joseph blatter

Soccer: FIFA’s Sepp Blatter and corruption in high places

Português: Joseph Blatter, da Fifa, fala à imprensa após audiência com o presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, no Palácio do Planalto (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sepp Blatter has resigned.

The FIFA boss quit—perhaps—in anticipation of charges being filed against him by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The man—apparently—knows when the going is good.

Is this a victory for sports enthusiasts everywhere? For sportspersons? For anti-graft activists? For the UEFA?

The European body considered boycotting the  2018 World Cup in Russia; they managed to rope in a few South American nations as well.

All said and done, whatever the reasons, the news comes a breath of fresh air in the pungent, acrid atmosphere of world sports administration.

India is no stranger to corruption in sporting high places.

Suresh Kalmadi and N Srinivasan are names that roll off the tip of one’s tongue.

Is it time that sports administration became bodies for sportspersons, of sportspersons, by sportspersons?

Most budding sportsstars are now trained from an early age how to handle the media and their intrusions and inane quibbles. Is it too much to expect the sports academies of now and the future to also train them in sports administration and its intricacies?

Is this an utopian concept?

There are no difficult answers. Just difficult questions.

English: FBI agents from the Washington Field Office with one of the tactical vehicles they had standing by for the 2009 Presidential Inauguration (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sepp Blatter: What he said, really meant and definitely did not

Sepp Blatter Intends to Shake The Apple Tree, Long and Hard

What he said:

"It takes time to shake the tree until all bad apples have fallen to the ground.”

FIFA chief, Sepp Blatter, promises to clean up soccer’s governing body in an open letter addressed to the readers of “Inside World Football”.

Blatter recently ordered the reopening of the ISL case where it is alleged that FIFA and Olympic officials accepted kickbacks on marketing contracts.

The FIFA boss was re-elected President unopposed when Bin Hammam was provisionally suspended by FIFA’s ethics committee in June this year.

This is Blatter’s fourth consecutive term at the helm of international football.

Blatter wrote:

It would be disingenuous of me not to acknowledge reality, and the fact that we have been fighting an uphill struggle to calm nerves, initiate urgently needed reforms and at the same time adhere to a sense of reason during the stormiest of times.
FIFA’s last 100 days were among the most difficult in it’s over 100-year history.

Blatter added:

“It takes time to shake the tree until all bad apples have fallen to the ground. Even if some of them refuse to fall at first.”

Blatter concluded, saying:

In brief: I have initiated relevant and powerful change without "ifs" and "whens".
FIFA remains committed to walking the walk and won’t get stuck in solely talking the talk. By December, this will become clear for all to see. Until then, I invite everybody to bear with us so that we can clean house and come back to the public with facts that allow FIFA to enter a new decade of doing business. And never again revert to doing "business as usual".

What he really meant:

“It seems some bad apples are coated with super-glue. We’ll have to shake very hard and long.”

What he definitely didn’t:

“Am I not the apple of your eye? The largest and the tastiest.”