Floreat Salopia
Back the bid!
It seems like wherever I’ve been recently this slogan has followed. Earlier today I opened up Facebook and there was the same message, sent from the official ‘Back the bid’ group, and again through an e-mail I received at work, and then on a poster in the centre of Birmingham as I drove home. And to me that’s good news because I back the bid wholeheartedly. There are those who suggest the event would result in a net loss for the country and while there is a chance that would happen I look to the positives it would bring. A creation of thousands of jobs, improved infrastructure in terms of new roads and other improved transport links, and the buoyant market place that would result in higher sales for small businesses, shops, restaurants and hoteliers in all of the chosen host cities – this cannot be argued against.
While London would be the centre piece for the event there is no doubt that all four corners of the country would get some share with places such as Plymouth, Newcastle and Bristol all reaching the FA’s shortlist. It would also help smaller clubs too – we are a club testimony to that, hoping to host one of the training locations for one of the participating countries. The press coverage relating to the bid has been far from perfect recently and this has cast a massive doubt over England’s chance. An exposé from one of the tabloids about FIFA delegates willing to sell their votes did not go
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down well at FIFA HQ while a spat between the Russian and England football associations was also viewed negatively by football’s governing body. So with all this surrounding the bid the last thing anyone connected wanted to hear was of a new exposé, this time a TV documentary to be screened by the BBC which promises to offer more evidence of corruption in FIFA, to be broadcast only a matter of days before the event takes place. At this point I should state that I completely against any form of bribery or vote rigging within football (or any other practise) and that if these events are taking place inside FIFA they should be investigated and those in the wrong correctly punished. I also fully support the BBC’s right to broadcast such reports and overall I think the BBC is an institution us Brits should be very, very proud of. But what exactly are they trying to prove by showing the programme only a few days before the vote is cast? Press reports already demonstrate the volatility within FIFA when it comes to criticism, and that such criticism connected to England will not go down well with those who vote.
Why not show the programme in a month’s time? Advertise it then, and broadcast the truth, in full. That way it will avoid clashing with the final vote and it still allows the BBC to have its say – and if the truth makes FIFA squirm at that point, let it be! But all the BBC have achieved by scheduling their report for early December is to give FIFA delegates another reason not to back our bid. Poor form BEEB, poor form! Floreat Salopia.
ANT THOMAS wrexham & shropshire | direct trains to london |
www.wrexhamandshropshire.co.uk
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