MOVIE MUSIC UK

Original Review by Jonathan Broxton

Those of you who know me will know that, in addition to film music, one of the greatest loves of my life is the sport which Americans insist on calling soccer, but which most of the rest of the world calls football. I have been a fan of the beautiful game since I was a small boy, and have followed the fortunes of my club team, Sheffield Wednesday, and the English national team for more than 30 years. Globally, the sport is run by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, better known by its acronym FIFA, and unless you have been living under a rock recently, you will know all about the allegations regarding FIFA and charges of corruption, bribery, and alleged vote-rigging, in relation to the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, amongst other things. It has been common knowledge amongst well-informed football fans for years that FIFA is corrupt – in fact, saying that FIFA is corrupt is an understatement akin to saying that Adolf Hitler was a bit disagreeable – and even people who love the sport agree that things need to change significantly. The man currently in charge of FIFA is a Swiss hobgoblin named Sepp Blatter, who has a persona that is basically one step away from ‘Bond villain’. You almost expect to find him in his office in Zürich, stroking a white cat and dropping people into a tank full of sharks. Thankfully, in the wake of these recent issues, Blatter is on his way out of the door, and reform seems to be imminent, but for years and years Blatter and FIFA insisted that they were squeaky clean, incorruptible and innocent, and one of the ways they went about proving this was to co-produce a dramatic film all about the foundation of FIFA, the creation of the World Cup, and all the good stuff it does in the world today. Yes, seriously. In a delicious touch of irony, the film – which is called United Passions – opened in cinemas in the United States on June 5th 2015, around a week after the scandal broke, and it grossed a staggering $607 over its opening weekend. Not $607,000 – six hundred and seven. And they say the American public has no taste. Read more…