FIFA’s shame: A weak Blatter
After the Netherlands/Portugal match devolved into a booking classic—with 16 total cards brandished—the head of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, had the nerve to issue his own “yellow card” to the referee, Valentin Ivanov. That leads us to ask the question: What the bloody hell does FIFA’s Blatter want?
Before the tournament, we heard that FIFA encouraged referees to crack down on overly-physical play (like the dreaded shirt-tug; *gasp*). Now, when a referee tries to follow (albeit miserably) his marching orders, Blatter rains down upon him.
FIFA has long pretended that it would crack down on diving, er, “simulation.” But, the Netherlands/Portugal match was full of flopping, er, “simulation,” with players trying to send their opponents into the book by feigning, er, “simulating” injury. The biggest mistake the referee made was not showing a majority of the cards to the fakers, er, “simulators.”
Of course, Blatter has a history of not being able to hold it together. When FIFA announced it’s ill-conceived and absurdly-unenforceable racism policy, we were to believe that the end of racism in soccer was nigh. Instead, reality quickly released Blatter from his Pollyannaism. Here’s Blatter discussing how difficult it would be to enforce the racism policy, shortly after the new policy was introduced:
“Coming to the specific question of the World Cup, yes if it it’s on the field of play, yes if it’s on the technical bench or identified around the football pitch,” he said at FIFA headquarters in Zurich. “But, when it comes to the World Cup public, you have an international audience and you don’t know where they are sitting.
“How do you then identify if someone will be or won’t be in favor or against (a team)?”
Is it me, or has Blatter’s over-activity made a mess of things?
8 comments
Brilliant word play.
I guess we can only hope Blatter will be going soon.
Heh.
Best. Headline. Ever.
OK ok - Best. Headline. This Week.
Still better is the “Bounce the Czech” line Josh. I think that the ref should have free reign to “simulate” an a$$ whoopin on those who dive and grab their ear after getting tapped on the shin. This coming from a guy who “simulated” twice this Sunday in the box to try to get a PK… well one I WAS actually fouled. I think the ref for the Australia v. Italy game did well. That was a deserved PK. As for Blatter… I think he went overboard and should thus be emptied.
Doesn’t it seem like the timing of the FIFA crackdown is absurd? These are the world’s elite players who, like it or not, have used these tactics (diving, time-wasting, “overly” physical play) during their entire careers. Does FIFA really believe that the players would change their behavior when the stakes are at their highest–the World Cup? And that the refs can control it with so little practice?
They should have tried to crack down on diving at least a year ago so that everyone could adjust to the new expectations. Actually, I’m still not sure how anyone could believe some of those dives–they are so bad. Did you see one of those Dutch guys fall over about 10 seconds after Figo bumped him on the forehead? It was too funny.
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