Better late than never. David Dein, who could still, I feel, play an important role in the administration of Arsenal, to whom he so significantly brought Arsene Wenger, now declares that Fifa should be abolished and replaced with a new body with a name such as the World Soccer Association.
But what’s in a name? Abolish a rotten and wretched Fifa and replace it with an international body under another name and what guarantee would you have that things would get any better?
For Dein, the recent Michel Platini suspension was the final straw. “Fifa’s image is corrupted beyond repair,” he said.
Then you think of those 24 putrescent years years when Joao Havelange was constantly in charge and you wonder whether football will ever be capable of administering itself.
Remember that only when the FBI and at long last the Swiss prosecutors looked into the current miasma, was anything hygienic done.
Sepp Blatter and co had casually shrugged off even the root and branch investigation by the Sunday Times. And a leading columnist reminds us that Dein himself was among those who exhorted the FA to stay in Fifa and work for change from within.
Slaven Bilic: a bad workmen or just a bad day at the office?
Slaven Bilic had harsh words for his West Ham team after their emphatic 2-0 defeat last Saturday at Watford.
“We definitely didn’t have that five per cent in the red zone,” he said. “I told the guys this is unacceptable. It happened and let’s make sure it does not happen again.”
I saw the game and am reminded of the old adage “a bad workman blames his tools.”
Arguably, Bilic spoiled the usual polished pattern of his team by using a hapless Andy Carroll for the whole game rather than, as in the pervious successful match, a late telling substitute. Whatever Bilic may claim for him, Carroll’s strength is with his head.
The Hammers never struck a rhythm and Carroll, with a naïve error, even gave away a goal.
