FEAR IS KILLING FOOTBALL

Roseanne wouldn’t take crap from a man in a blazer, unless she needed tickets…

Since this article was written we are incredibly encouraged by the attitude of journalists who are deciding that enough is enough and FIFA must be tackled.

Somebody, probably Roseanne Barr, said “the key to change is letting go of fear”. That’s easy for her to say, but her survival doesn’t depended on accreditation and tickets for the big games. Sadly for ChangeFIFA the very people who could really help spread the word and get the campaign out in the open are paralysed by fear: Sports Journalists. If they show themselves to be crossing FIFA then it’s a cert their careers would be in jeopardy. Their bosses who rely on reports from the big international games would never allow it. Over the past few weeks many superb journalists have confided that they love the idea of a movement to force change and create a new democratic FIFA, but that they couldn’t possibly get involved. Their fears are understandable on several levels, but this isn’t the Lives of Others, it’s our favourite game we are talking about here.

It is also possible to see FIFA’s position. They do not want what they perceive as divisive journalists stirring up trouble, especially those wanting ‘their’ tickets. So, we are left with a situation where everything just carries on going around in circles of negative energy. The cycle needs to stop. FIFA needs to invite change, journalists must be free to express their fears constructively. At the very least they must be free to align themselves with movements calling for change in the way football is run.

Will this happen? Absolutely. Too many people love the sport for it to continue to be run in such a closed way which inhibits freedom, afterall ‘freedom of the press’ is what draws so many great minds into journalism. It is wrong that intelligent writers who feel passionately about the sport of which they write feel afraid to comment on FIFA, especially when it concerns championing transparency, democracy and modernisation. Football is not East Germany and I think even Roseanne Barr would be able to see that.

Follow this link, join our Facebook group and help us all to make FIFA a democracy…