Harris rates FIFA World Cup a success

FIFA council member, CONCACAF Vice President and President of the Barbados Football Association, Randy Harris, has given high marks to the just concluded football World Cup Finals.

The largest ever edition of the event was staged at venues across the United States, Canada and Mexico and according to Harris, it was 99 per cent well organised.

“From an organisational standpoint FIFA knew exactly what they were doing, but before I go any further, let me say congratulations to Spain for winning their second World Cup. 

“I think it was well deserved and we saw some great football coming from them. I would reiterate that everything pretty much went according to plan and it was a successful World Cup,” he explained. 

The was the first edition of the World Cup which was expanded to 48 teams, with that decision being a subject of heavy debate in the build up. With a number of close games and upsets being recorded, the veteran administrator believes FIFA’s decision was eventually vindicated.

“When president Infantino made the suggestion to increase the number of teams to 48, there were many established football associations that did not agree with it. For a number of reasons, they said that the competition would not be of a high quality and that the World Cup would be too long.”

Harris continued, “But the thing is that FIFA wanted to give other member associations an opportunity to participate in the World Cup. One of the ways that it could be done, was to give the so-called lower member associations 

the opportunity to see what competition at that level would be like.”

The competitive nature of the tournament saw none of the co-hosts advancing to semifinals. It’s a display Harris described as disappointing.

“Apart from Mexico who really played well during the competition as usual, I don’t think Canada and the USA were really ready to go much further in the tournament.

“What I have noticed however is that a lot of Americans attended the games and there has been a lot of discussion about the sport in that country. I think that we’re going to see a bigger infusion of funds and more development for both the USA and Canada. 

Harris however said that overall, Concacaf officials were pleased that several teams from the region were able to qualify and in most cases, get past the first round. He’s also reiterated his call for more funding to be pumped into football in groups.

“From a personal point of view, I know that the Caribbean needs a lot of assistance in terms of development of the structures. By this I mean the clubs, the national associations and of course the technical aspect of the game,” Harris explained. He’s also called for more regional referees and officials to get involved in the sport.

“That is one area that we need to seriously work on. I think a big part of the problem is numbers, being able to procure more people interested in refereeing at any level.

“I can say that the opportunities for referees, making it all the way to both CONCACAF and FIFA is much easier than for the players.”

(KH)