大象传媒

Blatter's legacy is already confirmed. And it ain't a good one!

What might be more shattering for all football authorities is the Sion court case saga.

Blatter is a joke, as is FIFA. Times are a changing....we hope!!!

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If Blatter really means what he says, it`s just one step into the right direction. If not, the swiss court should release the papers and stop protecting FIFA.

A complete overhaul of the FIFA structures is overdue. FIFA is based on the federations only, but football has moved one. Big clubs, supporters, women football, coaches, youth football, referees must be represented as well and have a say how the game is run, where the World Cup`s will be hosted, rule changes etc.

Is Blatter willing to implement real changes or just doing a litte bits to silence his critics? It started to go wrong before he became president, but as the former FIFA secretary he knew when and what started to go wrong.

Difficult to see it happen in the very near future. Too much self interest from certain members named in this blog and their allies.

Blatter's legacy is confirmed already - he's a joke and FIFA is a joke with him at the helm (maybe even without him).

He talks a good game but with all that power has done absolutely nothing positive in my eyes.

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@1,4 &5: All absolutely spot on and I expect this has set the tone.

It was under Blatter's watch that all this corruption took place. He has created an organisation that is rotten to the core and elevated the 'begging bowl' mentality of bidding for major tournaments, where the money stakes are now huge, to a level that casts himself and other FIFA executives in the roll of king makers. So much so, in fact, that royalty, presidents and prime ministers are rolled-out to pander and act as sycophants to these self-serving narcissists.

Nobody has enjoyed this or milked it more than Blatter who has also set-up the succession and concession formula so that he controls all the main players.

For months now Blatter's every move is that of a man trying to protect his own back and prevent himself from being linked to the dirty deeds that have unfolded, both known and, undoubtedly, also unknown at this point.

His legacy is already cast in stone and I have yet to meet a single fan who has anything other than the lowest opinion of the man.

Even if Blatter is serious, it will be a miracle if the rest of the exec comittee go along with this, it removes a lot of their power.

We will all know in a couple of days anyhow so speculation at this point is a bit of a waste of time, lets wait and see.

One last thing though, as pointed out it is his last term. This means if he wants a legacy other than the tainted one of now he needs to do this. Nothing to lose and everything to gain really.

The horse has bolted, raised a family, and retired to the Bahamas.

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So criticising the standard of journalism by the 大象传媒's Sports Editor will see a comment removed, it's great to know just how much freedom of expression you're allowed at the 大象传媒.

The general consensus in the UK I feel is very anti-FIFA in terms of mismanagement, corruption and being completely unable to 'move the game forward' appropriately. I would be interested to see if other nations shared our view or is it one exacerbated by the World Cup decision-making debacle?

I believe that FIFA is in desperate need of re-organisation, similarly our own FA; those in power appear to be losing sight of what makes football the the much-loved game it is.

#16 thoughfulphil

I don't think the majority of people on here, (or on the street?) had their opinion of Blatter of FIFA particularly changed by the World Cup issue.

I think doubts about the whole shebang were in place long ago. Decisions like the one about Qatar (though I have some sympathy with that choice) only serve to reinforce people's suspicions about motives etc

@15.At 12:29 20th Oct 2011, thoughtfulphil wrote:

I'm Irish, living in Australia, so I can tell you that fans in both those countries are very anti FIFA and Blatter. OK, you can argue that both may have an axe to grind (although with Ireland it may be more with UEFA) but that said I don't believe that fans hanker on single incidents in forming their view, generally speaking.

But if you extend that, many other countries also have greviances of one type or another. Fans in the UK may rightly feel agreived over the WC bid but the list of misdemeanours goes way beyond that and I don't think the UK view misrepresents general opinion worldwide.

If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck then it probably is a duck. I don't think you need to pecked on the hand to be convinced.

@2.At 11:43 20th Oct 2011, Rob04 wrote:

"What might be more shattering for all football authorities is the Sion court case saga."

Is that not a UEFA Issue?

FIFA has been unwilling to tackle any politically charged subject and seems to care solely about the financial side of the game. Some good has been done no doubt, however, the reality is that these are a group of self-serving individuals first where the love of the game is a distant second or worse.

Stop press:

Blatter will this week issue an edict to his members with one simple ethical message:

"STOP GETTING CAUGHT"

Another article about FIFA on the 大象传媒? Are the English still so bitter about losing the World Cup that they have to dredge through every single move that FIFA makes just so they can keep this in the public spotlight?

I don鈥檛 see the press in any other country constantly harping on about this.

Let it go鈥�

"a sport awash with money but lacking in principle so desperately needs"

Those are direct comments from this blogger and that is why nothing will ever change in football.

Have the Bankers changed their ways ?

Football the sport is DEAD and has been for 20 years. You could change the Monty Python sketch about the Dead Parrot and insert a football because it is just as inert.

RIP

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@22 France 98 was a brilliant world cup, whereas Italia 90 was memorable but quite dull. Euro 96, Euro 2000 and Euro 2008 have all been fantastic tournaments. The format has changed for the better - the attitudes of the overpaid players unfortunately hasn't

All this user's posts have been removed.Why?

"21.
At 13:04 20th Oct 2011, It wasnt me A big boy did it and ran away wrote:

Another article about FIFA on the 大象传媒? Are the English still so bitter about losing the World Cup that they have to dredge through every single move that FIFA makes just so they can keep this in the public spotlight?

I don鈥檛 see the press in any other country constantly harping on about this."

Go on to Google news and type in "sepp blatter". You will see plenty.

Unless by "other country" you mean Scotland? Well they don't usually trouble international tournaments so have little contact with FIFA ;)

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@26.At 13:33 20th Oct 2011, Nick wrote:

"Go on to Google news and type in "sepp blatter". You will see plenty."

OK, I did it. Let me see, there is a couple in The Guardian, an article in insideworldfootball, one on Sky News, one in The Metro. Oh wait a minute, there is one in Pakistan!

Get over it. You lost hosting The World Cup. Oh dear, how sad, never mind. Can we move on now?

Add your comment
Living in East Africa, we see corruption all around us and can recognise sycophants and how they operate; in FIFA's case technocrats who were able to jump on the football bandwagon, hijacked the game and got fat in the process.difficult to prise them away from their cushy positions. So a local view of England's failed 2018 bid is easy: we understand that the main reason that England did not get the 2018 WC is because ALL YOUR STADIA ARE ALREADY BUILT!!! The English bid foolishly thought that as they could stage the WC tomorrow if need be, they were the leading option. Foolish thinking: if no stadiums need to be constructed, where would the river of kick-backs flow from???

@18 - It has become a UEFA issue after they followed FIFA's transfer ban.

Football is a mess. Too many people who are business men and have no idea about the game - the same at FIFA as at the FA. It will never change as the football authorities are always run by the same people, the right school tie or a wad full of cash.

#16 and #17 I too have shared a dislike of Blatter and what he stands for for a while. What I don't understand is, if there is such a global dislike of the man who leads football's governing body, is there not a 'bottom-up' approach that can be taken by the relevant country's authorities in an attempt to oust him?

@21. I am English, but spent along time in Scotland. It was a pity England didn't get the world cup, but given the evidence presented above, don't you think that level of corruption should be investigated? Or are you happy to let corruption go unchecked?
My experiences of life in Scotland is that the fans there constantly harp on about English bias on the 大象传媒. Why can't they just support their team and not be so bitter about how the English are represented by the media (to use your argument)? Having listened to scottish commentary on "Battle of Britain" Champions league games, I can tell you that the Scottish bias is more intense for the scots commentary team!

@32.At 14:22 20th Oct 2011, Paul Curtis wrote:

"Why can't they just support their team and not be so bitter about how the English are represented by the media (to use your argument)?"

Where did I mention Scotland? What argument did I make? English/Scottish/British - I don't care. You did not get the world cup and ever since then your media have jumped on every single story or even non-story whenever there is a criticism that can be levelled at FIFA. Stories such as this would barely be given a mention prior to this.

I couldn鈥檛 care less how the Scottish regard the English and vies versa.

"vice versa"

28. At 13:57 20th Oct 2011, It wasnt me A big boy did it and ran away wrote:
@26.At 13:33 20th Oct 2011, Nick wrote:

"Go on to Google news and type in "sepp blatter". You will see plenty."

OK, I did it. Let me see, there is a couple in The Guardian, an article in insideworldfootball, one on Sky News, one in The Metro. Oh wait a minute, there is one in Pakistan!

Get over it. You lost hosting The World Cup. Oh dear, how sad, never mind. Can we move on now?

------------------------------------------------------

Not until Blatter is gone and the endemic nepotism and corruption within FIFA is fully exposed for the world to see. This was never about the World Cup bid - the vast majority of English football fans knew what Blatter was before that happened.

The English media will dig, and dig, and dig. They will not go away. They never do.

And as for global links about Blatter...







Believe me...it's not just the English who see Blatter (and FIFA to a certain degree, though it does do some sterling work) in this light.

Sighs and shakes his head. If you use Google UK to search news items then you will get lots of British related new stories. Try Google.de or wherever and you'll get all the news stories abour Mr Blatter in those countries.

@33 Can you give an example of a non-story they have jumped on? I regard widespread corruption in international companies as a pretty big story to be honest.

You may not care about the whole English/Scottish thing (I assumed you were Scottish given the username (a novel by C Brookmyre) - I should not have assumed, you are right), but you obviously do care about this story.

I believe there are numerous example of the 大象传媒 reporting FIFa corruption before England WC failure. To help, I have provided one example to back up what I claim:

@It wasnt me A big boy did it and ran away
Your 'arguement' claiming that basically it's just sour grapes that makes English people hate FIFA and how it runs/ruins football, is just as invalid as claiming that wanting goal-line technology would be sour grapes, because of Lampards 'goal' in SA, or wanting a proper change in banking regualtions is just sour grapes for investing in RBS, Northern Rock etc.
When something is clearly rotten to the core, sensible people want to see changes, only the blinkered or those with a vested interest want to retain the status quo.

While I agree that this particular article is a total non-story, the fact remains that FIFA is as shady an organisation as there is and giving the WC to Qatar in 2022 is just one measure of this, but as an Englishman, clearly it must be sour grapes (sarcam, incase you couldn't spot it), even though I think that Russia 'deserved' to host the 2018 cup just as much as we did.

Blatter, Platini, everyone around FIFA/UEFA are corrupt to the core. How they can dismiss goal-line tech' despite the problems it's caused, how they can make Bussaca the head of referee's after the RVP fiasco!

It's disgusting. We need more Brit's in FIFA/UEFA.

Here's a article I read, as good as David's (so David, check it out too!) It's a few months old but it hits more key points.



Smithy.

@37.At 14:49 20th Oct 2011, Paul Curtis wrote:

"Can you give an example of a non-story"

How about this very article?

@38.At 14:51 20th Oct 2011, ReallyReal wrote:

What does this article have to do with goal-line technology or the banking crisis? I think your sour grapes have clouded your judgement.

@40
"Having overseen the biggest crisis in Fifa's history, Sepp Blatter knows the next two days could well shape his legacy after 13 years at the top of world football."

You don't see anything worth commenting on here? Given how important football is to many 大象传媒 Sport users? I think the reporters have an obligation to comment on this event given how big an impact the outcomes could have. If you forget your whole conspiracy that this is sour grapes for a minute (an argument blown out of the water by searching for older bbc reports on FIFA corruption), do you honestly think a sports media site should let all this pass under the radar without comment?

@39.At 14:51 20th Oct 2011, SteveSmith99 wrote:

"how they can make Bussaca the head of referee's after the RVP fiasco"

What fiasco is this? Do you mean when he gave Van Persie a second yellow card for petulantly kicking the ball away after the whistle had blown. I think you will find that is a yellow card offence under the current rules of the game and as a professional player, he should have known that. Are you saying that the guy should not get a job because he made a decision that you disagree with?

"It's disgusting. We need more Brit's in FIFA/UEFA."

How would that make things more fair (except with the possibility that you might get some favouritism)? You do you feel you are missing out on your piece of the pie? I suppose if you can鈥檛 beat them, then join them eh.

@28: if you do a search on google.co.uk, you'll get UK hits. If you do it on another google site, you'll get very different hits. If I search on "google.com" (enter "www.google.com/ncr" as the URL in your browser), the first hit is from the Times of India. The Guardian also makes an appearance, as does Sky, but others include the Trinidad Guardian and Pakistan Today.

There are also links to the Washington Post and Seattle Today.

Remember that google weights its searches geographically; you'll get totally different results on google.de or google.fr.

@42.At 15:10 20th Oct 2011, Paul Curtis wrote:

This is a non-story. There 'might' be a story in two day when Sepp Blatter actually announces what (if anything) he is going to do.

To back this up:

12.At 12:16 20th Oct 2011, Barney McGrew did it wrote:

"The horse has bolted, raised a family, and retired to the Bahamas."

25.At 13:26 20th Oct 2011, The Tenth Beetle wrote:

"Of course Blatter will fail to deliver his promises - whats new?"

30.At 14:14 20th Oct 2011, daveh wrote:

"Too many people who are business men and have no idea about the game - the same at FIFA as at the FA. It will never change as the football authorities are always run by the same people, the right school tie or a wad full of cash."

38.At 14:51 20th Oct 2011, ReallyReal wrote:

"While I agree that this particular article is a total non-story"

Less than transparent practices have been art and part of FIFA since the days of Stanley Rous and Havelange. Blatter is probably not better or worse than these two but its a good thing that reform is coming.

#18
FIFA were behind the ban being enforced and they can't now intervene since they too will be dragged into court. The Sion case will have wider implications than just about reinstating a team into the Europa

#32
The last 2 independent evaluations of news content on the 大象传媒, oops almost said EBC there, showed that this bias is very much alive and kicking. If the EBC, sorry 大象传媒, admit they should be doing better and being less biased, what exactly are you defending?

@45 So no comment should ever be made before events? No prematch ambles? No pre-election forecasts? No pre-budget "what might happen"?

It is a long tradition of the press to report and play out what-ifs about large events in the days leading up to them, whether it is sport, business, world affairs or whatever.

people claiming it's just bitter england are talking nonsense . Blatter and FIFA are news all round the world the exact same as they are here. You think only england get's passionate?

It wasn't just england that lost a world cup bid , the USA and australia and others were even more annoyed than england. Remember they lost to qatar , now that would make you angry , losing to russia you can understand , losing to qatar , a country that should never have won was far worse for the other countries.

41. At 15:07 20th Oct 2011, It wasnt me A big boy did it and ran away

If you can't spot the comparison between them, try opening your eyes, or even your brain.

@46 I am not defending anything. Just pointing out that home commentators are always slightly in favour of the home team when it comes to internationals. I see it in England AND Scotland. It doesn't upset me. I am intelligent enough to recognise it happens in England but also can confidently say that it happens in Scotland too.

@47.At 15:28 20th Oct 2011, Paul Curtis wrote:

You lost the World Cup bid. Yawn. There is no need to keep going on about it.

LOL, it is the hypocrisy that gets me. Of course there were articles in the media about FIFA prior to the loss of the World Cup bid but there have been three to four times as many since. There are also articles about UEFA and the FA in the media but the volume of these have not increased on the same scale.

To say we need more Brits in FIFA and UEFA to sort out these Johnny Foreigner types is just ridiculous and harks back to the old empire days when the Brits ran the world and everything was fair and there was absolutely no corruption anywhere or at any time. Just look at the FA to see how valid that point is.

It is just like the debate on the last blog about how the 鈥渢hree foreigner鈥� rule was more unfair to English clubs than to any other clubs even though the rule was the same for everyone. Ridiculous.

It is time for UEFA, not a faultless organisation I know, to in effect say to FIFA - "Sort yourself out or we'll go it alone and take with us (and yes I know this will cost a lot) the big-10 other nations".

#50
Ah you were only talking about commentators well that's okay then, they all show bias. I thought you were talking about the institutional bias in 大象传媒 reporting which there is documented evidence for.

#51
Its just hubris and England has been in a right bad mood with FIFA ever since. Fair enough FIFA are in need of reform but some of the postWC bid reporting was pathetic. They were even talking about setting up on their own at one stage. I can't understand how everyone else knew the rules before the bid and they spent 拢21m barking up the wrong tree and finding out that they had no pals in international football.

Well apart from the Scottish Football Association who were the only ones to back both their bid and back them at Blatter's re-election.

More Brits? What exactly was Geoff Thompson doing during England's WC bid?

@It wasnt me A big boy did it and ran away has been very vociferous and single-minded here.

Very much on the side of FIFA and maintaining the stutus quo, as if nothing is rotten in Blatterland. So much so, that it makes one suspect that he has much to lose if FIFA is reformed. Is he, in fact, actually a member of the FIFA Executive Committee?

Methinks he doth protest too much!

Where FIFA needs to reassert its authority is a code of values for how footballers are nurtured, trained, treated, managed and, in some cases, owned.

It really makes my blood boil reading that the EPL say that they value 1 years work of a Football League academy at 拢3000 per player. Because that is what the new proposals for tribunal values are. They'll refuse to agree on any player who isn't a cart-horse. It's a disgrace, outrageous and far, far more corrupt that what FIFA does.

Can you see Arsene Wenger getting a 15 year old for 拢50,000, then selling him aged 18 for 拢2m? I can. The player might get two signing on fees, his agent whatever. But the academy? Sweet FA. It's wrong, unethical and it's what FIFA should use it's authority to stamp on. Hard.

FIFA needs a global, holistic vision of what the football family should be about.

It needs divisions which oversee youth development, global development, football in education etc.

It needs a division which updates and modifies the rules and draws up sensible mechanisms to distinguish between the need for technology in high level professional sport against the acceptability of human error on school playing fields.

And it needs distinct divisions which oversee youth, U21 and senior tournaments. For both sexes. Whilst integrating satisfactorily with the needs of national and regiional association club and nation-state tournaments.

Finally, it needs a division which listens to the wishes, hopes, dreams and issues of those who participate at an amateur level, watch the professional game and travel as a tourist/fan to international tournaments.

And it needs a division which oversees commercial activities, registration matters and arbitrates in disputes which cannot be settled by regional associations.

The Americans, the Indians and the Arabs no doubt think they can muscle in to control it. It might be good for world sport if India accepted leadership in world cricket, the USA kept its leadership in basketball, ice hockey and baseball and the Arabs retained their leadership of horse racing.

If the world of sport can come to understand that our world will be healthiest if leadership across sports is diverse, correlated with history allied to future potential and a celebration of the differing excellence across sporting endeavours in the nation states of this earth, then that would be an enormous step forward.

@51 I am not going on about the world cup bid, but you are!

I think you willfind an increase in meida coverage of any football organisation it is (and lets be honest here) in the news for coruption or major decisions. Can you tell me what stories the media should be covering regarding the FA and UEFA at the moment? I am happy to agree with you if either of them are due a big announcement that could change how football is run, that I am blisfully unaware of. Then my friend, your arguments will be justified.

I personally don't think we need more Brits on FIFA (at no point have I said that - not sure why you assume that I have??). Britain used to have the main say in FIFA in the 60's and if you do your research, you will find it was far from fairly run. I do however, hate corruption. That is what this is about. I can give you my word that if England had won the world cup bid, I would be very against it if we won it through brown envelopes.

Perhaps you don't agree with transparecy (maybe you do - I don't know). But surely pressure must be kept on huge organisations to be fair and honest (perhaps naiive).

I have to say this all smacks a little bit of the lunatics running the asylum. The accused are investigating themselves. It says everything that upper most in Blatters mind is probably his 'legacy'. Blatter can claim no worthy 'legacy' and it has nothing to do with Stanley Rous or Bert Millichip or England not getting the world cup. He failed chiefly because corruption occured,on a huge scale ,on his watch. I applaud his reluctance to get dragged into using 'technology' which can never work in football but thats about it.The corruption,the ridiculous qualifying proceedures which have set the international game at war with the clubs,the equally ridiculous methods by which players can now qualify to play for a nation they were not born in and sometimes have never even been to,the devaluing of the world cup finals so that they are now brought and sold like so many pounds of potatoes in the market,the obsession with taking the game to places like Korea and Qatar and ignoring the claims of nations which are not 'emerging' but 'emerged' before Blatter was a twinkle in his fathers eye. FIFA has gained nothing for Blatters leadership Im afraid and the sooner he retires the better.

@53 In the immediate aftermath of the WC bid, I agree that some of the Tabloids spat the dummy (but that is to be expected from rags such as the (prob can't name it, but think a baker's product with currents in it)). However, I do feel this article is fair and timely.

#56

Britain used to have the main say in FIFA
----------------
Scotland and Wales have never run FIFA!!

I will agree with you that they are an organisation badly in need of reform along the lines of the IOC but the problem for England has been that calling for transparency and equitabkle procedures in FIFA is undermined by the lack of the same processes at the English FA.

@59 Fair enough, the previous argument said Brits, just followed that up.

It's such a shame The FA don't stand up to the scrutiny and rigour of good governance. It's the corrupting stench of money in football that appears to be the root cause of the problems, both home and abroad.

Great governance is the only way forward. Such a pity a few can't put the interests of the world's most popular game first.

Blatter and FIFA (in its current form) are obviously history but I have doubts about EUAFA and Plattini - or am I just prejudiced?

Apparently I'm not allowed to mention that FIFA have been in the middle of corruption allegations for a while now. That seems a bit like overly keen censorship to me, 大象传媒, but thanks for trying. I repeat (not that anyone'd know it), I'm bored with this whole thing now. Give us the news when something changes.

Food for thought, where is the next world cup to be held, who is head of the CBF -or
Brasilian Football Federation - who is the person responsible for coordinating & organising the WC in Brasil - who is one of three people who allegedly received kickbacks from this Swiss sports company - who is booed wherever he appears in public in Brasil -(I know I live here) who thinks that SB will ask for the Swiss courts to release findings on this alleged scandal - the only reforms that Blatter is likely to make is that he will give a salary raise for all commitee members for the magnificent jobs they have been doing - don't make me laugh mate !!!!!!!!!!!!

@21 [13:04] :

Let it go?

LOL - I don't think you know the English mentality that well!

Funniest part of all is, the way they go on about it, you'd think England were just "pipped at the post" in the final round of voting. Whereas in fact, they ended up with a grand total of two votes. TWO. They were the first nation to be eliminated.

The footballing nations of the world may not all like FIFA very much - but it would certainly seem they like England a lot less.

No, they won't let it go. There's a fair number of deluded English fans will not let it rest till Blatter finally retires at the sprightly age of 106 - and when it happens they'll be telling their grandkids how he was the reason England never got the World Cup, and how he's now been forced out because of it.

Gotcha! Sepp. There'll always be an England! :D

Blatter followed by Texeira......... no sport deserves that.