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| Fifa President has to clean-up his mess before deciding to leave |
Living in Blatter-land
World football governing body, Fifa's President Sepp Blatter has been under the spotlight for the second consecutive week and again for all the wrong reasons. Last week he banned British isle national sides from wearing a poppy branding the flower "political" but this time around, on countless interviews with major broadcasting companies yesterday, he controversially said that "there is no racism in football" and if racism occurred in a match, then players involved must handshake at the end of the game.
This has sparked anger across the world of football including hierarchies of the English Professional Football Association (PFA), football players such as Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand and pundits alike. After hearing those comments by Blatter, people such as myself would bang our heads on brick walls. Today, the 75-year-old went to clarify his previous afternoon comments to Fox Soccer TV by saying "I'm not saying about discrimination but foul language, foul play. If you have foul play [when] the match is over you shake hands".
I have to start before analysing these quotes by saying I have never been racially discriminated and I'm one of many, many people worldwide who realises this ongoing calamity must be stopped for good although, it's unfortunately impossible for racism as a whole to be abolished. In my previous blog posts about the Swiss I feel I've been a little light on Blatter. He has been involved in too much controversial moments since England lost their 2018 World Cup bid last year. Living in the UK, you can only imagine how much criticism both Blatter and Fifa have received here in the past twelve months. The rest of Europe haven't given the organisation or their leader as much stick but in a sense, British media have brainwashed the public so they would perceive this man as the most evil person God has ever created.
These comments made by Blatter in the last 24 hours have been very much short sighted on his perspective and to be honest, I wish I was living in his world. I wished I was living in a world where I thought there was no racism, or problems of any sort with football on-and-off the pitch but in reality, there are issues. In the UK, for example Liverpool striker Luis Suarez has been charged for exchanging racial remarks with Manchester United full back, Patrice Evra. The accused has denied claims but punishment is unclear. In addition, Chelsea captain John Terry and QPR's Anton Ferdinand are under Metropolitan Police investigations over both players clashed when their teams faced each other at Loftus Road. Blatter's comments have come at the worst possible time.
The "R" word
As I've mentioned before, Blatter gets a lot of coverage in Britain and today a lot of English league managers such as Martin Jol of Fulham, Chris Hughton (Birmingham coach) et al says the Swiss has to resign from his role as Fifa President. Should resigning be the right thing to do though? He has been allegedly involved in corruption cases which he has announced to clamp down on those who were involved with bribery in the past. By March we are to be given early indications to revealing the culprits. Mohammed Bin Hammam has so far been one of several people who've been named, shamed, and banned from Fifa for life - could Blatter be the next casualty?
Regardless, although I think Sepp Blatter has to leave Fifa at some point, leaving now would make things at Zurich much worse than it is today. I recall myself rejoicing in 2007 when it was announced Tony Blair was to resign as Britain's Prime Minister after the mess he put us in taking us to Afghanistan and Iraq unnecessarily - now look where we are now. Gordon Brown couldn't take Britain to its firm ground and David Cameron isn't finding solutions to reducing the sky-high unemployment rates and the current debt is frightening. Now, imagine if Tony Blair stayed as PM until the general election in 2010, would he have tidied the mess he has potentially started? It's unsure but in Blatter's case, I'm getting cautious of Fifa's future. For example, Blatter has left a black cloud over the future of Fifa and if he resigns now, his successor would have to clean up his mess and may fail - so that person would get even more stick.
The current situation in Fifa is tough and complicated and I really hope Blatter does sort things out and this March announcement does show the real "bad guys" of Fifa. If Blatter is one of them, then in March I think would be the best time to quit - not now, leaving before new year would make situations in Fifa worse.
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