World Cup 2010 Blog: “Was La Liga Spain’s 12th man in their World Cup victory this summer?” plus 1 more

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Was La Liga Spain’s 12th man in their World Cup victory this summer? Posted: 05 Sep 2010 06:17 PM PDT If you ask José Luis Astiazarán, the President of the Spanish League of Professional Footballers, then the answer is an unequivocal “yes”. Why? Because, according to him, Spain’s success is a result of “hard work with youth setup” that the LFP has done to promote “homegrown” talent in Spain. This principle enabled Spanish players to have the experience of playing at the “highest” level every weekend. Err- is anyone else scratching their head at this bold statement? Then again, this is the same man who declared Spanish football as “objectively the best league in the world” and La Liga “superior to England” after Spain won the European Championship in 2008.  Yes, I know, its his job to promote La Liga.  But, as a Ligue 1 fan (who didn’t even get a mention!), you can already imagine my opinion of the man after hearing those bold statements… Even if I put aside those very strong biases – I find it hard to follow the logic in his statements. First of all in 2008, several of Spain’s players – including the final goalscorer, Fernando Torres played in England, along with – Xabi Alonso, Alvaro Arbeloa, Pepe Reina and Cesc Fabregas. And even though many of those players have now returned to Spain – I still find it hard to stomach some of these claims.  Yes, it is impressive how many of the national team’s players choose to play in Spain. But can a national team that only has players from 6 of its domestic league’s teams really be credit to the league?  Even looking at it that way is pretty generous.  Because in reality, 50% of the Spain national team is composed of two teams- Real Madrid and Barcelona. The club breakdown of the Spain national team at the 2010 World Cup was as follows… Real Madrid (5):  Casillas, Albiol, Alonso, Ramos and Arbeloa Barcelona (7):  Pique, Iniesta, Puyol, Xavi, Valdes, Busquets, Pedro Valencia (4):  Villa, Silva, Marchena, Mata Villareal (1):  Capdevilla Sevilla (1):  Navas Athletic Bilbao (2):  Llorente, Martinez Plus the three players who still play in England:  Fabregas (Arsenal), Reina (Liverpool) and Torres (Liverpool).  (Please note, some of these players club affiliations have changed since the World Cup….) So if the league’s job is to promote a two-horse race year and year- I think they are doing a swell job.  But, if they are claiming to promote competitive football among all of the league’s teams to strengthen the league overall- I’d say they still have their work cut out for them.  Sid Lowe put it best in his article on the subject (which I recommend you all read!) when he said… It is tempting to conclude that all it does do is organize a league in which the best players play — and organize it badly. A league in which you don’t even know what day games are on until a week before.

FIFA linked to sale of personal details/information of World Cup attendees Posted: 05 Sep 2010 01:43 PM PDT 2006 World Cup attendees like this one may be at risk after their information was (allegedly) illegally sold on the black market… According to The Guardian, an investigation is underway regarding the leak and sale of personal information and details provided by thousands of football fans who purchased World Cup tickets directly from FIFA and their official sponsor, Match Hospitality. I suggest you read the whole article on The Guardian for all the details, but in a nutshell … As many as 35,689 English fans who attended the 2006 World Cup in Germany may have had their personal details/information sold for up to half a million Euros. Information sold includes passport information as well as dates of births – and perhaps more sensitive information for “high profile” guests such as dignitaries. Dagbladet, a Norwegian newspaper, broke a story last month alleging that they had been able to obtain a list of 250,000 fans personal details they submitted while purchasing tickets through the official, legally provided channels. The newspaper claims they were given these records through several email conversations with a Match Hospitality employee. Until confronted with the details of Dagbladet’s investigation, Match Hospitality had no idea they even had a breach in security. The firm maintains they’ve done everything possible to keep the data of ticket holders secure. This leak is considered the work of one employee who gained access to the data. THE REAL KICKER: Match Hospitality is the same firm that is owned in part by Sepp Blatter’s nephew, Phillipe. It’s the same firm that rather controversially won the bid to exclusively provide ticket hospitality at both the 2010 and 2014 World Cup tournaments. First, I’m shocked this hasn’t received more ink today in the papers. I consider this to be a pretty serious issue. Fans who have had their information (allegedly) stolen followed the protocol stipulated by FIFA to ensure they were safely and securely purchasing their tickets. This is something you may expect from fans who are duped into purchasing tickets from the black market, not from the agency that deals with providing tickets/hospitality to the Swedish Prime Minister (who, yes, had his information stolen). The stolen information was collected in 2006 – and wasn’t sold until the database (which is thought to have been created by FIFA) was in the hands of FIFA’s new official provider of World Cup Hospitality. Which begs the question of what type of investigation FIFA performed to ensure the firm was able to adequately secure the data. After the initial wave of shock, I’m trying to be fair. Security breaches happen. They shouldn’t, but they do. Instead of damning the company that fans will inevitably have to deal with in 2014 for Brazil (they already won the bid to provide the tournament hospitality)- I’m more interested in learning how they intend to deal with this leak and prevent it in the future. For now, they appear to be cooperating with the authorities and it is good news that this seems to be the work of only one person in the firm instead of a chronic epidemic of corruption within the company itself (though I’m sure Andrew Jennings would disagree with me there…). So, football fans, how do you feel about this? Are you as outraged as me – or are you more concerned about the state of Rooney’s marriage? If its the latter, please don’t tell me.

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