World Cup 2026: Page 173 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One more in the Tolly

World Cup 2026

awooga83

Gurgen yeah it's absurd these guys are like wow he's corrupt I had no idea obviously I would have found it unacceptable. They saw the backlash and then they joined how brave of them.

awooga83

Claudius sorry should say I'm not that bothered what Wenger did or didn't know about this specific mess but he can't be that surprised by the behaviour of Infantino to act in such a reprehensible way. He also does absolutely know what a disgraceful and corrupt organisation FIFA is and everything it's done under infantino so his complicity is why are you still there when you can see what a disgrace the organisation is and where it's going. You should just quit, you can't claim ignorance to what FIFA as an organisation is in 2026. If you claim to care about transparency and integrity that is incompatible with the organisation you are working for so there is the test do you really believe in those things are do you just say you do.

daredevil

awooga83

'I don't know what Wenger may specifically know about FIFA' - indeed.

awooga83

daredevil totally fair and by staying employed by Fifa that says a lot about his view of the organisation which absolutely does not operate with transparency or integrity and clearly does not act in the interests of football. If your still working for that type of organisation that sends it's own message the whole world can see FIFA is bad for football and corrupt. If your still there your are cool with that.

Coombs

Wenger released a carefully worded statement saying as little as possible because he was named in a potential lawsuit. Not sure it reflects what he actually thinks one way or another. I wouldn't be surprised if he was either covertly in support of the idea, or if he was raging mad about it.

daredevil

awooga83

You're treating Wenger as though he occupies the same role as Infantino. He doesn't. You're conflating the conduct of FIFA's president who needs votes to win elections with the responsibilities of someone employed in a completely different function. That's association, not evidence of complicity.

FIFA is not a random club or company where you can go work for a competitor or rival if your ethos don't align. It's the standalone governing body of world football and if you want to be a force of good in world football, that's the only place you can do it. As far as I know, Wenger has a positive role in developing the game globally. That to me is positive and it's ludicrous to hold him guilty or accountable for the behaviour of his superior who has an entirely different role that involves currying favour and votes from the global leaders to maintain his reign of terror.

Havelange did it, so did Blatter, and now Infantino hasn't been much different. It's a problem of corruption that exists at the presidency level and as far as I know, other functions across the executive team haven't been found to be equally corrupt.

Qwiss

What's the alternative, go work at another global football governing body?

awooga83

Qwiss he doesn't have to work for any of them? Ultimately this for me is about if you really are true to your word and care about transparency and integrity you don't work for this type of organisation. Wenger does not need to work work hours wealth it very much becomes a choice. Work for who you want but when they agree associated with the corruption and the likes of trump you are going to be judged by your actions.

awooga83

daredevil I say again Wenger does not have to work for them. That's his choice everybody knows what FIFA stands for by now and that don't stand for integrity and transparency. So if you mention that as something you value I am calling bullshit on that because if you really cared about that you wouldn't be there. So don't make a statement that insults people's intelligence. You like the money ABT you can turn your nose for everything else. That's fine that's who you are don't try to pretend it's about this stuff

Claudius

awooga83 he doesn't have to work for any of them? Ultimately this for me is about if you really are true to your word and care about transparency and integrity you don't work for this type of organisation.

What is a just organisation? The IMF? Amazon? Anthropic? Coca Cola? Deel?

Qwiss

awooga83 Wenger doesn't have to work but he wants to work to make football better. Him not going and working at FIFA doesn't fix anything. We don't know how he's been politicking behind the scenes. This jump to make everyone a villain at the first opportunity is a weird modern obsession.

This stuff isn't about Wenger. Its not his area at FIFA. People expecting him to change his lifelong habit of being professional and keeping things in house are being ridiculous.

daredevil

awooga83

So if he has an interest in developing the game at the grass roots level in undeveloped nations - which alternative organisation should he work for to achieve that objective?

You're shockingly incapable of being able to differentiate between the roles and accountabilities that exist within an organisation and a regulatory one at that. Why you feel compelled to paint every FIFA member with Infantino's brush is beyond me.

What corruption are you aware of that Wenger has personally overseen in his role as head of global development? We already cleared earlier that you don't actually know, so why you're determined to continue criticising him, I have no idea.

How does investing in grassroots infrastructure, building academies and coaching development programmes across the world be bullshit? How is that not a positive development?

I don't doubt that he maybe financially motivated - who the hell isn't - but again I suspect your expectations aren't aligning with reality. I love the man but I've never pedestalised him, but I've noted a lot of people going sour on him because they did.

awooga83

Claudius to me it boils down to if you say you believe and care about certain things but in your actions you don't represent them then don't come out with a statement saying you really do care about them. That's hypocritical and also totally dishonest. Maybe you do think about those things but if you're not willing to stand up for them when it might cost you something then you're words are worthless and you just like to say you care and you may as well shut up about those things because you're lying to yourself to make yourself seem better when your no different from all the rest.

Coombs

Claudius he could have helped run Common Goal or even started his own nonprofit to fund and consult with academies all over the world, with Mertesacker as executive director! Even I am not cynical enough to be believe that being organized is fundamentally unjust. Plenty of efforts out there to do real good in the world. Prominence often has an inverse correlation with impact. The most good one can do is often invisible to power and popular culture, anyway.

Burnwinter

Wenger said "I was not involved in this strategic plan and first became aware of the project through media reports."

That's quite a high risk statement as it's easily falsified.

He's the chief of football development so it makes sense he wouldn't have had much advance warning about FFE. Development would be a main concern of FIFA standing to lose out from the plan. I'm relatively cynical about Wenger and his politics and methods, but I'll never believe he doesn't care about football for football's sake.

The idea FIFA is already so corrupt it wouldn't get worse with this FFE proposal is laughable. The patient has cancer, so we might as well help it metastasise. We've just had a circus-like World Cup in which results, sanctions, match format, player availability were all publicly tampered with. The people pulling strings who want to license the next World Cup have dinner with the people who rigged and distorted aspects of this one.

awooga83

Burnwinter Yeah but the trajectory of FIFA has been trending this way everybody knows what this organisation is now. You may not know the exact bad thing they will do next but you can be sure they will do something bad you cannot plead ignorance on that. If you stay there you're indifferent to it you certainly aren't making things better.

I also say again if you claim integrity and transparency are something you value, does anyone believe that's FIFAs culture now? I would say not, in which case why are you talking about that when the organisation you work for clearly doesn't live you've values. It's like saying you are against how vulnerable people are exploited by companies and then working for an online bookies maybe I can change things from the inside, yeah good luck with that.

awooga83

Qwiss he's not making football better though ,FIFA does not do good for the game and it's been like that all the time he's been there. If you choose to work there you are supporting that organisation and all the ill that comes with it. If you see things are getting worse all your doing by being there is lending them credibility to do the bad things they've been doing.

What has Wenger done that's made football better from his time at FIFA out of interest?

I do find it interesting people cannot separate how Wenger did great things for Arsenal but can be someone who isn't doing good things now. I also don't understand why Arsenal fans feel the need to defend him he's not the club and has moved on. It's not dissimilar to the Klopp conference the other day where people were quite dismissive of his statement to the press about his family I have to wonder if people would be making the same case we've seen here if Arsene hadn't been the Arsenal manager.

Qwiss

awooga83 sorry if you don't understand why Arsenal fans aren't jumping on the hate bandwagon with Spurs, United, etc fans.

As Burns said Wenger has always had fairly questionable politics but this isn't an issue to turn on him over. I mean we are here supporting Arsenal and people have been praising the Kroenkes who tried to destroy English football and join a Super league a few years ago.

awooga83

Qwiss I do understand why Arsenal fans would take that stance. It's something all humans do to some extent when our biases are in play. It's an emotional response not a rational one based on the current information and that's why I'm saying it doesn't stack up in reality and if you acknowledge you would react differently if it was another manager from a different club that should really be a red flag about it all. I'm not denying what is pretty common human behaviour I'm just saying there is a lot of studies that people struggle to respond to this especially when they have pre configured ideas about a subject or person that will try to bend the facts to support what they want the outcome to be that conforms with that outlook, it's a very hard thing to counteract..

Wenger has left Arsenal no arsenal fan has to go into bat for him now because of what he did when he was at the club. When any individual is here and contributing I get it but once they are gone that's it you don't have to infinitely be loyal to what they do in future.

It's not turning on Wenger in saying FIFA is a deeply corrupt and negative influence on football, Wenger is part of that and so he's involved in furthering the damage that organisation is doing. If his defence is integrity and transparency are important in his view I call that bullshit because that organisation does not embody those values. Consequently if you stay in an organisation that is the polar opposite of what you say is important to you then I think it's reasonable to say you don't actually appear to care about those things and at the very least are indifferent. It's not an arsenal thing is somebody being part of a corrupt organisation. I would condemn that whoever it is.

Gurgen

Wenger was a big proponent of the plan to expand the number of teams in the World Cup and wants to have it every two years. In other words, he's fully on board with milking every last drop of money from football, despite what it does to players and the game itself..

Rohit

Some of this reads as if no decent person, moneyed or not, should willingly work for the one body that globally governs the game.

awooga83

Rohit if you are a public figure and make public statements about things you believe in that aren't consistent with what your doing you can work where the want but people can say your full of shit and you should probably not make those types of statements because they are dishonest.

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