Blatter's blather begs the question, should he stay or go?

TONY SMITH

Last updated 05:00 01/06/2011

 

OPINION: Little Jack Warner,
Skulked in the corner,
Eating a Fifa pie,
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a bung,
And said, `what a rich boy am I'.
`I'll ring Mohammed in Doha
To stump up some koha
We'll cause some real clatter
and batter silly Sepp Blatter
and score some votes of our own

By the close of play tonight Sepp Blatter could be installed in his fourth term as Fifa president.
One of the most powerful men in world sport was set to be re-elected unopposed at the Fifa congress. The New Zealand Football (NZF) delegates planned to vote for Blatter and the 11-member Oceania confederation have also promised him their backing. But they should think again in light of Blatter's blather and his head-in-the-sand stance this week. He is being rightly pilloried and parodied for his risible reaction after Fifa executive members Jack Warner and Mohammed Bin Hammam were suspended for allegedly attempting to buy votes for Hammam, Blatter's presidential rival.

"Crisis? What is a crisis? Football is not in a crisis. We are only in some difficulties, and the difficulties will be solved within the football family," Blatter said in Zurich.
Only some difficulties? Imagine if the mayor of Joplin clambered out of his cyclone cellar and declared that the devastating tornado was "just a breeze" and it was "business as usual" in the battered Missouri town.
Nine of Fifa's 24-man executive committee have faced corruption allegations in the past seven months. Former Oceania Football Confederation chairman Reynauld Temarii and Nigeria's Amos Adamu were suspended late last year after allegedly asking for cash sweeteners for projects in their regions from countries bidding to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals.

Doesn't that all add up to the crisis of confidence in the rulers of the game? The Guardian's Football Unlimited website reported yesterday that "Blatter Out" was Twitter's second most popular thread. Clearly, the sport's supporters want heads to roll.

Blatter talks about the football "family" as if they were the Waltons rather than the Simpsons. So let's see if any of Sepp's 208 "kids" (the constituent national associations) have the courage to rise up from the table in Zurich tonight and challenge "dad" and insist that things change.
President since 1998, Blatter will argue he has been cleared of wrongdoing by a handpicked "independent" committee chaired by a Namibian judge. But he's the man in charge and must take responsibility for the mess.

It's as inevitable that Blatter will be re-elected unopposed for a fourth term. But the support is unlikely to be unanimous – and nor should it be. Many Asian Football Confederation (AFC) nations may well oppose him as a show of support for Hammam, their president. But national associations cast their own rather than confederations voting en bloc. Will Australia, for example, take the same stand as Qatar? 

 

England's Football Association plans to abstain – in an apparent fit of pique at missing out to Russia on the 2018 World Cup finals. Guardian columnist David Conn claimed the FA's stance smacked of "spinelessness and hypocrisy".

New Zealand football administrators may be loath to follow suit on the basis of precedence. Remember the furore after New Zealand's last Fifa executive committee member, the late Charlie Dempsey, did just that in 2000 and cost South Africa the chance to host the 2006 World Cup finals?
But abstaining – or voting "no" in the presidential election would send a signal that national associations want to see Fifa clean up its act.

The "football family" should insist on a high-level commission of inquiry chaired by someone of real diplomatic clout, like former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan perhaps, and assisted by eminent figures from within football such as Germany's Franz Beckenbauer, who led the organising committee which staged the 2006 World Cup finals.

If Blatter really cares for the game, he should also announce he will quit after this term and pledge to go out as a reforming president. He must usher in a system where lurks, perks and backhanders are removed from the football landscape.

As a 76-year-old Swiss, Blatter is unlikely to be a fan of British punk band, The Clash. But he should listen real hard in the next day or two to their 1982 hit, Should I Stay Or Should I Go.
As a World Cup goalkeeper, NZF chairman Frank van Hattum was generally brave enough to dive at a forward's flashing feet. Will he show the same courage as an administrator and send a signal to Blatter that the Fifa football snafu will no longer be tolerated?
- The Press

My Reply

TONY SMITH...LITTLE JACK WARNER SAT IN THE CORNER COUNTING SOMEONE ELSE'S MONEY...JACK BE NIMBLE JACK NOT SO QUICK...IT WAS SEPP WHO JUMPED OVER THE...CANDLESTICK AND WON!
"to stump up some koha" Are you Maori, TONY or Just a SMART ARSE!

PRICK!