the batsmen, in their quest for the latter, drilled themselves into a hole.

A meagre 25 runs were scored from overs nine to 13 for the loss of two wickets. Only Negi’s entry, after du Plessis was caught out by a fine Simmons catch at short fine leg, brought a semblance of excitement. Three fours off de Lange in the 17th over set the tone for a late blitz. 

Dhoni, admirably, realised it and gave Negi the strike right at the start of the 18th over and latter, off the very next ball, moved his front leg out of the way and belted a six over long on. In all, 50 runs came in the last four overs.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-sports/mumbai-breaches-fort-chennai/article7186749.ece

Super Kings’ home might vs Mumbai’s momentum

Blowing hot and cold seems to have become a habit for Mumbai Indians (MI) in the past two seasons. It lost the first five matches in 2014 and sneaked into the playoffs with a run of four wins in its last four. 

This year, after being winless in the first four games, it has now won five of the last six, including four on the trot. A victory against Chennai Super Kings here on Friday will propel it into the top-four with three matches to go.

Big blow

For Mumbai, the stuttering start has largely been overcome, thanks to its bowling unit successfully defending totals four times. Lasith Malinga’s 15 wickets have contributed immensely to the cause and the Sri Lankan’s non-availability will be a big blow. 

In the chase against Delhi Daredevils the batting came good too, with the triumvirate of Rohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard finishing the game. But constant shuffling to shore up the middle order — Kiwi Corey Anderson is still not fit — has led to the three batting a rung lower than their usual slots and that has been a bit of a talking point.

“Everyone has a certain role and they are aware of it and they are doing the job,” said Parthiv Patel. “That is why we have won five games. (Ambati) Rayudu has finished games for MI in the last few years. So, I don’t see any chance of the order changing.”

For CSK, in spite of having almost sealed a top-four slot, much will ride on the game. While a victory here can confirm it — keeping its perfect home record in tact — the match represents an important step in occupying one of the much-coveted top two slots.

The need will also be to strengthen a brittle middle-order, which, after being completely exposed for three games, fared only a tad better thanks to Suresh Raina’s solid half-century against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Question marks over R. Ashwin’s fitness and Ravindra Jadeja’s form still persist.

While coach Stephen Fleming said that Ashwin’s match-fitness was yet to be assessed, he did hint at Jadeja being given a longer rope, even in the light of the “healthy competition” from Pawan Negi.

“We want more from Jadeja,” he said. “But his skill set is something we value. He has been instrumental in the field and has effected a couple of crucial run outs. That can’t be faulted. The fact that Negi has come into the equation has given us depth. But at this point we will closely work with the players than chopping and changing.”

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/cricket/ipl/super-kings-home-mightvs-mumbais-momentum/article7182434.ece