Saturday, May 30, 2015

Political football


When the World Cup came to Africa: Sepp Blatter (right) with South African President Jacob Zuma in 2010. Getty Images

Is Sepp Blatter really bad – is he as corrupt as other FIFA officials recently arrested (and whose guilt is still to be proven in a court of law?). The voices of condemnation are pretty universal –  in the Western world. But I’ve seen little analysis on why most of the world’s football associations support him, and those against come almost solely from Europe and (mainly white) former British colonies (NZ included). Here are two links that provide a bit more perspective: the very valid reasons why Sepp Blatter finds support in developing countries (in economic and football terms): Fifa vote: Why Africa backs Sepp Blatter.

And even though this interview with former Fifa executive Jerome Champagne aired before the vote that delivered Sepp Blatter his fifth victory, it is still the best rundown I’ve heard on how the FIFA executive works (or doesn’t), and the politicking going on behind the scenes to try to bring Sepp Blatter down (Michel Platini is no saint), and why Champagne (who earlier tried to oust Blatter), still considered him the lesser of two evils, and hoped that he would use his (likely) last term to change FIFA and turn it upside down. A forlorn hope? Only time - four years to be precise - will tell:

No comments:

Post a Comment