Yes, Sepp Blatter is a clown... But he’s dangerous with it. Kick him out
By James Slack
Under his tenure, FIFA has proved itself impossibly corrupt and totally detached from the needs of the football-watching public.
How else do we view the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, a strict Arab state where temperatures can reach 50 degrees Celsius in the summer months?
In his latest controversy, Blatter has decided to share with the world his views on racist abuse on the field of play (an issue of great public interest, given the on-going investigations into England captain John Terry and the Liverpool forward Luis Suarez).
Asked whether he thought racism on the pitch was a problem, Blatter told CNN World Sport: ‘I would deny it. There is no racism.
‘There is no racism [on the field], but maybe there is a word or gesture that is not correct.’
Later, after claiming his comments had been ‘misunderstood’, he carried on digging his hole.
‘There is maybe one of the players towards another - he has a word or a gesture which is not the correct one.
‘But the one who is affected by that, he should say 'this is a game'. We are in a game, and at the end of the game, we shake hands, and this can happen, because we have worked so hard against racism and discrimination.’
His logic - and I find it extremely hard to apply such a word to the nonsense he so regularly spouts - seems to be along the lines of: what happens on the pitch, stays on the pitch. Shake hands and get on with it.
This is a maxim which can arguably be applied to the physical aspects of the game (but, and I stress this at the earliest moment, those alone).
In my day, I was a less than cultured, somewhat old-fashioned centre-back. I pulled shirts, kicked ankles, stood on toes, made the first tackle count etc. Inevitably, and deservedly, I got plenty of physical stick back. That sort of stuff does 'stay on the pitch'. I always shook hands at the end, and was never refused. When the whistle blew, all was done and dusted.
But the idea that Blatter should consider the trading of racist insults in the same way as the physical rough and tumble of the game is abhorrent and stupid beyond words.
Racism is not 'part of the game', or any other aspect of life for that matter, and giving even a hint that such behaviour is acceptable will only worsen a problem which, for all the dogged work of football's anti-racism campaigns, remains all too prevalent in some places.
Most importantly, what message is Blatter sending to spectators?
Do they argue: 'Yeah, we were hurling abuse, but we wouldn't do it outside the ground. We'd shake his hand. All part of the game. Didn't you hear the FIFA president say so?'
Some may be tempted to view Blatter as a buffoon. A man whose foot is never far from his mouth, and whose views are safely ignored.
But the fact is that he is the bureaucrat in charge of the biggest, best loved and most powerful sport in the world.
His demented ravings have the capacity to do great harm and should not be casually dismissed. Rather, the man himself should be removed from office - and fast.
