Do FIFA have a point?

I feel dirty. Filthy, even. I have a confession to make – I agree with FIFA on something. Should I now do the honourable thing and fall on my sword? Probably, but hear me out first. The more thought that I’ve given FIFA’s ban on the issue of a poppy being embroidered onto each England player’s shirt in recognition of Remembrance Day on November 11th, which happens to coincide closely with England’s upcoming friendly with Spain, the more I agree with it.

You probably won’t need me to tell you, but FIFA are a hugely illogical and deeply contradictory governing body. They represent the worst excesses of the beautiful game, while often completely flying in the face of the very traditions that they are supposed to uphold. In short, they’re a complete basket case unworthy to, as Alan Partridge once opined ‘present a……a…..cat!’.

However, over the last few days as the poppy story has taken on a maelstrom of criticism directed squarely at FIFA’s door. For once, though, it’s worth trying to see it from FIFA’s side, as unpalatable as that sounds.

The poppy still maintains its original meaning for those that adorn it.It’s also a charitable organisation which raises money and awareness in helping support current and former members of the British Armed Forces. The FA’s stance and the players willingness to show their support has been admirable. For once, the FA have acted with a degree of conviction and they should be applauded for that.

To refer you to FIFA’s official statement: “As a multinational organisation comprising over 50 different nationalities, the significance of this date will also be observed by many of its employees, who will remember family members too. FIFA’s Regulations regarding Players’ Equipment are that they should not carry any political, religious or commercial messages. FIFA has 208 Member Associations and the same regulations are applied globally, and uniformally, in the event of similar requests by other nations to commemorate historical events.”

Therein lies the problem for me. Football is a sport. Football is a form of entertainment. It is not, and may I repeat, not, a way to propagate a domestically political message to a wider audience. There is simply no place for this in our game. Football has a funny way of transcending boundaries and conflicts while at the same time acting as an instrument and catalyst for driving social change. It is so much more than just a sport to a lot of us, but without trying to sound like the naive purist I so evidently am, it should be kept away from politics as far as possible.

The Poppy appeal does not support any wars, nor does it support any Government. It is a deeply worthy cause, no doubt about that, but does it really have anything to do with a pointless friendly against Spain? Surely to go down this route is to do little more than trivialise the issue for which it represents in the first place?

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The England team will reportedly have poppies on their training kits and match-day suits. Will that not suffice? Surely displaying an awareness of the context and magnitude of the day itself is enough. What was once a choice is now a matter of obligation. Remembrance is not a competition.

All of a sudden, a serious day in our national calendar, a day of remembrance, has given way to the worst kind of tokenism. You can bet your bottom dollar that if it’s a campaign aligned to The Sun, then you sure as hell don’t want to be involved with it – it’s a jingoistic cheap shot stirred up by the media to sell more newspapers.

FIFA stated also that: “We regret to inform you that accepting such initiatives would open the door to similar initiatives from all over the world, jeopardising the neutrality of football.”

The ‘neutrality of football’ is the important part to highlight here. This may be difficult for some to hear, but England are not a special case; we can not be made an exception of. The same rules have to apply to all. Much like those that rallied against the introduction of the Rooney Rule were called out as racists, going along with this way of thinking, for bucking the trend and arguing against a politicisation of the England shirt, I will be probably be called a Fascist sympathiser. Channel 4 news presenter JonSnow wrote in 2006 about why he refuses to wear a poppy on air, highlighting “a rather unpleasant breed of poppy fascism out there” which is hard to argue against.

Prime Minister David Cameron labelled the ban both ‘outrageous’ and ‘absurd’. But why is there such a big call for our team to wear it now all of a sudden? The 1966 side never wore poppies on their shirts, does that mean they don’t respect the war dead either? Of course it doesn’t. Gradually over the last few years, the poppy has become politicised. It’s fallen victim to reactionary scaremongering. There would never have been such an outcry 20 or 30 years ago.

Does anyone remember the date that England played Argentina in Geneva back in 2005 in the build-up to the 2006 World Cup? That’s right, you guessed it – 12th November. Was there any such fuss even just six years ago as England won 3-2? Not on your nelly. How about when England played against Brazil in another friendly, this time in Qatar in 2009 on the 14th November? Nope, nothing again.

Football has been in danger of losing its innocence for good, for far too long. The craven supplication to commercial interests. The outright exploitation and naked hypocrisy that are systematically eating away at the very soul of our game. But we must not pay insincere lip-service to what is a serious issue.

This does not mean that I am a FIFA sympathiser or apologist. This does not mean that I do not respect the war dead and the contributions made by that those who laid down their lives made in securing the future foundations of our society. Of course I do.

This is little more than a campaign invented, supported and continued by those with an agenda – to stir up national indignation at an easy target in an attempt to drive sales. If anything, they’re the ones that we should be directing our outrage at. The duplicitous level of mock moral outrage is just plain absurd. It’s cheap point scoring of the most abhorrent kind.

Poppies are Britain’s symbol for remembering its dead. It has nothing to do with the way other nations grieve or remember their own respective armed forces, as callous as that sounds. Those who lost their lives in the trenches, did so, in part, to protect the freedoms of future generations. Is it not somewhat ironic then, that people who are now hounded in public are done so for enacting on their own individual freedom of choice for having the temerity not to wear a poppy?

Putting aside all sentiment, FIFA undoubtedly deserve our indignation for the multitude of grievous sins that they’ve committed against football over the years; looking for a stick to beat them with has become a national sport in itself, but not for this, not this time. For once, as painful as it sounds to say aloud, let alone write, FIFA have got this one right.

You can follow me on twitter @ – http://twitter.com/#!/JamesMcManus1

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