The Ryan Giggs Manifesto

How to rebuild the FIFA brand and win the hearts of billions of people

Ryan Giggs; the greatest player of my generation not to appear in a World Cup. As a fan of the game, I feel cheated not to have seen him on this platform. Don’t you?

I also feel for the rest of the world, those nations who are only exposed to global football via the world cup; they missed seeing one of the greats.

There are some nations in the middle — they get exposure to global football because they have the occasional star playing abroad. It is a matter of significant national pride and interest for these footballing-poor nations to follow their players abroad as they take part in important leagues and competitions. Probably a difficult concept for most to understand unless they’ve traveled to these nations or follow their media coverage online. The bad news is, 75% of these countries are highly unlikely to ever qualify for a World Cup.

My corruption reform proposal:

For every world cup, a “Team FIFA” would be created and made up with players from nations who failed to qualify. As long as the player is eligible, fit, and from a member country, they can be selected. This Team FIFA would enter the World Cup just as any other national team and compete for the trophy.

Of the 23 roster spots for selection, 6 would be put up for sale to the highest bidder. Same goes for team sponsorship and various other marketing rights. The LEGAL proceeds of the bids fund the expenses of the team, and any excess could go to a worthwhile cause as a FIFA donation.

A win-win for the special interests, for FIFA, for the players and for the billions of fans from football-poor nations who would otherwise be left on the outside looking in — the 64% of member nations who have never qualified for a World Cup, the 11% who have only qualified once.

So back to Giggs… looking back at the 1998 World Cup, here’s what Team FIFA might have looked like:

Weah
Giggs, Poyet, Figo, Solano
Keane
Kuffour, Couto, Alpay, Irwin
Cech (haha)

Other notables: Recoba, Poborsky, Jarolim, Larrson, Wanchope, Ljunberg, Karpin, Etcheverry.

Some potential rules on selection: no player can be selected more than once; no country can have more than two players; players must have participated in qualifiers; paid selections not guaranteed play time. Perhaps if player has already been to the world cup with their national team they are not eligible — but then my proposed ’98 roster would need edits, so I’ll leave as is — the latter would also rule this out as an insurance option should a star like Ronaldo miss qualification via Portugal.

If you’ve read this far, I’d like to express my gratitude for your taking the time. I’d also love to hear your thoughts on the idea, what your selections might have been for a favorite era, and additional rules you might apply. If you are from FIFA, I am available to outline the logistics in significant detail and of course, to head up the selection committee for 2018 Team FIFA.