All the Presidential Men (Part 5)

Three Presidents in six years
The legendary Jules Rimet retired as President of FIFA following the 1954 World Cup and in so doing left his successor with a tough act to follow. Here was a man who led the organisation for thirty-three years in which a World War forced him to hide the World Cup trophy under his bed to evade the gaze of enemy soldiers. He ensured the World Cup competition got off to a safe and steady beginning and saw the number of member nations increase from 24 to 82 during his reign.

When Rimet stood down at the start of 1955, his replacement turned out to be none other than his Vice-President, Rodolphe Seeldrayers. Seeldrayers was born in Germany in 1876 but spent much of his life competing in and helping to develop many different sports in Belgium.

He officiated in the Olympic Games football competition in 1920 and seven years later was given the role of Vice-President at FIFA. During the time leading up to his appointment, Seeldrayers was a key figure in the ongoing debate about amateurism in sport, but though he preferred all players to be non-professional, he also accepted that in reality more and more players were turning their backs on the amateur ideals while still playing the game in the appropriate spirit.

Sadly, Seeldrayers never got to apply his ideas and beliefs to the post-war game to any great exent. Just a year after his election as President of FIFA, he died following a period of illness, aged 78.

In 1956, FIFA elected their second President in as many years. Arthur Drewry had been acting in a caretaker role following Seeldrayers death, but a year later he was given the top job on a permanent basis and immediately found himself planning for the next World Cup in Sweden in 1958.

He arrived as someone with experience of administrating in football yet had also flirted with controversy in his earlier days. Drewry had been appointed Chairman of the Football Association in 1955 and had previously been President of the Football League, but it was around this time that one of the most embarrassing episodes in English football history was credited to him.

In the 1950 World Cup Finals, England were due to play the United States. As far as the English were concerned, it would be a mere formality and there was realistically only one team in it. What few could have foreseen, however, was the 1-0 defeat the Americans inflicted on England, and when a scapegoat was being sought, the finger of blame finally pointed to Drewry.

Though Walter Winterbottom was the England team manager during the Finals in Brazil that year, it's said that Arthur Drewry (with his more senior authority) had appointed himself as the man to select the team instead. The end result left England desperately hanging onto a place in the competition which they soon lost.

Despite this, FIFA put Drewry in charge in 1956, but sadly he, too, was to enjoy an all-too-short spell as FIFA President when he also died in office, just before the fifth anniversary of his appointment in 1961. It would be a further six months before the world governing body would appoint a permanent successor, but when they did, they had somewhat better luck. The job was given to a former referee who went on to help rewrite the very Laws of the Game, and his name was Stanley Rous...

Nudge me when it gets exciting...

It's strange, you know. Just recently we seem to have been concentrating on everything except the Premier League. We've written about the Euro 2008 qualifying competition and the draw for the Finals. We've written about the draw for the World Cup 2010 qualifiers and the early rounds of this season's FA Cup, but the Premier League… well it's just not been on the radar.

Why should that be, I wonder? Is it not that exciting anymore?

Strangely enough, it should be at the top of our list. At the moment, there's a four-horse-race going on with Arsenal and Liverpool (1st and 4th respectively) still unbeaten with a game in hand over the other two, Man. United and Chelsea (2nd and 3rd) who have already lost two of their fifteen matches.

Even Man City are level on points with Liverpool although whether Sven Goran Eriksson can keep his magic going until the end of the season remains to be seen.

Then near the bottom of the table you have two teams that you wouldn't expect to find there - Bolton and Tottenham. Both have struggled and both have replaced their managers, but while the wait for drastic improvement goes on, so does the increased interest in them and the Premier League that, for the time being at least, remains their home.

Perhaps one reason we've not been bothered about England's top flight of late is because some of the big characters have either gone or gone quiet. Jose Mourinho - someone perfectly capable of starting an argument in a phone box - parted company with Chelsea several weeks ago, although even from his Portuguese home he still taunts the press with his 'might take the job, might not' approach to the vacant England manager's job.

In addition, Rafa Benitez has resorted to buttoning his lip and smiling sweetly whenever anyone asks him about the potential plans of Liverpool's American owners and Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger can only muster a meagre amount of foot-stamping whenever it looks like they're about to lose a game. So much for the personal angle in the game these days.

Player-wise, many of the big names seem to be having regular off-spells. Cristiano Ronaldo was slow to get going back in August, but every time he gets a decent run of form together, he either gets injured, sent off, rested or any permutation of all three. Frank Lampard's had a couple of brief scoring runs amid an unremarkable first three months, Dimitar Berbatov either hasn't been playing with andy confidence or or hasn't been playing at all and Fernando Torres has scored now and then but hasn't quite set the whole place alight as numeorus people thought he would do.

So what's going on? Is the thought of a four-horse-race simply not enough to satiate our thirst for the English game? Do we need more characters or bigger clubs back in the mix? Or is it simply that the Premier League Express is showing early signs of running out of steam?

Over to you with your suggestions...

World Player of the Year? Yeah, whatever...

Two weeks from today, FIFA will announce its World Player of the Year at a glittering gala in Zurich. The three nominees for 2007 are Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United and Portugal), Lionel Messi (Barcelona and Argentina) and Kaka (AC Milan and Brazil), which leaves us with the ultimate question: not 'Who will win the award this year?' but 'Does anybody really care?'

Forgive me if I sound like an old curmudgeon, but as award ceremonies go, this one comes bottom of my list when it comes to relevance and general interest.

It shouldn't do, of course. 'World Player of the Year' is a title which should be legendary amongst players and fans alike. To know that your team either features or is playing against someone that has been ranked above all others on the planet should send a tingle down your spine. So why doesn't it?

Well first of all, there's FIFA's ability to suck the excitement out of every fanciful occasion it organises from the World Cup Finals Draw downwards. You know the kind of thing - some guy in his mid-thirties wearing a sharp suit and the sort of smile you only see on a satellite shopping channel trying to waffle his way professionally yet cheesily through a running order that would be far better off without him.

He's usually accompanied by a small selection of former or current football players he's obliged to talk to briefly, all of whom give the impression they'd rather not be there. They're being watched by a sizeable audience of invited guests from 'the world of football' who aren't laughing at any of the jokes and are perpetually a matter of minutes away from dying an early death due to terminal boredom.

Then there are the nominees. This year, amazingly, we're spared the recent band of regulars (i.e. Ronaldinho, Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry) but the damage, you feel, has already been done. Year after year of seeing the usual suspects leaves you with a distinct feeling of deja-vu. Even this year's trio of star names look familiar as though they've all been here once before, yet strangely they haven't.

Then there's the 'World' bit of the title. How often has the World Player of the Year been playing for a club that's not European or South American? The answer: never. George Weah came pretty close in 1995, but despite being born in Liberia, he was actually playing for AC Milan at the time.

And to get really technical for a moment, of the 29 players who finished 1st, 2nd or 3rd in FIFA's previous sixteen World Player galas, only three have been defenders and one a goalkeeper. Hardly a fair recognition of the talents that every player has regardless of the position he plays in, is it?

So please forgive me if I'm not on the edge of my seat eagerly awaiting this supposedly important announcement. I just feel that all of us as football fans have our own opinion of who the best player in the world is, and for those of us that don't, it isn't of that much relevance anyway. We all want to see our club and country win whenever they play, and that, for me, is the very essence of what's important about football as every individual fan sees it.

Euro 2008 Draw

Earlier today in Lucerne, Switzerland, the draw was made for the Euro 2008 Finals and one group stood out more than any other - Group C, containing France, Italy and the Netherlands, along with Romania.

The term 'Group of Death' is perhaps used too often in situations like this, but we're inclined to think it's a worthwhile epithet this time around. The average FIFA Ranking for all four teams involved is 8, and they're all inside the world's top 15.

Elsewhere, the two co-hosts (ironically the lowest-ranked teams of all sixteen taking part) face tough tests if they're to progress beyond the first round. Switzerland open the competition in Group A against the Czech Republic in Basel on June 7th 2008, while later that day Turkey and Portugal finish off the action in Geneva.

The following day sees Austria begin their campaign against England's victors Croatia in Vienna, while the other pairing in Group B sees Germany face-off against Poland.

June 9th will no doubt be the most eagerly awaited date of all as France and Russia meet in Zurich and the Netherlands and Italy play each other in Berne, while the following day Group D begins with defending champions Greece playing Sweden in Salzburg and Spain playing Russia in Innsbruck.

Further eye-catching dates for your diary are as follows:

June 11: Czech Republic v Portugal (Geneva)
June 12: Croatia v Germany (Klagenfurt)
June 13: Netherlands v France (Berne)
June 14: Sweden v Spain (Innsbruck)
June 17: France v Italy (Zurich)

Somewhat interestingly, Austria play Germany in the final round of games in Group B, but unlike the World Cup of 1982 there'll be no underhanded shenanigans going on as they'll be playing at the same time as Poland and Croatia.

There are plenty of opportunities for old acquaintances to be renewed throughout the first round. Portugal will be playing Turkey for the third time in four Euro finals over in Group A, but Group C will be full to overflowing with old scores waiting to be settled as Italy and France stage a repeat of the 2000 Final and Italy and the Netherlands re-enact the semi-final from the same year.

All in all, I think it's quite an interesting draw and some good games should ensue. Here for those who've not yet seen them are today's Euro 2008 First Round groupings in full:

Group A: Switzerland, Czech Republic, Portugal, Turkey.
Group B: Austria, Croatia, Germany, Poland.
Group C: Netherlands, Italy, Romania, France.
Group D: Greece, Sweden, Spain, Russia.