Meet the New Boss
French great Michel Platini has beaten off the challenge of Michelin Man Lennart Johannson to become the new FIFA president. This will send shock waves through the game, as Platini has threatened to take on the money men. He's also in favor of reforming the Champions League, by reducing the numbers of slots available for the big countries. I say it's high time for a shake-up - what say you, lads?You can read more at:
http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_1873174,00.html
posted by gatorbob @ 9:14 AM
1 Comments:
New boss, same as the old boss (minus 90-110 kilos).
The CL in its present form pays UEFA's bills. A token 4-6 places might be taken from the big countries in the name of inclusion resulting only in dillution of the competition. Maybe the competition would return to a straight knock-out. But even that could provoke UEFA to face down the G14 whose proxies litter every single committee. And faffing about with what's kept the G14 from taking their clubs out of the competition anyway may be too big a risk to take.
I've been deeply unimpressed with Platini as a man. The contrast between the elegant player and the vested status-quo suit he's become is pretty damning. Remember that this is the guy who when in a position to side with the angels in the Kisch tv-money scandal of the late nineties, let his Swiss reformer colleague (Z-something?) twist in a lonely wind. Just imagine what a cave-in he'll produce if another Treaty of Rome issue comes up. In other words, he's vested in the corrupt system now.
In fact, the only thing he's been consistant on is promoting overly prissy referreeing on defenders, a vendetta borne of his run-ins with killers like Gentile in his era. So expect clowns like Morten-Nilsson and Ivanov to ruin more of your entertainment.
And he's a Blatter puppet, so instead of real reform on BIG problems like racism from the Balkans, Greeks, Turks, and Spanish, he's going to be all over coordinating league schedules, technology in the game, limp moaning about "simulation", and just wait if Puma tries again to flog a few kits without sleeves in Euro 08.
In other words, change, small case emphasis.
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