Following on from the seemingly never-ending "stay away six"
saga, World football's bureaucrat-in-chief, Sepp Blatter,
yesterday launched an astonishing and inappropriate attack on
Chelsea.
Seemingly bleeding the story bone-dry, Blatter's [opinion] was subsequently reported gleefully in
most media. The FIFA president suggested that it was somehow fair that Chelsea were knocked
out of the UEFA Cup after several players did not travel to Israel for their tie against Hapoel Tel
Aviv.
In the interests of objectivity, we will quote Blatter's ramblings in full. He said, "I can understand if
players are afraid, but they are in a working contract and they have to deliver their duty."
"I have to travel and I would have been to watch Austria play in Israel if I had not had a problem
with my leg and now I understand Chelsea have been eliminated so the God of football was
definitely looking down."
"Football cannot ensure peace, but we have a duty to offer a message and a better
understanding of the world."
Looking back [perhaps while chewing a Werther's Original], he added, "I was at the Munich
Olympics in 1972 and they stopped the Games for just one day. It was not cancelled because life
must continue. The youth of the world have a right to play their sport."
"We [no you didn't, Sepp, you were busy pushing paper in Zurich so that's a pretty unjustified
use of the first person plural] played football three days after September 11 in Iran and other
Arab countries and people stood for 60 seconds for those who died (in the terrorist attacks)."
"I'm concerned about security but I pray to Allah, the God of football or whoever, that the world's
most popular game is not disturbed."
That Blatter chose to single out Chelsea for such invective is quite astounding, not to mention
biting the hand that feeds. Also, there is much in what he says that smacks of rank hypocrisy.
Although "the god of Football" (had a bit too much cheese with your long business lunch before
inventing a new deity, Sepp?) may have been looking down, and although it is part of the magic
of football that the smaller teams sometimes eliminate the larger ones, Blatter must surely also be
praying to the "God of Football" that the likes of Hapoel get eliminated quickly from the tournament.
Looking at the teams left in the UEFA cup, the last thing that Blatter would like is for more
giant-killers to progress further.
A UEFA cup final involving, say, FC Slovan Liberec and PFC Litex Lovech would be a disaster
for UEFA - and by extension FIFA, which depends on selling the television rights to its matches
for its finances. The bigger, more prestigious teams such as Chelsea, from countries with a
culture of soccer on the TV would mean that the governing bodies could sell those television
rights for a handsome sum. Smaller teams with less support (and therefore less interest from
wealthier countries) would mean less cash for the governing bodies. And therefore less
expense-account lunches for the likes of Sepp Blatter.
Blatter is also very happy to ask others to be brave where he is not. He courageously mentions
the fact that the Olympic games in 1972 were suspended for one day only after sport's darkest
hour, and he refers to the fact that football was played "three days after September 11th in Arab
countries as well as Iran". Surely, Blatter is invoking valour by association - he himself stayed
away from these potentially awkward countries - and we can be sure that, had he travelled, he
would have regaled us to boredom with tales of his heroism.
Quite apart from the fact that there is a different personal involvement between slogging out 90
minutes on the pitch to sitting in the executive box on a comfy cushion, which is the closest the
likes of Blatter get to the game. I would be somewhat more impressed if Blatter went to Kabul to
see Afghanistan's World Cup qualifier. Do a few of those trips before lecturing others on
courageous travelling, Sepp.
Blatter knew very well that in the aftermath of the September 11th atrocities, it was the
governing bodies themselves which asked for matches to be suspended as a mark of respect. It
was, after all, UEFA which [postponed] Champion's League matches and UEFA Cup matches on
the Wednesday and Thursday following the atrocities. His comments about football taking place
in the days afterwards are therefore meaningless, quite apart from the fact that there is a
completely different security risk for members of teams from within those countries (say two
Iranian teams) compared to the visit of a foreign and high-prestige opponent.
Mr Blatter states that he himself has to travel - and that he would have been to watch Austria
play in Israel if he had not had a problem with his leg. Far from being courageous, his statement
smacks of cowardice and double standards. I don't remember Blatter coming down hard on the
Austrian national team which had to postpone that very match against Israel because 9 players
refused to travel - an event that seems considerably more significant and damaging to the image
of football as a vector for promoting the World Peace that is so dear to Sepp Blatter (give this
man a Nobel Peace prize!). After all, Chelsea made it to Tel Aviv on the day that their match was
due to take place after having said that they would field a team at all costs.
In addition, Mr Blatter, why do you magnanimously allow yourself mitigating circumstances that
prevent you from travelling (a vague "leg problem" which apparently prevents you from sitting in
the first class section of a plane for the 4 hour flight from Zurich to Tel Aviv) that you deny the
Chelsea players? Why is your excuse more justifiable than that Marcel Desailly (who would have
travelled had he not had a complicated tooth infection that affected his Achille's heel), that of
William Gallas (who was also injured), those of Eidur Gudjohnssen or Emmanuel Petit (who
would have travelled but their partners were about to give birth) or Graeme Le Saux (who would
have travelled but his wife had only just given birth to his second child)? Such largesse that you
deny to others has a name - hypocrisy.
Chelsea's decision to play at all costs won them praise from UEFA before the match. Any
subsequent criticism is purely circumstantial in that the club's handling of a delicate situation
backfired and Chelsea lost in Tel Aviv. Make no mistakes about it: had the Blues won on the night
- or even held on to a 0-0 draw (but for the final 5 minutes that would have been the case), they
would have also been praised. Sepp Blatter's comments are therefore particularly ill-judged - not
to mention ill-advised, as he is clearly not in full possession of the facts.
Thank you Colin Hutchinson for a graceful defence of Chelsea which is as professional as Sepp
Blatter's comments were out of place. Given his job, Hutch has to be diplomatic. At this website,
we can allow ourselves to be less so. In his article on Hutchinson's reply to Blatter published on
this site earlier today, The Hitman suggests that Blatter's disdain for English football may have
coloured his judgement. Can I add that Blatter might well have been shooting his mouth off
because he is an ignorant, self-serving, hypocritical Gnome of Zurich?
Roberto di Matteo, a living legend, has reluctantly decided to hang up
his boots, and to retire from playing professional football. He suffered
an horrific injury 17 months ago, whilst playing against St Gallen in a
UEFA Cup tie, and never fully recovered.
