Tuesday 2 June 2015

GOOD RIDDANCE BLATTER, YOU CHARLATAN

The news broke this afternoon that FIFA's long-term president, Sepp Blatter, stepped down from his role as the head of football's governing body. The 79 year-old was a polarising figure but deep down, a classic charlatan.

D. Ray Morton, 2nd June 2015

Sepp Blatter gave a short speech and announced his resignation as FIFA leader today


What a week it has been for FIFA. Shamed and arrested officials were veiled with hotel bedsheets as they were escorted into the back of FBI vans causing huge embarrassment for the organisation. Meanwhile, Sepp Blatter had been re-elected as president of the governing body causing huge frustration and listlessness amongst fans of the sport who had been sick of the 79 year-old's seemingly never-ending reign of terror. Now he steps down and we can all exhale a relieved breath.

Blatter had all the hallmarks of a classic conman. To his inner circle, his employees in Switzerland and visitors to the FIFA headquarters, he would regale them in his origins tale. A young lad coming down from the Swiss mountains with a ball clutched in his arm, a dreamer ready to change the world of football for the better. What a vision.

In truth, Blatter never really kicked a ball in his life (as Diego Maradona pointed out some months ago). His origin was in politicking around various Swiss sports organisations before slithering his way towards the top of the FIFA tree. A long journey but not the mystical fairytale he so often portrayed.

Even in his manifestos, he gave little. He would maintain that he was the head of FIFA, that everyone knew what he was about and that would be it. Amazingly, it managed to keep him there for a very long time. There are many reasons for this but the clearest would appear to be his elevation of the non-European confederations to, perhaps, the chagrin of the established order. He did, in his time, bring the World Cup to Asia and Africa for the first time.

It is over for the old man now and he leaves hanging his head under a cloud of shame. Who knows what lies in store for FIFA and Blatter personally. Maybe he can write a sci-fi book about playing aliens in intergalactic football as he had previously hoped for his darling organisation in the 22nd century. Football will move on and hopefully move on in a manner in which the sport can regain some much-needed credibility. The world's game deserves more than crooked baby-kissing hand shakers.

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