Since England exposed FIFA corruption in the bidding processes of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, the World Football Chiefs had had it in for the FA, despite England being the biggest football market in the world.
Yet the incompetent bureaucrats that rule the world of the beautiful game continue to display a petty opposition of the home of the greatest Football League in the world. Their latest stunt, attempting to prevent the home nations from wearing poppies on their shirts in next Thursday's international football.
A dangerous precedent? Definitely not
England have been defiant in saying they will wear the poppies. The world football governing body's rules prohibit political, religious or commercial messages on shirts, but the FA said the poppy did not fit any of those categories and will therefore flout FIFA's rules.
And so they should, it's not a political statement. It doesn't set a "dangerous precedent" as many football journalists would like you to believe. The chief example of these being New York times journalist Rory Smith who claimed that this would lead to a domino effect that would give Argentina the right to demand a Falkland Islands protest on their shirts.
As if you can compare those two things. Wearing a poppy is an act of remembrance. A symbol to ensure that the people of this country never forget those that fought and died in the First World War and all wars since. It's not a protest symbol demanding we get the Saarland, trying to make Germany pay back more reparations or any declaration of hatred, it's a symbol that emphasises the importance of remembrance.
Which makes inexperienced Senegalese bureaucrat Fatma Samoura's comments that 'Britain is not the only country that has been suffering as a result of war' all the more stupid. Of course that's true, but no other country has a simple by which to remember their troops in this way and if they did, they absolutely should be allowed to wear it. It just shows that FIFA still has an obvious hatred of the home nations, by emphasising it is Britain and trying to make us out as a country that is utterly self-interested.
The FA in trouble?
Samoura has gone further by saying 'any kind of sanction' could follow. Really? What are they going to do, deduct points? By all means try and send Slovenia and Lithuania to Russia in 2018, it will be a much shorter trip for them. Unfortunately for FIFA though, the FA have a watertight legal case, partly because Samoura's vastly more experienced predecessor allowed the 3 lions to wear the poppies five years ago when they met Spain on Remembrance Day.
Many in FIFA were as uncomfortable at Samoura's appointment as she looks holding a football
And even if they could, there's no way FIFA would block England or Scotland's routes to the Finals. As much as they hate us, they know how vital the British market is to the World Cup and wouldn't try to stop us from making it.
Samoura herself doesn't have anything like the experience to be making these calls either. She was handed the Secretary General position despite having no real experience in handling sport, having previously worked in a humanitarian role at the UN. The 54-year-old's appointment came as FIFA desperately tried to rescue its damaged reputation, after a number of former officials were arrested on corruption charges and former president Sepp Blatter was placed under criminal investigation.
She was effectively appointed because she wasn't corrupt. She had a clear slate in the UN, and was the person FIFA needed because of that. As PM Theresa May said in the Houses of Parliament yesterday 'Before they start telling us what to do they should jolly well sort their own house out.' They are doing that, but aren't going to make progress with people who have zero experience.
But do England need the poppies?
I suppose there's an argument to say that England don't need to wear the poppies as they play. They could wear them warming up, wear them to and away from the ground and as one 5 Live Caller suggested on Wednesday evening, the FA could donate the funds raised to the Royal British Legion.
But I think it's important in showing that when England play Scotland, this is more important than football. They may not be united regarding football, but they should be united, on the pitch, in showing gratitude for those that have passed away for us in the last hundred years. It's not just that though, it's that we need to show the world that this is not a political statement, but a remembrance symbol.
This has turned into political football in more ways than one. As Pat Nevin said: "It's really sad that this quiet act of remembrance has become a showy political thing" and you can't help agree that this should not be something that should be another chance for us to FIFA hate. But when they put up a response like they have, it's just not fair.
The double standards are summed up by the fact that Ireland had an embroidery on their home shirt against Switzerland commemorating the Easter Rising. Hundreds of British Soldiers died in the uprising, but rightly it is seen by the world as a symbol of their independence and has no modern day political significance whatsoever, and if it is allowed, then the poppy should be too.
The Easter Rising embroidery on the Ireland shirt (credit: BBC)
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