Football and the Junta

Filipino fans that have caught the Azkals fever have been disappointed over the details of the coverage of the Philippine national team’s games in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup qualifiers, which kick off today in Rangoon.

The military junta’s regime in Myanmar – still Burma to pro-democracy activists – is known to be among the most restrictive in the world when it comes to the free flow of information. Local publications are monitored by a strict censors board, and rarely run news items beyond those in line with official government policy. Journalists who run afoul of the authorities are harassed and even jailed.

Internet access in the country is also heavily regulated, with the state filtering pro-democracy and opposition websites, as well as email and communication services; the OpenNet Initiative calls the censorship of the Internet in Burma among the most extensive compared to other countries in the world.

The restrictions apparently extend to sporting events in the country, as Pinoy football fans have found out. ABS-CBN, which has an agreement with the Philippine Football Federation for the rights to broadcast Azkals games, has encountered difficulty in hammering out a deal with Burma’s information ministry to carry a live feed of the games for Filipino fans. Several journalists who were looking to cover the game had their visa requests denied as well.

But problems involving the broadcast and reports of the games are minor compared to other issues surrounding the International Football Federation (FIFA) decision to award the hosting of the event to Burma – an odd choice considering the regime’s long record of repression and human rights abuses. Last week, FIFA president Sepp Blatter and secretary-general Jerome Valcke even visited the country to help promote the event at the invitation of Myanmar Football Federation (MFF) head Zaw Zaw, a Burmese businessman whose strong connections to the junta has landed him on United States and European Union sanction lists.

Critics have previously scored the federation for continuing to give the MFF an annual subsidy of $250,00, as well as funding several stadium renovation projects around the country over the last decade. Curiously, Zaw Zaw’s company won contracts to build international standard football stadiums and football academies that FIFA funded. Burmese opposition leader Khun Myint Tun has characterized the funding from the football federation as “adding to the massive system of corruption that feeds generals and their allies.”

FIFA insists that Blatter’s visit was not a political one, although a report by The Irrawaddy, a Burmese publication based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, says that diplomatic officials urged him to meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Instead, Blatter met with General Than Shwe, the head of the junta, as well as president-in-waiting Thein Sein.

And despite the Blatter’s supposed ‘all football/no politics’ focus, a senior Burmese official told the Irrawaddy that the regime recognizes the political benefit of the high-profile visit, which comes months after a November 7 election that was boycotted by the pro-democracy groups. “Meeting FIFA means we get international recognition,” said the senior official.

For his part, Blatter’s relationship with Zaw Zaw and the MFF fortifies his bid for reelection as president of FIFA. British journalist Andrew Jennings, author of Foul – The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals, told Mizzima.com, (another Burmese publication in exile, operating out of India), that the visit to Burma is just the latest leg of Blatter’s campaign tour. Jennings said that Blatter “is trying to split the Asian confederation because his expected challenger is from the Asian confederation.”

Last week’s visit and this week’s games only highlight the cozy relationship of the football organization to the regime, which seems to have discovered how to use football to continue its rule. Last December, a report in The Guardian alleged that according to Wikileaks cables, Than Shwe considered spending $1 billion to purchase the Manchester United football club only several months after cyclone Nargis devastated the country.

The general ended up deciding against the purchase, and instead put up a national football league in 2009. The regime encouraged businessmen to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to put up teams for the league, in exchange for lucrative government contract awards and exclusive import permits. The football league, according to the Wikileaks cables, was “a way to distract the populace from ongoing political and economic problems or to divert their attention from criticism of the upcoming 2010 elections.”