No, this isn't about a urinary-tract infection ... rather, it's about an international sports executive who's become a symbol of his organization's corruption, as we'll see after the jump ....
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The international governing body for football (what we call soccer) is the Fédération Internationale de Football Association - or
FIFA for short, who sponsor the World Cup every four years. But FIFA has had its problems over the past years, with:
1) Cheating scandals world-wide (most notably in Italy) and with FIFA's own corruption tales.
2) Numerous complaints (more than normal) about the officiating in recent World Cups, and with renewed calls for goal-line replays (always rejected by FIFA) as several key matches have seen shots ruled not to be goals ... only to have replays show the ball had, in fact, crossed-the-line.
3) And sitting at the helm of all this: is the Swiss national Joseph S. Blatter - or Sepp Blatter in common parlance - who has been FIFA's president since 1998. He was re-elected in 2002, 2007 and again last year (in a farcical election). And he has taken an Alfred E. Neuman style "What, Me Worry"? towards corruption, insisting that, yes, things have gone wrong - but he can handle it.
Some of his best-of worst-of list includes:
a) Charges made (against him) that the right to host various World Cup tournaments have involved bribes
b) His suggesting that female players should wear tighter shorts to appear more attractive to men
c) His suggesting that Latin American countries would 'applaud' John Terry for having an extramarital affair (which, in fact, cost the former captain of England's team his captaincy)
d) His saying that homosexuals should 'refrain from any sexual activity' while attending the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (whose winning bid for the tourney itself was controversial)
e) And also saying on-field racism - a problem in Europe today (that the US began to deal with back in the Jackie Robinson era) - could be corrected with a 'handshake'.
To see how bad things have become: earlier this month, details arose in a Swiss courtroom that Blatter’s predecessor as FIFA president (Joao Havalange) and his son-in-law
accepted bribes worth millions in World Cup deals. And Sepp Blatter admitted in a statement on the FIFA website that he was "
P1" - the unnamed official in a court document
who knew of a 1-million Swiss franc ($1 million) payment to Havelange.
Reacting to this: the German soccer federation (DFB) had a Claude Raines moment – shocked, SHOCKED at both the bribe and Blatter’s lackadaisical attitude about it. They were correct, just sounded hopelessly näive in its exclamations of surprise.
Sepp Blatter didn’t take this lying down - when asked by the Swiss mass-circulation paper Blick whether he suspected that Germany had bought the 2006 World Cup, a combative Sepp Blatter said, "I suspect nothing. I'm making an observation." He added:
"That somebody wants to get rid of me is nothing new. It just depends on the current mood. Sometimes it's the British media who want me gone, then maybe the Americans, then another day it's the Germans".
This brought an immediate response by
Der Kaiser - a World Cup championship-winning player (and later winning coach) of Germany’s national team - who took strong exception to Blatter's assertions. You may know him as
Franz Beckenbauer – who was also a member of the late-1970’s New York Cosmos team (along with Pele and Georgio Chinaglia).
This resulted in Sepp Blatter walking-back his remarks, by writing an open letter to Germany via Bild (the country's biggest tabloid). The under-fire football figurehead says he was ..... misunderstood when he seemed to say Germany bought the 2006 World Cup.
Stay tuned: as a letter writer to The Economist put it:
FIFA does, at least, have an appropriate acronym — many of its committee members seek (allegedly) a fee for this, and a fee for that.
But perhaps the most laughable (and troubling) aspect was FIFA's
2011 presidential election - which Blatter promised would be his final campaign. There was so much dissatisfaction with Blatter's tenure that it seemed likely there would be an open discussion along with challengers. But FIFA's reach is so strong .... almost no one stepped forward.
Someone who finally did was the Sports Illustrated journalist Grant Wahl - who admitted that he was a long-shot but that he was quite serious and besides: the first FIFA president was a sports journalist, and so were two of the seven others (including, once upon a time, Sepp Blatter). At the very least: someone needed to run, if only to force a needed debate on the issues.
And here's the interesting part: to get on the ballot, all he needed was to have one football association (out of 208) to nominate him. They didn't have to vote for him in the general election; merely nominate him. He contacted (and met) with several football associations - who expressed sympathy not only with his candidacy but agreed with many of his proposed changes.
But .... as The Economist put it:
Grant Wahl, an American journalist, has some good ideas but no chance at all. He has yet to secure the single nomination he needs from any of the 208 national associations that make up FIFA's membership and will have one vote each in June.
And no one did nominate him: as nobody wanted to rock-the-boat.
Now, there was another challenger from Qatar named Mohammed bin Hammam - who had experience as president of the Asian Football Confederation, enabling him to receive a nomination. But he was thrown off the ballot just a few days before the vote (and banned from FIFA) after allegations of .... wait for it ... ‘accepting bribes’ in a pot-meet-kettle moment. After a legal battle: just days ago, bin Hammam had his lifetime ban overturned ... way too late, of course.
After bin Hamman was removed from the ballot, there was no challenger to Blatter. And so his name appeared alone on a Soviet-era style "secret" ballot on June 1st, 2011. Blatter won 186-0 (with England one of only 17 organizations that dared merely to abstain).
Now of course, this one-horse-race election was a foregone conclusion. But what really upset one reader of the Guardian newspaper's minute-by-minute blog (covering the nominating convention) was not just the vote: but the fawning, almost obsequious tributes from delegates around the world towards Blatter (think “We’re not worthy!” from “Wayne’s World”). And so a chap named Ben Stokes e-mailed them thusly:
"(This) is one of the most depressing things I've ever read".
And just what made him so depressed, you may ask? Why, it was .....
"Each lackey, sycophant and lickspittle who steps up to speak".
Now, on to Top Comments:
-------------------------------------
From Noddy:
ConfusedSkyes is shocked in Greenmother's diary and then further down xxdr zombiexx laments the progression of loss of rights.
techwriter submitted an awsome bumpersnicker on xajaxsingerx's diary entitled The Week in Bumper Stickers - Round Two.
From
blue aardvark:
In the front-page story about one of Mitt's diplomatic gaffes (the MI-6 edition) .... Dartagnan shows a rapier wit today.
In her own diary - I like cassandracarolina's idea for an anti-Mitt ad while responding to brae70.
From
Dave in Northridge:
Kos's I'm-having-too-much-fun-with-this front-page story about Romney insulting Britain - elicited this comment from angry marmot, leading to a response from pat of butter in a sea of grits. I had to read them out loud to my husband!
From
democracy inaction:
In the diary by durrati citing the conservative British newspaper's assessment of Mitt Romney's lack of charm - I like this comment by grumpelstillchen.
And from
Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the front-page story about the GOP Clown Show as exemplified by North Carolina representative Virginia Foxx - cultjake gets the ball rolling on the four biggest clowns .... and then others pick-up-the-ball and run with it.
Next: yesterday's Top Photos (as compiled by Jotter each day) - click on the photo to see the story behind it.
And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
1) This Is Terrorism, It's Violence Intended to by Gooserock — 168
2) Bain and its targets by Richard Myers — 132
3) He just can't say Aryan outright. by Horace Boothroyd III — 127
4) It's not a dog-whistle. by Troubadour — 117
5) I suppose "the World Has Changed" by LeftHandedMan — 103
6) Romney is the gift that keeps on giving. by blue jersey mom — 102
7) oh come on. what do you think he is... by kulta1 — 96
8) I am sorry. We are all out of time. by Shotput8 — 96
9) He SHOULD be embarrassed. by ontheleftcoast — 95
10) The ARPAnet by Bourbaki — 92
11) It has nothing to do with "worthiness" by mamamorgaine — 87
12) Exactly. Our GUV did not want to offend PSU by RNmakingsense — 85
13) Who could have forseen? by Horace Boothroyd III — 81
14) Obama For Oxygen! Love it and the takedown by Tamar — 79
15) But remember... by LOrion — 77
16) Heh. by Chrislove — 76
17) Old wounds by Roiling Snake Ball — 75
18) I want.. by wyvern — 75
19) there is no way Willard will do a press by Olympia — 73
20) Brian Williams corrected him right? by jj32 — 71
21) Question for you by True North — 70
22) Mitt Romney's campaign, it is bad and by MinistryOfTruth — 70
23) ...we're gonna have to leave it there." by eden4barack08 — 69
24) Wow. by Bindle — 69
25) Did Williams correct him? If not, there is the by lakehillsliberal — 68
26) I actually saw somebody on FB recently by Chrislove — 65
27) I am sick and tired of the blatant racism. by blue jersey mom — 64
28) or like the sign my Mom always kept by Olympia — 63
29) Interesting that this comment was made overseas. by SottoVoce — 62
30) Hey, Taranto, their boyfriends knew them by Kimball Cross — 62
31) I remember Sonya Chavez saying something along by Hushes — 62
32) I don't think people should be forced to move by voracious — 62