BOOK: Outcasts! The Lands that FIFA Forgot
BOOK:Outcasts! The Lands that FIFA Forgot by Steve Menary, is published in hardback by Know The Score Limited, priced £16.99. Available now. REVIEWER: James Cleary
WITH top-level football seemingly drowning in an excess of greed, criticism of the world governing body FIFA has been well-documented, not least by Andrew Jennings in Foul! The Secret Life Of Fifa.
This new title by Steve Menary examines the hypocrisy of FIFA and how they justify the exclusion of some nations from their organisation (and sanctioned international participation), while welcoming others into their much-trumpeted football family.
And Outcasts! The Lands that FIFA Forgot includes a chapter of the Isle of Man, explaining how the Island's FA does not wish to break its lucrative affiliation with the English FA.
Menary, a freelance journalist with an impressive CV, is well placed to follow the trials and tribulations of these places which FIFA refuse to recognise.
For two years he uncovered the tiring journeys of teams as diverse as the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and the Falklands, to Occitania, the Sami and Zanzibar, discovering why players want to compete for these nations.
The book climaxes with the eventual build-up and subsequent staging of the 'Wild Cup' prior to the FIFA World Cup in 2006 in Germany.
Astonishing stories are in regular supply – the dentist who risks his career to play for his country, kit manufacturers battling to sponsor Tibet – while the problems surrounding the Gibraltarian national side are uncovered, and how they could force an end to centuries of dispute between Britain and Spain.
Throughout Menary's trail we meet key individuals on and off the pitch, and although the writer sometimes overplays the David v Goliath scenarios, it is a thoroughly absorbing and entertaining examination of the issues involved, never threatening to outstay its welcome.
Outcasts! notes that despite the stance of the Isle of Man FA, there is support for a campaign to join FIFA or UEFA. And Menary claims that if the UK ever joins the single European currency, the Manxmen could find themselves in UEFA despite the local FA's reluctance.
He says: 'If the UK Government did embrace the Euro and the parliaments in St Helier, St Peter Port and Douglas had to seek independence, their respective football associations would have to pursue UEFA membership, as supporting football there would surely be impossible politically for the English FA.'
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Weather for Isle of Man
Tuesday 07 February 2012
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Temperature: 1 C to 7 C
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