Wednesday, 8 October 2025

 

Canada’s North American leadership

With the leader of the state on Canada’s southern border continuing tawdry and vulgar exhibitionism the 2026 World Cup of football aka soccer presents a rare opportunity for Canada’s social state economy to emphasize its defining distinctness to the world. Many who visit will be unaware of the country’s third party, bilingualism, indigenous constitutionality and defining cooperative tradition. TorontotheBetter invites all to join us in their celebration. There is a progressive North America and the Canada of TorontotheBetter is it. 


Monday, 6 October 2025

 

FIFA President Infantino on Israel exclusion and better world consequences

uefa FIFA

Responding to calls for the exclusion of Israel from official competitions FIFA president on October 2 in summary the FIFA president said that football is about unity and togetherness. A  worthy sentiment but it does not absolve football officials from addressing the specific contradictions that occur when their participant bodies engage in homicidal projects against other participants. Infantino’s response comes after a 2022 decision of UEFA, the European Football Association, to ban Russia from their competitions after its invasion of Ukraine. Clearly some actions appear worse than others to different bodies. The best "better world" response of associated bodies like FIFA and UEFA is to openly acknowledge their ethical challenges and try to explain the contradictions with their core values. Observers can then take informed action. Protest without outright exclusion can be a legitimate position but it is not the only one. FIFA could and can state and decry member countries’ hypocrisy when they violate professed values, without excluding them from competition. The core decision issue is what impact exclusion or inclusion is likely to have on preventing further bloodshed and inhumanity. 


Friday, 3 October 2025

 

Gaza war raises FIFA questions
















Turkiye, the Turkish Football/Federation soccer governing body, has called on the suspension of Israel from all official matches under the auspices of world governing body FIFA .It is the first FIFA member to do so and raises questions about the operation of the 2026 World Cup tournament, where Canada, as co-host, will compete in games at BMO field in downtown Toronto. How will FIFA respond? On this question much will depend. The fiction of a sports/politics separation must be laid to rest. An end to the war must be achieved before games can continue as originally planned. With FIFA under the cloud of its choice of 2022 host Qatar and its leaders' previous financial scandals the form and oversight of the sport's governing body needs a radical review. Its elitist history is overdue replacement by a representative structure better suited to what is called "the people's game".
       

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