WI – FIFA World Cup plunged into chaos due to multiple diplomatically sensitive/problematic matches

[Jan Olbracht]

Haha sorry if my reply seemed a bit combative but they were meant in the spirit of discussion 👍

I think you are still downplaying the political ramifications though or comparing apples and pears or whatever they call it these days 😁



After all FIFA slapped a ban on the magnificently obscure Pakistan team for mixing sports with politics.

That was easy, because, as you have said, Pakistani team is obscure.

Now look at last match between Brazil and Argentina. If there were some obscure teams involved then FIFA would simply punish both sides with negative points and match would be classified as double walkover. But it was Brazil vs Argentina, so FIFA has headache.

Russia also is mixing sport with politics, but neither FIFA nor UEFA would dare to ban them.

FIFA and UEFA usually threatens teams with ban, when government takes action against corrupt football federations in their countries, and FIFA and UEFA in such situations feel obligued to protect fellow corrupt assholes.

 

[Zurirach Adankar]

I mean the Iranian regime would under no circumstances allow an Iran-Israel game.
Also if any Iranian athlete would actually compete against an Israeli citizen, the athlete could immediately apply for asylum.

So Iran would boycott the game against Israel.

The German football team would face pressure to boycott the Iranian team to show solidarity against antisemitism.
If the Germany-Iran match would still take place, I would expect a large number of German fans carrying Israeli flags to the stadium (similar to the rainbow flags recently in protest against Hungarian discriminatory law).
If the stadium is full of Israeli flags, the Iranian team would immediately cancel the game.

If Fifa forbids German fans of carrying the Israeli flag or the star of David in any form to the Germany-Iran match, Fifa would face a massive backlash in Germany and the US. Then people would accuse Fifa of supporting antisemitic policies of the Iranian regime.

 

[PakistaniGuyUK]

I mean the Iranian regime would under no circumstances allow an Iran-Israel game.
Also if any Iranian athlete would actually compete against an Israeli citizen, the athlete could immediately apply for asylum.

So Iran would boycott the game against Israel.

The German football team would face pressure to boycott the Iranian team to show solidarity against antisemitism.
If the Germany-Iran match would still take place, I would expect a large number of German fans carrying Israeli flags to the stadium (similar to the rainbow flags recently in protest against Hungarian discriminatory law).
If the stadium is full of Israeli flags, the Iranian team would immediately cancel the game.

If Fifa forbids German fans of carrying the Israeli flag or the star of David in any form to the Germany-Iran match, Fifa would face a massive backlash in Germany and the US. Then people would accuse Fifa of supporting antisemitic policies of the Iranian regime.

Agree with this 100%

I think maybe the American posters here who are not really into soccer don't truly appreciate the extent of the ramifications of such a shitshow World Cup lol. Nothing comparable would happen in American football or basketball as these sports simply don't generate the same level of worldwide interest.

What you mentioned of Germany and the nuances of any Iranian boycott, we can safely say nearly every Western nation would have the same reaction and pushback.

I think the Iranians would very likely start making noises in the same week the draw was made (i.e. first week of December 2017) about boycotting the match in June 2018. This would then become the headache of not only Fifa but any other Western nation placed in the same group.

Serbia refusing to play Kosovo would likely generate a similar reaction in Western nations - i.e. decide to boycott the match against Serbia or not. Less so than the Israel situation as peripheral countries like Australia or Norway wouldn't care, but still significant.

I really wonder how FIFA would handle all of this (including the other clashes) happening all at once, in one tournament. Lucky for them the politically problematic countries are also minnows.

 

[Jan Olbracht]

Serbia refusing to play Kosovo would likely generate a similar reaction in Western nations - i.e. decide to boycott the match against Serbia or not.

Mind it, that Spain does not recognize Kosovo and Spaniards could imagine being forced to play against Catalonian or Basque national team.

FIFA would likely change seeding rules to have all these problematic teams in the same pot. In case of Armenia-Azerbaijan they certainly would be in the same pot as lowest ranked teams from UEFA zone, so at least that match would be impossible.

 

[Devvy]

Mind it, that Spain does not recognize Kosovo and Spaniards could imagine being forced to play against Catalonian or Basque national team.

FIFA would likely change seeding rules to have all these problematic teams in the same pot. In case of Armenia-Azerbaijan they certainly would be in the same pot as lowest ranked teams from UEFA zone, so at least that match would be impossible.

Skips round the whole issue on the thread, but agreed - can totally see FIFA manipulating the pots for the group stage draw to avoid these, especially as the vast majority of those mentioned will be in the lowest pool anyway. Russia is the only one who won't be in the bottom group as hosts they'd be in group A regardless, but can totally see FIFA sidestepping the issue by doing this. Let's be honest, only Russia is realistically likely to make it out of the group stage and in to the knockouts.

 

[PakistaniGuyUK]

I agree the possible solution may be manipulating the pots like they do in the qualifiers but surely there comes a point when even this becomes untenable if there are just too many of these problem clashes within the same World Cup.

In that case maybe FIFA's only answer will be to scrap the now quite glamorous Finals Draw altogether (an event in itself that's watched worldwide with many celebrities in attendance). Would be unprecedented in World Cup history not having this draw and definitely dampen the anticipation of the tournament itself to a large extent.

On the other hand there are difficulties with this approach and outright expulsion of a country and replacing it with a best runner-up from that continent resolves the problem far more swiftly. After all its not like a FIFA committee can spend an hour behind closed doors, come up with their best case scenario and voila everyone's happy. Considering what's at stake (a path to the World Cup final), no major football country will settle for being placed in a difficult group while others are perceived as being given easier ones. Negotiations will very likely have to include delegations from every one of the 32 representatives and drag on for MONTHS AND MONTHS with no guarantee of any agreement come June 2018.

 

[Jan Olbracht]

Just look at Euro 2020-there was barely any draw at all. Due to rules used by UEFA which team must play in certain group and which teams can't play against each other. And what? Was Euro cancelled? It was moved to next year, true, but it was due to COVID, not due to protest against draw results.

BTW FIFA has big experience with manipulating draw rules (for example China could not be drawn into groups playing in Japan at WC 2002) , it would be nothing new.

 

[Changundramon]

A guided draw would prevent things like these in the groups. However, problematic encounters in the K.O. rounds would be hardly avoidable. I guess spectators would be banned, and that's it.