Venezuela: A feel-good story

25 September 2009

by Jerrad Peters

 

Venezuela's 1-0 win over Nigeria in the ongoing FIFA U-20 World Cup got me thinking: there are a lot of places around the world where football is booming. Unexpected places. Places like Uzbekistan, North Korea, Burkina Faso and Venezuela. I'll be writing a column about it in next Saturday's Winnipeg Free Press. But for now—inspired by their win—I'd like to go on a bit about Venezuela.

One of the holdovers from their fourth-place entry in January's South American Youth Championship, Jonathan Del Valle scored the only goal of Venezuela's win over Nigeria on Friday. It was quite an enterprising match, with the two sides combining for 25 attempts at goal.

Del Valle, 19, scored twice in the South American Youth Championship as well and formed an effective striking tandem with Jose Salomon Rondon—one of the country's top prospects. Angelo Pena and Pablo Camacho could fit into that category as well. Pena—a versatile midfielder for Portuguese side Braga—has already made five appearances for Venezuela's senior side while Camacho—the right-back—is currently on loan at Espanyol from FC Caracas.

These four players, as well as Udinese goalkeeper Rafael Romo and captain Francisco Flores, took Venezuela to their surprising finish in January, where they beat Columbia and Uruguay and drew Argentina to book their place in the Youth World Cup. I think they'll surprise a few people in Egypt. They might even win it all.

I'm also encouraged by the form of their senior national team. With two matches remaining in World Cup qualifying—against Pararguay and Brazil—they are just one point back of Argentina and a berth in the playoff round. They're only two points back of Ecuador and a ticket to South Africa.

If they get there, it will be their first appearance in a World Cup finals. As a matter of fact, they've finished dead last in their qualifying bracket in each quadrennial, with the exception of 2002 and 2006, when they finished ninth and eighth out of ten, respetively.

Considering the implosion of Peru's national setup and the recent setbacks in Bolivia, Venezuela are currently the feel-good story of South America. And if you can't get behind the politics of president Hugo Chavez, hopefully you can at least support their football team. They might make it worth your while.

Another bone to pick with FIFA

When FIFA handed Chelsea a transfer ban for the illegal dealings regarding Gael Kakuta, I was shocked. Not only, I reasoned, was the governing body taking a stand against one of world football's biggest clubs, they were also preparing for the inundation of similar allegations that would quite obviously surface in the days following. They had taken positive steps toward fixing a serious problem. But I was only half right.

Turns out they held firm on the Chelsea embargo, throwing the Blues under the bus while taking credit for taking action, thumping their chests and acting tough. But as soon as additional claims of illegal transfers surfaced, they didn't seem to have the stomach for staying the course. General secretary Jerome Valke admitted that FIFA hadn't been prepared for the bombardment of potential cases. "Everyone is coming with lawyers," he said. "And then it takes years, at least months, to finalize cases."

You think? What did you expect? That nobody would notice? That the Chelsea case would be a one-off?

The slightest morsel of common sense would have had FIFA undergo some serious legal preparations before proceeding to tackle the illegal transfer issue. They would have had their own lawyers in a row, waiting for the onslaught of work, and an additional file of similar cases to investigate. Nothing about the fallout from the Chelsea embargo should have been surprising to FIFA. That is was is indicative of their incompetence and utter lack of sense of the sport they claim to govern.