The International Football Federations Thread

[Colly]

If this doesn't result in a Father Ted style slidehow presentation with Ming the Merciless and Mr Miagi I will be sorely disappointed. This ones the tip of the iceberg, but just like 'smash it'-gate for Keys and Gray I'd love to see him go.

[brenchill]

Tokyo Sexwhale is the greatest name of all-time.

[IAceI]

Sepp Blatter and Rio Ferdinand arguing may have the possibility to be the lowest-IQ levelled argument ever. I think time may break.

[MDK]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15772629.stm the video for those who haven't seen it.

[stokeriño]

All I ever see from Blatter is a man who seeks to take the easiest avenue out of, or around, anything that requires work or a difficult decision. If this means saying there's no racist problem on the pitch (because then he'd be asked what's to be done about it), that's what he'll do. If it means advising gay people not to travel to the Qatar World Cup (to avoid being asked why such an intolerant place was chosen), he'll do that as well.

It's completely slimy and not the kind of leadership that the head of any organisation should be showing. Even if you only have commercial interests in FIFA and don't care about these issues, how can you possibly have faith that this man will have the balls to admit and address a crisis that affects your business, rather than just gloss over it?

[IAceI]

Agree with Stoker.

Also, I can't see Sepp resigning over handshake-gate. That's a drop in the ocean for this sort of man.

Oh and here's some other bits and bobs from around the net:

From F365

A few figures for you, if you'll bear with us for a moment:

£44,750: Amount FIFA fined the Spanish FA in 2004 following racist abuse of Ashley Cole.

£14,920: Amount FIFA fined the Croatian FA in 2008 following racist abuse of Emile Heskey.

£0: Amount FIFA fined the Russian FA and Lokomotiv Moscow in 2010 following racist abuse of Peter Odemwingie.

£422,000 (plus £12,500 costs): Amount FIFA fined Dutch coach Arie Haan in 2010 after he 'abandoned his post'/resigned as Cameroon coach in 2007.

--

(Bearing in mind Blatter cites victory over racism because they went to South Africa for a World Cup and everybody ended up happy..) here's our 2018 World Cup hosts in all their glory, from James Appell:

Good luck sorting this one out Sepp. Although you'll probably be dead by then.

Thank goodness there isn't a problem with racism in the game, though.

Edited November 17, 2011 by IAceI

[stokeriño]

Plus the vast majority of the countries of the world either a) have too many other vested interests in FIFA to support calls for his resignation, b) don't give much of a damn about racism anyway, or c) can't be arsed.

[Lineker]

[MDK]

It couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

[Lineker]

BBC Sports Editor David Bond is doing a UK exclusive sit down interview with Mr. Blatter this morning. Hopefully I'll be able to see it within the hour.

[brenchill]

There was a quote on the news saying he wanted players to wear tighter shorts at the World Cup to attract a larger female audience. Is there any truth to that?

[Lineker]

Female players. He said that back in 2004.

Here are some of his best gaffes.

[Colly]

I happen to agree with that one...

[brenchill]

Abolishing draws is my favourite.

[DavidMarrio]

http://seppblatterwithblackpeople.wordpress.com/

[Lineker]

BBC Sports Editor David Bond is doing a UK exclusive sit down interview with Mr. Blatter this morning. Hopefully I'll be able to see it within the hour.

It's on now. He's refusing to resign but has, amazingly, apologised!

[stokeriño]

Not so amazing really.

Blatter is a man who seeks to take the easiest avenue out of, or around, anything

[Colly]

Tokyo Sexw(h)ale has criticised England for giving Terry the captaincy while the racism investigation is ongoing. Strange one really as I'm fully for innocent until proven guilty and agreed that Terry should carry on as usual until its resolved, but then remembered Sunderland suspended Titus Bramble well prior to his case reaching court. I know different alleged crimes, different situations, but surely the same principle applies unless the potential for embarassment to the club if found guilty is regarded differently?

[stokeriño]

Nothing really complicated with that. It's just your classic case of people throwing the Rule of Law out the window when it suits them.

To steal a paragraph from a recent blog/article:

76 percent of Guardian readers who expressed a preference thought that John Terry shouldn't have led out England this week. Whether it was the captaincy in itself, or the ceremonial leading out that bothered them, I'm not entirely sure. Could he have been captain, but come out of the tunnel in a far less public position, further down the line - would that have been all right? Maybe some would have tolerated him playing, but didn't want him to be captain. This is the trouble with these snap, yes/no polls. There's not a lot of room for refinement.

Anyway, from this can be inferred that 76 percent of the readers of Britain's allegedly most liberal newspaper (who expressed a preference, obviously) don't believe a person is innocent until proven guilty, are prepared to infer guilt in the absence of formally processed evidence and are happy to impugn a man's professional and personal reputation based on their own informal assumptions. Interesting.

[Colly]

Nice little read, ta.

Fuck! John Barnes just said 'supercilious' on live tv! Clearly his autocued comments on Channel 5 were in too simple language which is why he struggled. He's also poked massive holes in Colin Wankers 'black players should boycott international games' idea. This interview is brillant!

Edited November 18, 2011 by Colly