Wednesday, November 29, 2017

UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin playing chess, everyone at FIFA playing checkers



This man Aleksander Ceferin. He seems to be doing everything right. Since the election which named him UEFA President, the basically unknown Slovenian has been saying and doing seemingly everything correctly. Speaking out against the monopolization of the Champions League by the ECA? Check. Willing to discuss a salary cap in European football to support the growth of smaller clubs from smaller countries? You betcha. Taking the MOST OBVIOUS PR decision of joining Common Goal? You bet your sweet ass. Listen, I don't know the guy personally and was in the beginning thought of as a patsy for the FIFA President and former general secretary of UEFA, Gianni Infantino. But for a sport that faces more daily criticism regarding ethics, greed, transparency than probably any sport in the world, joining Common Goal by donating 1% of your salary to charity was by far the easiest way to exclude yourself from the standard football narrative. I don't know the exact number but lets say Alek is making roughly the same ballpark as his FIFA counterparts in making about 1 million francs a year. He just spent 10,000 CHF in:

1) doing the right thing in donating to a football charity
2) building up more and more armour and leeway for anything that comes his way during the rest of his term as president.

This was as much a good person move as it was a safety net JIC he needs it. It is brilliant and I applaud the move.

Now, how not a single soul in FIFA from the President to the Secretary General to the Communications team did not see this as an available move is stunning to me. For an organization that has continually been backtracking for the past three years, this was a move that would have taken a bit off the heat off. Just for a few days but a break is a break. Hey FIFA, one of your biggest events is in two days. The global press will be in Russia to see who will be playing who for your LARGEST tournament. How about tie this in? Get some shine?


Gianni, any comment about FIFA being outmaneuvered by UEFA for the 60th straight year?







Nah, we good fam.

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