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| Blatter: more controversy (Picture: AsianFC) |
"There is no racism, there is maybe one of the players towards the other, he has a word or a gesture which is not the correct one, but also the one who is affected by that, he should say it's a game, we are in a game. At the end of the game, we shake hands, this can happen, because we have worked so hard against racism and discrimination." – Sepp Blatter on CNN.
“During a match you may make a movement to somebody, or may something to somebody… but at the end of the match it is forgotten… on the field of play I deny that there is racism.” – Sepp Blatter on Al Jazeera.
Sepp
Blatter has been embroiled in a fair
amount of controversies in his time as FIFA president but none have caused
such widespread uproar – particularly from those actually in the game – as his
comments on racism have.
It
is fair to say that the timing here is poor given the ongoing investigation into
John
Terry’s comments to Anton Ferdinand and the recent
charge of Luis Suarez. To completely deny the existence of racism in
football at a time when there are so many allegations flying around is rather
odd.
However,
not once does Blatter say that racism is acceptable - he actually says that allegations
should be investigated and, if necessary, appropriate action should be taken. To
say that Blatter is a racist or accepts racism is wide of the mark; he is, as
many – most brilliantly Rio Ferdinand
- have pointed out, plainly ignorant.
This
might not be all that surprising of a man who is 75-years-old and so maybe
doesn’t quite grasp discrimination in the modern age. But then, as Philippe
Auclair quite magnificently put it, there are plenty of people of a similar age
to Blatter who don’t make such offensive remarks – “cretins have
no age”.
And,
to that, if Blatter is so out-of-touch, then surely it is time he was replaced
as leader of a game that is going through some very modern day problems?
Some
of the comments from Blatter – or at least Blatter’s office – after the furore
that inevitably erupted, though, have been slightly worrying. He at first said
that there had been a misunderstanding:
“What I wanted to express is that, as football players, during a match, you have “battles” with your opponents, and sometimes things are done which are wrong. But, normally, at the end of the match, you apologise to your opponent if you had a confrontation during the match, you shake hands, and when the game is over, it is over.”
Baring
in mind that Blatter made practically identical comments to both Al Jazeera and
CNN, it is hard to believe that this is a ‘misunderstanding’. Rather, it is a
thought-out, considered opinion that will have surely been run through a PR
team before being heard by the world. Experienced leaders who work in political
environments day-in, day-out do not make utterances off the cuff – they think
about them deeply beforehand and, where possible, make basic, stale statements
so as to not cause offence. Here, Blatter hasn’t done that: he’s set out to
make a point, and managed to offend an awful lot of people in spectacular
fashion.
The
official FIFA statement also said: “I also know that racism unfortunately
continues to exist in football, and I have never denied this,” despite – in both
interviews – denying the existence of racism in football on the pitch. Blatter’s
minions (he doesn’t run his own Twitter account, surely?) then expressed on
Twitter that, “in general,
there is [not] racism on the field of play”. So, which is it? It definitely
doesn’t happen, as he first claimed, or it doesn’t happen in general, which
suggests it does happen?
Most
commenters chose to lead on Blatter’s point regarding the handshake. Footballers
have argued for years that what happens on the pitch stays on the pitch, but
racism is clearly different. He seems to also go on to say that racism from
fans or anywhere else but the pitch is different to on-field racism due to the ‘heat
of the moment’.
This
is of course is utter nonsense. If, in the heat of the moment, you can’t
control yourself to such an extent that you racially abuse someone then you
really shouldn’t be putting yourself into that moment. Whether that is in a professional environment
or not is irrelevant.
The
two interviews have lead to new calls for Blatter to step aside, with the PFA’s Gordon
Taylor calling for his resignation while many footballers and managers have
spoken out – which, it has to be said, makes a nice change. Ferdinand,
Ashley Williams,
Jason
Roberts, Emmanuel
Frimpong (kind of) and Tony
Pulis have all had their say and have rightly condemned the comments.
Some
may see the uproar over these comments as something of an overreaction given
that Blatter did actually condemn racism but his comments are at best ignorant
and at worst extremely condescending and offensive. The worrying thing is that Blatter
can so easily brush this sort of problem under the carpet – unless he resigns,
absolutely nothing will change.
