Suarez gets bitey; we get the blame

I know! How did that happen exactly? Seems the Uruguayan press and indeed Latin America en masse are blaming our press for whipping up a frenzy of revenge against the dentate one among the FIFA committee that decided his fate. Like the British media has any clout in that august body. Wasn't it only a couple of weeks ago they dismissed the Sunday Times reports on corruption at the highest level in FIFA, on the pretext of "racism"? Nice. Not that we should have been surprised. If it had gone the other way. The guilty ones would have had to give all that Qatari money back, and they've probably already blown it buying mansions in Chelsea or Caribbean islands. So instead, the African nations, some of whom had promised their vote to us in the 2018 bid cry racism, keep their cash and the whole thing gets kicked into touch.


To be fair, the World Cup thus far has been a brilliant diversion from our own little domestic failures- "the worst performance by England since 1958"according to the BBC, though that ignores the fact that since then we have failed even to qualify for the finals on several occasions, which is surely even worse. But what if we'd had Gareth Bale playing for a UK side? he's believed by some to be the world's third best player after Messi and Ronaldo, and boy, could we ever have done with a really useful striker last week, huh?


Thing is, we complain about the current hegemony of FIFA and its boss Sepp Blatter, but in the post-war years we dominated the administration of the world game just as thoroughly through its British president, Sir Stanley Rous. It was him and others who had such power they enabled the little provinces of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland to field their own teams on the biggest stage in football. Maybe it's time to re-think this policy. Because with all the leading premiership sides cherry-picking the best talent from around the world and largely ignoring our home-grown talent, it's hard to see how we're ever going to produce a world-beating team. Think on...