- Keith Hickey

FIFA has become a parody of itself, a farce. By associating ourselves with these crooks and saying nothing, we are complicit in their crimes against the sport and against every fan who takes joy from it. Trusted with safeguarding the sport, they have instead turned it into their whore. I don't need to recount to you, dear readers, what they have done. We know. They know we know. And they know we can do nothing to stop them, so they barely attempt to hide their crimes. The only ones who can check FIFA's power in any way are the sponsors and the federations. Since we can hardly rely on a multi-national corporation (especially a credit card company) for an attack of conscience, the only way FIFA will change is if national federations refuse to give FIFA their support.

It's a major step. Leaving FIFA would mean no more Gold Cup, Confederations Cup, or World Cup until FIFA is reformed. No Friendlies against FIFA nations. No international club competitions. But are those worth selling our souls for? It is easy to be a soccer fan when all that requires is sitting in the sun with a beer and watching the World Cup. It's a far harder prospect when you have to stand for your principles.

Our country was founded on the idea that the strong should not trample the weak. Why should we be beholden to men with no loyalty to anything but their expense accounts, men with the audacity to spout bold lies with impunity and then laugh behind our backs about how well they've screwed us?

Would you be willing to make that sacrifice? Do you want the United States to withdraw from FIFA?

Chuck and Jack in happier times (from Chuck's blog)

- Jason Davis

This site has yet to address the USMNT roster for the Gold Cup, and Bob Bradley certainly gave us plenty to talk about. Freddy returns. Fascinating.


But Bradley for his picks and framing this as this all-guns-blazing-tournament (he'll either lay waste and win the title or go down giving us all the middle finger) will have to wait. FIFA news is breaking.

- Jason Davis

It's insidious, this "did not rule out" business. It conjures belief that something might happen or that action might be taken, when there's likely no chance of either. Headline writers love to lean on "did not rule out" because it's a negative phrase that seems to convey a positive message.

- Jason Davis

After months of speculation, Asian Football Confederation president Mohammed Bin Hammam has announced his candidacy for FIFA's top job. Running on a platform that includes nominal promises to increase transparency, Bin Hammam claims public opinion helped shape his manifesto.

"The view that FIFA is not transparent... it hurts, you know? (To rectify that) change the administration, give more votes for the confederations, to listen to other stakeholders, debate and listen."

- Jason Davis

It's lunchtime in America (or was when I started this), and soccer fans everywhere are lining up to support Grant Wahl's newly announced candidacy for FIFA president. It's time for a new voice. An outsider. A guy whose name doesn't rhyme with "splatter" or "pin yuh mom." A guy with an amusing campaign video and a shiny bald head. Really, anyone but the usual suspects will do, making Grant Wahl a perfect candidate.


Wahl says he's serious, that it's not a joke candidacy,  isn't a wacky bit in the vein of the Morning Zoo DJ who ran for mayor. Journalists have ascended to the heights of sports governing bodies before (as he mentiones), so why not Grant, a man with years of experience covering soccer for Sports Illustrated, as FIFA president? No offense to our own Chris Ballard, who is offering cookies as part of his  platform, but Wahl has the chops to make this (somewhat) believable.

By Chris J. Ballard
Follow Chris on Twitter

Following last week's Zurich debacle, and having got fed up with seeing the smug face of Sepp Blatter everywhere, I wanted to find out how the FIFA President is elected. Given the murky way in which the World Cup hosts are decided, I’d rather expected it to be conducted in secret, with very little accountability.

What can I say that hasn't been said?  There's only one angle that matters, that FIFA finally crossed whatever lines remained that it hadn't managed to cross already.  As Americans, we're disappointed we won't have the World Cup at home again.  As soccer fans, we're angry that FIFA so baldly flaunted what we knew all along; that they're corrupt, incompetent, or both.


Jolly old Sepp, with an ego the size of an imaginary stadium in the desert (built by whom, exactly?), and a brazenness so stunning it sounds like the stuff of fiction.  If Sepp was a character in a movie, we'd chuckle at just how over-the-top his clownish act is.  Blatter's sanctimony, as he swings the World Cup like a censer across various "new territories", cannot conceal the blatant and transparent (as opposed to the voting system, which is not) money grab of soccer governing body.  Sure, Sepp gets to play football pied piper, and the World Cup going to Russia and Qatar is a fine thing in that way; but when the process is so rife with abuse of power, something should, and must, change.

World Cup bid season is in full effect, with FIFA delegations visiting the bidding nations to assess stadiums, infrastructure, and the like. Nothing with FIFA can be assumed to be on the up and up, but the process seems pretty straightforward - each nation takes the bigwigs around to a few venues, shows them the requisite good time, and the delegates head back to Zurich to mull over who should get the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.


The United States' turn is coming September, but for now it's Europe that's showing off. England and Russia are the main combatants for the 2018 bid, and FIFA's assessors are touring the former as we speak. But it's the latter that concerns us today; Russia is player, and Sepp is making sure to let everyone know what the world's biggest country brings to the table:

"You cannot deny Russia if they bid for something. They are more than a country. They are a big continent, a big power."

A big power, sure. But a big power where racist banners are hung in the ground of one of the capital city's clubs long enough to be photographed. Per Daryl of World Cup Blog comes this image from a Lokomotiv Moscow match over the weekend:

I'll admit it's difficult for me to swallow the visceral reaction I'm having to this image, and the resulting vitriol I want to spew in the direction of the Russian bid. But I'm with Daryl. Russia should under no circumstances receive a World Cup as long as racist behavior like the above is tolerated at Russian Premier League stadium, whether it's for five minutes or two hours. In fact, if Sepp had any stones whatsoever, he should make clear that Russia's bid will suffer because of the Lokomotiv Moscow fans. I'll leave aside for now the deeper issue of apparent latent racism in Russia, something on which I'm not informed enough to write.


FIFA is coming off a successful World Cup in a nation that suffered through Apartheid for decades. South Africa, despite the concerns voiced during the buildup, put on a great tournament that stood as a symbol for how far the country has come and the promise it holds. Nelson Mandela's presence at the final was a sign of South African pride and unity for the whole world to see, and did the country good; taking a World Cup just eight years later to a place where banners like the above fly in the year 2010 makes a mockery of everything we saw this summer.


I truly, truly, hope FIFA's not stupid enough to make that mistake.


England for 2018. And than the US for 2022, naturally.

It's a Christmas miracle, an unexpected contribution to MFUSA from Keith Hickey, who presents his argument for why the United States should get another World Cup in 2022.


In 1994, FIFA, world football’s governing body, held the World Cup in a country with little history or interest in the sport, no professional soccer league, and in stadiums built for other sports. It became the most successful sporting event in the history of the world. Attendance and revenues for USA ‘94 exceeded all expectations, smashing records, setting a new standard, and leaving behind the seeds of an American soccer revolution.


In December 2010, FIFA will gather and select the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, and the United States is bidding for both. The 2018 competition is likely to be held in Europe, and England, despite internal issues, has emerged as the front-runner. This would clear the way for the US to host the 2022 edition, an event which could see the United States fulfill its potential as a soccer nation.


On paper, the American bid is a no-brainer. No other nation can boast the number of World Class stadiums as the US, thanks mostly to the NFL. No nation has as large a population with the same mix of sports savvy and disposable income. No other nation has a media hype machine as large or as effective as the American press. In terms of transportation infrastructure and accommodations, the United States is again at the very top.


On the reverse face of the World Cup coin are the intangibles. Unable to find any substantive holes in the American bid, the most often heard objection is, “But they just hosted it in ‘94! It’s unfair!” Which is true. But it’s not the shortest time between hosting duties (that would be Mexico, 16 years between 1970 and 1986, albeit after Colombia withdrew), and the process isn’t about fairness at this point (Which is handled by FIFA’s rotation policy). The United States simply boasts the strongest bid of any eligible nation. Sepp Blatter has also used the World Cup in recent years as a way to expand the game beyond the traditional European and South American power base, taking the World Cup to Korea, Japan, and South Africa. Conventional wisdom says that he’d love to take his dog and pony show on the road to Qatar, or Australia, or Indonesia, for the noble cause of proselytizing the sport, but if Sepp Blatter has noble intentions, then we needn’t worry about future World Cups, since the End of Days is clearly upon us. Sepp’s two aims are to solidify his base of power so he can keep getting elected, and to make crazy amounts of money. The first was strengthened by the presence of every possible FIFA tournament being held in Africa for the past couple of years. A US World Cup would also serve to reward and placate Jack Warner, Sepp’s right hand and CONCACAF President. The latter objective is also served best by holding the tournament in the US, for obvious reasons. Besides, does Blatter really want to schlep around Perth or Palopo, or endure summer in Qatar?


A final argument must also be made for the tournament’s legacy. When the ‘94 World Cup ended, it left behind Major League Soccer, a league that has grown and established itself admirably. By 2022, MLS could be ready to make the jump to the next level in the American sports hierarchy, and the World Cup would be the perfect catalyst to make that happen. Americans love events, and America loves the World Cup. Every tournament, soccer players grace the covers of newspapers and magazines, and everyone knows at least something about the game. And the ranks of soccer fans always swell with new recruits after the tournament has ended. The World Cup would put the sport over the top, and put MLS in the national spotlight in a way not seen since Pele played for the Cosmos. Soccer will have conquered the last frontier. The 2022 World Cup in the United States would make the World’s game truly global.


Keith Hickey is a passionate soccer fan from Philadelphia, whose life will be complete when the Union start play next year. You can find him on Twitter as @usarsnl.

Thanks to a heads up from Brooks at Dirty Tackle, as well as the devil-spawn McDonalds I ate yesterday finally making its way out of my system, I'm ready to comment on the news that our Esteemed Leader, the President of the United States, has personally contacted Sepp Blatter regarding the U.S. bid for the 2018 World Cup.

Obama's letter is sweetness and light, a romantic missive about the world's game that should help the American cause.

Still, I don't think a letter from the President, no matter how popular he may be around the world (which I don't really have a sense of at this point; he's already taken a few hits in this country), will make much of a difference.

It's an accepted fact that Blatter and FIFA bow down to the almighty dollar (or pound, or euro, or whatever) first and foremost; the U.S. bid should already be the strongest on that front, and Obama's support for it is simply window dressing.

Nothing wrong with it, of course, and it certainly can't hurt. Give Obama credit for taking the time to write the letter (or having it written for him).

I did enjoy this:

"As a child, I played soccer on a dirt road in Jakarta, and the game brought the children of my neighbourhood together."

There's certainly never been another president who could claim to have played the game on any dirt road, much less one in Jakarta.

I just noticed the spelling of "neighbourhood". Hmm...wonder if The Guardian changed that.
Story in The Guardian

There's not really a good place for this, so let me get it out here. I mentioned the McDonalds I ate yesterday, and while it tasted great, it knocked me on my ass for the remainder of the day. A horrible stomach ache was followed by eleven hours of sleep, and it's all the stupid golden arches fault. Because of the distress I was in I didn't get to a lot of things I wanted to post here, not the least of which was the next team in the USL-1 Project. I hope to get to a lot of it today, so check back frequently.

A rare photo of Blatter with his mouth shut
Sepp Blatter said some stuff.

He mentioned MLS, so immediately ears perked up all 'round these parts.

A few people mentioned that Blatter's a blithering blowhard (alliteration is fun!), and a few more took time to comment.

Me? Well I don't really care what some old fool with no sway over MLS says about a league he obviously knows nothing about.

Here's the gist from that corrupt Swiss guy:

"American football plays in winter, so they can only play from March to October, which means you are not in the right season," Blatter said on Wednesday. "The best American players are playing here, and this is the basic problem with the MLS."

"This league was founded after the 1994 World Cup, but is still struggling to get the position they should have according to the number of football players there are in the United States," Blatter said. "It has the highest number of young players in any sport," he said. "But the league has not found yet its position. It can only find its position if the league has its own stadiums."

Wait. What? He's bitching that the league needs to go to a traditional schedule, while at the same time saying that it can't because of American football?

Sweet Jeebus.

What does he think we've been doing over here? How can the league switch schedules WHILE IT'S IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PROCESS OF BUILDING ITS OWN STADIUMS!

No credit for our cute little league? Not even a little? Does he expect the stadiums we still need to just pop up overnight?

Maybe Seppy Boy's got a bag of a magical stadium beans we can plant all over America; and then, when we wake up tomorrow, every team in MLS will have a glittering new facility complete with proper lines, a bright green natural grass pitch, and no American football team to share it with. Then maybe, MAYBE, we'll get on that precious "traditional" schedule. Until then, the Grand Lord of FIFA should do a little research and take a look at what's really going on.

Ass.