Nevertheless off-the-field trouble continues to trouble the corruption-prone continental football body.

The international body governing football FIFA will take control of the Confederation of Africa Football following the detention and release of CAF boss Ahmad in France earlier this month.

FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura will become the General Delegate for Africa while retaining her FIFA position.

The AFCON competition will go ahead as planned in Egypt which stepped in when security concerns forced the body to pull the plug on the original host Cameroon.

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 Of course King Mohamed VI and his Moroccan officials will say that their record-breaking five-time losing quest to host the football World Cup has nothing to do with his father annexing the Western Sahara 42 years ago.

They would, wouldn’t they?

The late King Hassan refused to acknowledge that his illegal occupation of the former Spanish colony put Morocco beyond the pale of international respectability.

He jailed any of his subjects who dared even to suggest this.

Whatever he says about presiding over a more liberal system, his successor , known as M6, has enforced this official myopia with equal vigour and cruelty.

I recall attending an editorial conference of a so-called independent Moroccan newspaper.

“Could you possibly conceive of ever publishing the views of a respected academic arguing for granting the Saharawi people self-determination?” I asked.

The l meeting ended right there as the terrified editor and journalists left the room.

I am waiting to see how the Moroccan media explains the harsh reality that the country’s  defiance of international opinion caused no fewer than 11 African countries – nearly a fifth of the  continent – to vote against the kingdom’s bid when FIFA took the decision in Moscow yesterday about who should host the 2026 football World Cup. 

South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe were open about rejecting the last colonial vestige in Africa and their  support for the occupied Saharawi people.

Others said it was a straightforward business decision: the so-called united bid by the United States, Canada and Mexico guarantee a profit of $11 billion for FIFA. That is money that will trickle down to them.

Morocco indicated  it would make $5 billion, which is more than Brazil earned from its 2014 World Cup and certainly more than South Africa raked for World Cup 2010.

The point not being made by the sporting diplomats is that Morocco has shown time and again that it cannot be taken at its word.

It has lied internationally with promises like allowing the Saharawi people a referendum to determine their own future.

And it has lied to its own people about economic plans that have done nothing to reduce unemployment and spur economic growth.

Meanwhile it spends billions keeping 120 000 soldiers guarding the 2 700 km sand wall, or berm, between the occupied and liberated zones of Western Shara.

Morocco can barely maintain this.

It relies on financial support from France and the United State who hold their noses about Morocco’s lamentable human rights record because they see it as a bastion against militant Islam in North Africa.

Nevertheless Morocco has actually become one of the most dangerous breeding grounds for Islamist terrorists.

So how could the country that relies on aid, tourism – particularly European sex tourism, exploiting the dagga trade, growing oranges and raking in profits from stolen Saharawi phosphates possible afford to stage a World Cup?

The Rabat authorities managed to cobble together a pitch, but Morocco’s neighbours and fellow Africans clearly did not believe it.

If M6 and his men really plan to make yet another bid in 2030, they have their work cut out if  they plan to avoid another humiliation.

Ending their occupation of Western Sahara would be an excellent start.

But that is all it would be: a start.

The post How could a country that relies on handouts, dagga and the sex trade possibly host a World Cup? appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Africa’s last colonial  power could not even secure the votes of the  continent for the right to host the world’s most watched sporting  event in 2026.

The joint bid of the United State, Canada and Mexico to host the 2026 football World Cup promises to earn $11 billion for FIFA.

That’s more than twice what Morocco could have hoped to score.

At best a B-league economic player, Morocco spends many times what it can afford to maintain its illegal occupation of Western Sahara.

The disappointed Kingdom once again has to consider the reality that once faced the apartheid regime: that no normal sport is possible in an abnormal society.

The post Morocco learns no normal sport is possible in an abnormal society appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Premier David Cameron ridicule by not inviting Fifa, Panama or British Virgin Island to the gathering.

ends intro

Until he raised the diplomatic storm with Nigeria with his unguarded comments to Queen Elizabeth, Prime Minister David Cameron was being called brave for calling an anti-corruption summit so soon after the Panama Papers revealed where the super rich were hiding their money.

Cameron will announced that foreign firms  owning  property in Britain  will have to declare their assets publicly in a bid to stamp out money-laundering.

One in 10 properties in the salubrious London West end are owned by foreigners.

One in three international tax havens is British, putting the UK under pressure to do more to stop dodging costing  governments – many of them in developing countries – $170 billion a year.

The post Cameron ridiculed for omissions from his anti corruption summit appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

It’s emerged he was sent on a secret mission to try to oust Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza.

ends intro .

end intro

The bizarre cloak and football boots story is told in today’s Swiss daily Blick.

It comes from the  authorized biography Sepp Blatter – Mission and Passion Fussball.

The Swiss foreign ministry confirms its officials were in contact with Blatter when he visited Burundi a year ago while he was still FIFA president.

Blatter offered President Pierre Nkurunziza a job in football if he left office after the constitutionally prescribed two terms.

Foreign ministry spokesman Stefan von Below says the intention was to prevent the current crisis Burundi’s experiencing.

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The agenda not been finalised, so it is not clear if the FIFA scandal and handing South Africa the opportunity to host the 2010 Football World Cup will be raised at the African Union summit in Sandton next weekend.
Explaining to this to reporters, foreign affairs cghief Maite Nkoana Mashebane joined the ranks of her colleagues defending government’ action on this issue.

The South African government’s cooperating the FIFA and Swiss investigations into alleged irregularities in awarding the hosting of the World Cup, insists Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana Mashebane.
She’s unstinting in her assessment of what the 2010 World Cup meant.
(take in success clip here)
The there are three questions, she says, was this an African World Cup, was it successful and was it run competently. All three receive a resounding yes.

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South Africa’s northern neighbour’s been booted out of qualifying for the Moscow football fest because it failed to pay its coach.

World football governing body Fifa says its acted against Zimbabwe because coach Jose Claudinei Georgini hasn’t been paid – despite giving the Warriors a grace period to clear the bad debt.

The African zone qualifiers kick off in October. The tournament draw will be made made in St Petersburg next July.

It’s come close a few times, but Zimbabwe’s never qualified for the World Cup.

Georgia, a Brazilian national nicknamed Valinhos, managed the national team from January to November 2008.

He has been owed money ever since and cash-strapped Zifa was first ordered by Fifa three years ago to pay him.

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