A fistful of dollars

I have to confess something. I really don’t like soccer, or football, or whatever you want to call it. I find it quite boring to be honest.  But it does have its moments of amusement.  For instance I find the reaction of players who fall down and hold their knee crying in agony, when all someone did was tap their shoulder, quite interesting.  I find their diving techniques quite good – if they were competing in the Olympic Games diving competition, but a little childish when competing in a soccer match.  I find their acting ability of such a degree that it makes Jean Claude van Damme seem Oscar worthy.  In truth, I take very little interest in the sport; however all this has changed in recent times.

Because I admit that I took a certain amount of pleasure in seeing a bunch of FIFA officials being arrested at a luxurious hotel in Switzerland for corruption charges.  What an unbelievable shock… to absolutely no one!

You see, this is the same group that somehow thought granting the World Cup Soccer to Qatar was a great idea.  I mean surely that had nothing to do with bribes?  Surely it was above board?  Surely, the vast amounts of money being deposited into their accounts was just a coincidence?  It happens, right?  Right?

Yup, FIFA thought it was a wonderful idea to grant the World Cup to a country with zero human rights record, which uses slave labour to build their freedom of dreams on a foundation of air.  A country in which many hundreds of workers have died while working for their slave masters, and living in insanitary and substandard conditions, while the country’s leaders bask in the false glory of world acceptance.

FIFA has betrayed the billions of people who do love soccer, by betraying those fans for a fistful of dollars. So it comes as no surprise than another corrupt organisation such as the Palestinian Authority, who have also betrayed those honest Palestinians who just want to make a living, with their underhanded methods to expel Israel from an organisation like FIFA.

Sepp Blatter, the head of FIFA has ambitions to use soccer as a vehicle for peace, but the Palestinian Authority uses vehicles for quite a different purpose.  As usual, the Palestinian Authority prefer to play the man, not the ball.  They prefer politics over progress.  And they prefer grand statements rather than grand ambitions.

So once again, the average Palestinian is betrayed by their corrupt leaders.  And instead of focussing on the corruption in the Palestinian Authority, the attention will be on how to isolate Israel from the international stage.

It is no surprise that money outweighs morality in a world such as ours.  And it is no surprise that corruption is more powerful than honesty.  And it is no surprise that it is sometimes harder to find an honest man than a man with honour.

One can only hope that International organisations like the UN and the EU and FIFA and all the rest of them will one day realise that honouring the corrupt countries and organisations of this world will not bring joy to the world’s citizens, but only more pain.