” I’ll persuade the Israelis to give up Jerusalem if you come back to the hotel with me”
The corollary. Sepp Blatter, FIFA president for life!
Mohamed Bin Hammam is banned from all footballing activity for life as the FIFA ethics (now that is an oxymoron) committee finds him guilty of bribery charges as feared but we all know who is smiling through all this. Its laughable that this is being lauded as FIFA’s attempt to finally clean up its act when all this really amounts to is a political hit job.
Why do we know this? Because Blatter’s first instinct was to install another commission within FIFA that included Placido Domingo to investigation corruption. To put in place more people beholden to him. How is that for conflict of interest?
Circumstantial evidence points to Bin Hammam’s complicity but what is noteworthy is resorting to such lengths to try and garner votes. This is what happens when the world’s game is being run by a despot. Other than a coup d’etat the best bet lies in buying votes. Absolutism breeds absolutism.
Even Rupert Murdoch, the soulless greedhead that he is must be consumed by the green eyed monster. Blatter has built an empire that can turn phone hacking into a virtue. Which brings us to the real reason why he remains willfully impervious to new technologies that determine a fair result on the pitch. Any controversy there trumps any controversy within FIFA. If tomorrow Uruguay vs Paraguay flame out on an offside goal in the Copa America finals then look for the creation of some new villains. Human error is the gift that gives endlessly and takes the heat off Blatter and his calculations.
Blatter has also vindictively punished banning countries from football if their government is perceived as meddling even peripherally into the affairs of the national associations or when there are conflicts within that body. It’s all a nicely calibrated game of the virgin vs vamp. And anything that Blatter can do to swaddle himself in pure white snow is yet another term won. Lets not forget that Mohamed Bin Hammam even if guilty as charged has not wrought nearly enough damage to the sport that Blatter has in his two decades and counting as FIFA president.