FIFA restore order — of the boot

AT least for moment, I’ve had my faltering faith partly restored in the ability of football authorities to take stern action when failure to do so would amount to dereliction of duty.

Firstly, FIFA finally put a well overdue boot into Turkey. With the exception of my trip to Istanbul last May, when no local team was involved, every single Turkish visa in my passport signifies 'trouble'.

Overwhelmingly, Turks are a wonderfully friendly people until you throw football into the mix.

The violence, from players as well as fans, that accompanied Turkey's World Cup qualifying play-off against Switzerland proved too serious to ignore their next six home games are to be played at neutral venues, without fans, and there have been heavy suspensions and fines. Cheers!

Then, while I was in Cairo for the African Cup of Nations, something else extraordinary happened. Spurs's Egyptian striker Mido indulged in the most boorish behaviour I've ever witnessed.

At 1-1 in the semi-final against Senegal, Mido was substituted. Not before time. He'd been awful. Now no one likes to be taken off, especially someone who'd described himself as the "big man" in the tournament. He scowled at the coach, pointing to his eyes "Do you need glasses? Do you know what you're doing?"

Mido confronted the coach, Shehata, calling him a 'donkey' a terrible Muslim insult as he finally left the pitch and had to be physically restrained from going further. It was appalling and I took great delight in describing how Mido's substitute, Amr Zaki, headed Egypt's winner with his first touch of the ball.

Such is Mido's status within Egypt, particularly protected by his relationship with President Mubarak and his family, I feared he'd receive a light tap on the wrist and be restored to the team for the final against Ivory Coast.

Not a bit of it. The Egyptian FA threw him out of the squad and banned Mido from international football for the next six months. He wasn't even on the bench on Friday.

It's a shame that, such is Mubarak's influence, Mido was allowed to collect his winner's medal and was warmly embraced by the President afterwards. I suppose any friend of the President's son in Egypt can do what he likes.

But, thank goodness, the Egyptian FA had already made a thunderous point.

It's a shame, too, that I left the country relieved that Egypt hadn't received a single vote in their bid to stage the World Cup in 2010.

The organisation of the Cup of Nations was a shambles and it's the Egyptians who assumed the overwhelming responsibility for that since CAF, African football's governing body, seem happy to take television's money and sit back doing little else.

It would take many columns to list all that went wrong. A few details surrounding the final should suffice to give you the picture. Everyone had to be in the stadium FOUR hours before kick-off because of the 'security' required by Mubarak's attendance. The game kicked off late because he wasn't in his seat.

Everyone, fans and media, had to walk through metal detectors; everyone 'bleeped'; every bleep was ignored. All mobile phones in the media area were confiscated. Someone said they were a security threat to the President. Many more people were allowed into the ground than the capacity.

Aisles were blocked, an obvious safety hazard that FIFA picked up on.

Heaven help us if South Africa is like this in four years' time.