Max Mosley - the shame of F1

So Max Mosley has survived a vote of no confidence and, despite a predilection for prostitutes and some unsavoury role playing while with them, he continues to be in charge of Formula One.

Mosley seems to genuinely believe that he has done nothing wrong and the (all-male) people that could have removed him agree. Clearly, having shredded morals is no obstacle to being the public support. Even Bernie Ecclestone realised that Mosley’s position had become an embarrassment.

But Oswald’s son continues. He won’t be able to attend some races because those staging them are appalled by his antics and the message it sends out. Hopefully, some of the advertisers who pay through the nose for the tiniest branding on the cars will say enough is enough. Only then might the self-interested idiots that run the sport sit up and take notice.

Anyhow, make your own mind up.

Jack Warner - football’s unacceptable face

England playing football in Trinidad was a hit with the locals, but the reasons for the game were less paletable.

The FA wants the World Cup and to get it they are prepared to do pretty much anything. That includes toadying to Jack Warner, a man who more than anyone epitomises the worst side of corrupt sports administrators. The stories of his nepotism and corruption are widespread, and yet because he has friends in high places in the equally sordid halls of FIFA, he is almost untouchable.

Check out the background to this utterly reprehensible character. And then decide if even the FA really should be courting people like this?

Herr … sorry, Hair Mosley

At least we can count on Max Mosley’s Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile to stand ever-ready to apply the riding crop of stern discipline to the quivering buttocks of slacking standards. Max’s minions have severely reprimanded the French world rallying champion Sébastien Loeb for the unpardonable sin of not having shaved or combed his disgracefully “tousled hair” before stepping on to the winners’ podium after the Mexican rally. Driving for three days in searing heat on treacherous mountain roads was no excuse for looking so “undignified and disheveled”. (The Guardian)

But good old Mosley sees nothing wrong with a bit of slap and right-wing tickle with prostitutes. It has to be assumed while he was being … er … entrapped, not a (pubic) hair was out of place.

Zimbabwe’s cricket corruption exposed

Questions continue to be raised over a media productions company acquired by individuals in Zimbabwe Cricket using board funds, but whose proceeds never benefited the organisation, but the individuals involved.

Reliable sources state that a considerable figure of money exchanged hands in the acquisition deal, and police’s fraud department is already investigating the matter.
The board’s managing director Ozias Bvute, former ZC marketing executive Andrew Muzamhindo and media manager Lovemore Banda are some of the directors and major stakeholders of the company, Tatu Media Productions. The others are relatives and friends of Bvute.

Muzamhindo, infact, resigned from ZC to assume the post of the company’s managing director, but has since quit the venture under unclear circumstances.
Tatu was purportedly purchased as a ZC subsidiary to “internally carry out graphics and printing jobs for ZC in order to cut costs”. It turned out that Tatu was nothing but a private business project for the individuals despite ZC equipment such as cars, fuel, furniture and computers being used there. ZC’s bloated media department worked from the company’s offices for some time.

Tatu cashed in on of several millions of dollars by billing ZC for jobs done by the company with inflated invoices.

Some of the paid jobs include, newspaper and television adverts, coaching manuals, journals and match tickets. The payments made by ZC are believed to have been pocketed by the shareholders.

Tatu also publish a sports magazine, Sportlight, with ZC meeting the printing costs. The last edition of the magazine was printed in China. The magazine, dominated by football content, has been making losses.

Russia’s unacceptable excess

Dick Advocaat, the respected Dutch manager of Russian side Zenit St Petersburg, claimed that his club do not sign black players because their fans would not accept it.

‘I would be happy to sign anyone, but the fans don’t like black players. Quite honestly, I do not understand how they could pay so much attention to skin colour. For me there’s no difference between white, black or red. But they care.’

Imagine if the manager of a German or English side said that. UEFA would jump on them in a trice - and rightly. But the money in Russia buys a right to do pretty much as they please. Why else stage a European final in a country where prices are astronomical, accommodation non existent and visas all but impossible to secure. Cash, as every, talk … a greases palms where it matters.

Cricket an extension of worst aspects of Mugabe’s regime - Hoey

Kate Hoey, the former sports minister and the chair of the UK’s all parliamentary committee on Zimbabwe, has called on the government to renew attempts to obtain a copy of the independent forensic audit commissioned from KPMG by the ICC.

The audit, which the ICC executive board voted not to release, is believed to have been unsuccessfully requested by the government last month. David Morgan, the ICC’s president-elect, revealed at the weekend that Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, was one of those on the ICC executive that voted not to make the report public.

Speaking in a debate on Zimbabwe in the House of Commons, Hoey, who is also a honorary vice-president of Surrey, renewed her demands that Peter Chingoka, Zimbabwe Cricket’s chairman, not be allowed to enter the country.

“[Robert] Mugabe is a ZCU patron, and Chingoka and managing director, Ozias Bvute, are both deeply implicated in the financial corruption that props up the regime,” she said. “Through cricket, they have access to hard currency, which they misuse to exercise corrupt patronage in collaboration with the bigwigs of Zimbabwe’s ruling party.

“At international matches Chingoka uses the VIP pavilion to host the ZANU-PF politicians, CIO operatives and senior army officers on whom he relies for protection.

“Zimbabwe cricket is an extension of the worst aspects of Mugabe’s regime. Those of us who care for Zimbabwe and cricket in particular, or human rights and sport in general, must do all we can to support the prime minister’s proposal to ban the Zimbabwean cricket team from touring in the UK. I hope the [foreign] minister will confirm that no UK visa will be given for Chingoka to come here to attend any ICC meetings, or for any other reason, in the next few months.”

So much for the spirit of the game

Earlier this month the FA announced that it was clamping down on bad behaviour and ushering in a new era of everyone behaving in a mature fashion and respecting officials and each other. The clubs, players and managers all nodded and expressed their wholehearted support for the initiative. It seemed too good to be true. It was.

Expecting overpaid, pampered stars who have lost all touch with reality – look at the homes they built if you want proof - to act like adults was asking way too much.

Listening to Radio Five’s post-match hour between 5pm and 6pm was to evesdrop on a series of interviews with managers and players bleating that they had been robbed by incompetent officials.

The exception was the unctuous Carlos Queiroz, Manchester United’s assistant manager, who sprayed excuses and blame following the 2-1 loss at Chelsea.

“How can the referee not see that Ballack has jumped on Ronaldo?” he said. “It must be necessary for a player to bring a gun and shoot one of our men in the box for us to get a penalty.” Generations of sides who have visited Old Trafford might compare Queiroz’s whinge with Robert Mugabe’s complaint about electorial fraud robbing him of victory.

Queiroz was not alone. Almost no defeated manager was willing to take the blame himself or, perish the thought, have a pop at his own pampered darlings. Nope, it was all the referees and their assistants.

Tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of people will take part in Sunday football. On many of the pitches the behaviour of participants and supporters will leave a lot to be desired. We know where much of the blame lies.

We were wrong … the ICC can sink lower

Cricket’s governing body, the ICC, often gets criticism that is harsh. But the quit spineless way they summarily dismissed Malcolm Speed, the CEO, with two months of his contract remaining bordered on the disgraceful.

Speed’s crime was to have challenged the president, the hopelessly limited Ray Mali, and a few of the faceless individuals who are the ICC’s driving force over the issue of Zimbabwe. They give unquestioning support regardless of a mountain of evidence that the game is going to hell under the stewardship of Peter Chingoka. A slick operator, Chingoka can be a bully and has grown rich through his tenure. But he supports those he knows he needs to and in return they back him slavishly.

So a discredited group who have brought shame on the game have had their day. They should be ashamed. Cricket deserves much better leadership and morality.

The ICC and Zimbabwe: The darkest hour

Rarely do journalists really let rip in print, so it was a delight to read Peter Roebuck’s broadside against the ICC for its lame tackling of the mess that is Zimbabwe cricket on the Cricinfo website.

Its new leadership has shown itself to be spineless, amoral, unprincipled, shallow, self-centred, ill-informed and contemptible. No game that hopes to retain even a modicum of a standing in the wider community can so abjectly bow to despotism.

Of course there never was any point expecting anything except pathetic kowtowing from Ray Mali, a compromised and unworthy president of the ICC. His emptiness was exposed long ago, in the Transkei, before the fall of a system he was supposed to despise. It was documented at the Truth and Reconciliation Hearings. Nor is there anything to be gained from dwelling upon Norman Arendse, chairman of CSA, a third-rate occupant of an important position. His rise has been due not to courage or character but to an ability to sniff the wind.

And then Roebuck turned his sights on Peter Chingoka and Ozias Bvute, the bosses of Zimbabwe Cricket who have enriched themselves with the cash paid to Zimbabwe by the ICC.

These men reflect their times. Make no mistake, they are Zanu-PF loyalists in sheep’s clothing. Chingoka is a particularly nasty but of work. He has friends in very high places, enjoys the protection of the vice-president and her militarist husband. He has grown fat as others starve. As pitches go unprepared and grass grows high, he has bought property in London, built a house in Cape Town, invested heavily in companies, and generally made a fortune in a bankrupt land. Although charming when he chooses to be, his bitter, rampant racism has shocked even Zimbabwean politicians, not to mention ICC officials. Of course, that has not stopped his inexorable rise at the ICC.

Cunning to the core, Chingoka has done deals with the BCCI, and votes for it at every opportunity. India owes him “big time”. Like his mentor and master Robert Mugabe, he knows how to play his cards, talking about colonialism and intransigent whites, spreading rumours when it suits him. He is a pitiful figure who will not survive the return of democracy and the rule of law to his country, should that happy day ever dawn.

Contrastingly, Bvute is the type that appears when there is easy money to be made, the sort that also knows when to jump ship. Nowadays his family lives in New York. Not so long ago, in a brief period under a cloud, Bvute was able to transfer a large sum of money to them. He has also bought a mansion in Harare, a purchase assisted by cricketing forces. Mostly, he throws his weight around in an attempt to cower the dispirited youth team representing the nation (which team managed to finish as high as second last in a recent domestic competition in South Africa). He also seeks to control the media.

The IOC’s own dictator

The Beijing Games are the legacy of the odious Juan Antonio Samaranch, a man who pushed China’s cause relentlessly. Samaranch, a man who as late as 1974 was happy to give fascist salutes under the Franco regime in Spain, held a photoshoot in Tiananmen Square in 1993, glibly riding a bike where four years earlier tanks had run over students.

The New Statesman brought attention to his chequered past in 1993.

Samaranch deserted from the army of the Spanish Republic during the civil war and hid in Barcelona until Franco had won. He spent the next thirty-five years climbing the ladder of fascist politics, ending up as the head of Franco’s rubber stamp Catalan ‘parliament’. Ten years after the Allies discovered Auschwitz, he volunteered for the elite fascist Falange, wore its uniform and gave the fascist salute. This he did until Franco died in 1975.

And this is a man who we laughably are supposed to refer to as “his excellency” and who is a life vice-president of the IOC.