Spot on Sir

Howdy people,

After another frankly barmy week of football my favourite quote came from an unusual source. Unusual in the sense that I generally try and ignore anything Alex Ferguson says as it more often than not concerns myopic ideas of what referees should or shouldn’t do and little else.

But this time the Knight of the Realm who once got off a driving charge by using the excuse of having the shits, talked a whole heap of sense. His target? FIFA President, and all round slimeball, Sepp ‘How Tight Can We Get Those Hot Pants?’ Blatter (pictured above being the classy individual we’ve come to know and love)

“I think Sepp Blatter is in danger . . . or has reached a point now, where he is being mocked within the game … Whether he’s getting too old, I don’t know. But things can happen to people in power. Look at some of the despots in Africa.”

Not bad, but he wasn’t finished, “All I’m saying is that, from a position of great power, he has uttered so many ridiculous statements that he is in danger of seriously damaging his credibility.”

To be fair to Ferguson, he’s pretty much got this spot on. To a man like him, and indeed anyone with a bit of sense at all, a political schemer like Blatter must utterly disgust them. Thankfully, one person who Blatter wholeheartedly disgusts is investigative reporter Andrew Jennings, whose BBC documentary on Blatter in the run up to the 2006 World Cup was a window into the shady dealings of the Swiss-born backstabber supreme. His book – Foul: The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging and Ticket Scandals – goes several steps further though, and essentially is an astonishing 250-plus pages full of reasons why Blatter should not be where he is in life.

Originally released in 2006, I bought a newly published edition of the book recently and it’s a tale of rigged elections; bogus payments to officials; dipping into company funds; and appointing similar scumbags like Jack Warner into power. How this can be on general release and yet Blatter remains in his lofty position is amazing. Jennings’ stellar background can be viewed here, and he recently summed up his distaste for the FIFA supremo and others in power, saying:

“Every country in the world should stand up and say stinking fish. So what you’ve got is each continental confederation, we are in UEFA in Europe, now headed by Blatter’s friend and protégée, Platini, there is CONCACAF, covering North and Central America, Caribbean, Africa and Asia and so on. There are six confederations. Once you get to be a Confederation President, such as Jack Warner in CONCACAF, they are very happy, they are making good money in addition to the rackets. They can’t complain. They keep Blatter in power so that they can get rich. They give him the vote. It does make the Mafia look quite amateur… They are the Enrons of sport in that respect.

“So you have this pyramid at the top, and Herr Blatter says ‘I’m elected by the Parliaments of FIFA’, but at the FIFA Congress, you see all of the mice, 600, 700, in one room. They don’t even squeak. They have a wonderful lifestyle. It’s a very sad thing. The only way FIFA is going to get sorted out is by the investigators. Then Blatter will have to go. Sports should be doing this, but rather, they’ll turn to the investigating magistrate, the fraud squad, so that’s how you get Blatter out.”

Give it a bash if you see it in shops. To be honest, and this will tell you plenty, John Delaney looks like one of the more capable and trustworthy football administrators out there after reading this. Now there’s a horrifying thought.

*******************************

Right, after that blast of ‘deep’ thinking, myself or Mark will be back with some Champions League countdown action tomorrow.

Later, JJ