Merged: Sepp Blatter

[nose]

Thye must have got something on him and let him know it

This.

Now we just need to make sure the arab prince doesn't get the position. His only contribution to football so far was ensuring the Hijab can worn at games.

whats wrong with that? why shouldn't women be allowed to wear that when they play?

I agree.

Yes nothing wrong at all.

i am a free spirit and libiterian and actually i find the idea that in 2015 women are obliged toi be covered up when they play deeply unsettling.
I repeat 2015 not 1515...    we are allowing repressive regimes and medieval practices to have far too much sway....   i wouldn't outlaw it but I loathe it and I am stunned fifa and the football federations of the world haven't done more to make the players wear the proper outfits.

[valdeingruo]

Well there needs to be bucket loads of resignations before FIFA can be considered free again. It was demonstrated by the very act of Blatter keeping his post even after the scandal broke, the rot is deep.

[Oakeshott]

Blatter is so utterly and completely humiliated, having resigned only days after his bullish speech on re-election, that it surely must have been external pressure of a very compelling kind. It would be good to think he was presented with evidence likely to lead to his arrest, but my money is that several of the key sponsors consulted among themselves after his re-election and presented him with an ultimatum on Monday.

Good to see such a self-serving braggart get brought right down, and provided his side-kick who seems to have authorised the £10m corrupt payment re South Africa doesn't get the job there is a real chance that the filthy stable Blatter has presided over all these years will get a proper cleaning.

[Jonaldiniho 88]

After the friends of Fulham team complained at the lack of organisation at their recent five-a-side tournament sepp realised he had let the footballing world down and fell on his sword. Don't all thank us at once but you are welcome.

[Jonaldiniho 88]

Correction you can all thank us at once.

[ToodlesMcToot]

There has to have been some form of presentation of the case building against him along with some sort of deal for his stepping down. Otherwise, I don't see him being forced to do anything. Nothing like the threat of putting brick walls and a set of bars between one and his life to motivate change.

[Woolly Mammoth]

Thye must have got something on him and let him know it

This.

Now we just need to make sure the arab prince doesn't get the position. His only contribution to football so far was ensuring the Hijab can worn at games.

whats wrong with that? why shouldn't women be allowed to wear that when they play?

I agree.

Yes nothing wrong at all.

i am a free spirit and libiterian and actually i find the idea that in 2015 women are obliged toi be covered up when they play deeply unsettling.
I repeat 2015 not 1515...    we are allowing repressive regimes and medieval practices to have far too much sway....   i wouldn't outlaw it but I loathe it and I am stunned fifa and the football federations of the world haven't done more to make the players wear the proper outfits.

Absolutely

[Rupert]

Only problem is, soon we will likely be saying, "Here comes the new boss, the same as the old boss."
There is too much money in football for honest men to make it to the top.

[FortCollinsFulham]

Thye must have got something on him and let him know it

This.

Now we just need to make sure the arab prince doesn't get the position. His only contribution to football so far was ensuring the Hijab can worn at games.

whats wrong with that? why shouldn't women be allowed to wear that when they play?

I agree.

Yes nothing wrong at all.

i am a free spirit and libiterian and actually i find the idea that in 2015 women are obliged toi be covered up when they play deeply unsettling.
I repeat 2015 not 1515...    we are allowing repressive regimes and medieval practices to have far too much sway....   i wouldn't outlaw it but I loathe it and I am stunned fifa and the football federations of the world haven't done more to make the players wear the proper outfits.

Absolutely

Yeah, I think the point is - yes they SHOULD be able to wear that, but why in 2015 is it STILL a justifiable practice.

[Oakeshott]

"but why in 2015 is it STILL a justifiable practice."

There are two very different answers to that (and they apply to all sorts of other practices some of us find offensive, such as FGM, refusing girls educational opportunities, discrimination against gay and lesbian people, and the way animals are slaughtered for Kosher and Halal meat):

1) they reflect cultural and or religious traditions that should be respected in multi-cultural societies;

2) they reflect how some people remain unaffected by the Enlightenment, since when some, especially but not exclusively in the West, have emancipated themselves from obedience to what, from this perspective, is essentially mere superstition. They shouldn't be respected but neither should the pull of them be under-estimated - a pragmatic, educational approach is more likely to help this process than ill-timed confrontation.

Those who take the second view hope that those who engage in the kind of superstitious conduct referred to above will emancipate themselves over time, and no doubt are much encouraged by the courageous efforts of some families in Pakistan and Afghanistan to continue to try to ensure their daughters get an education, despite the murderous efforts of extremists, and of course the recent Irish referendum.

.

[FortCollinsFulham]

Astute post ^^

To clarify, for me personally at least, it wasn't meant as - "why is wearing a hijab justifiable in 2015," (this is obviously a right) but rather as "why are they, in 2015, essentially mandatory (I'm speaking in the context of sport)" ... whether or not that obligation is de facto or de jure or explicitly stated or implied or culturally/societally pressured or so on. It should come down purely to individual choice is all I was getting at.

Anywho.

[Forever Fulham]

(The prose is a little purple, but it's still an interesting read.)

NY Times article.


JUNE 2, 2015
 

By JULIET MACUR   

It must have been some sort of rotten long weekend for Sepp Blatter for him to decide, just days after his re-election Friday as FIFA's president, that he didn't want to run world soccer anymore, after all.

Only four short days before, Blatter was giving his acceptance speech after winning his fifth term, chest out and nearly doing the jig while blathering on about being the captain of FIFA's ship. He said he would guide that ship through rocky waters to bring it safely into shore, where there would be beach soccer. Or something. Trust me, it was hard to follow, although that made it especially entertaining.

In the mind of Blatter, who has run FIFA like a dictator for the past 17 years and seemed to be eagerly anticipating four more, what could possibly be so wonderful as another four years of his leadership

Yet something happened between Friday and Tuesday, when he resigned. Something terrible enough and worrisome enough to send Blatter running for the hills, just days after he won the election in a landslide, and just ahead of investigators from the United States Justice Department.

You can imagine how that fateful series of days might have begun.

There Blatter was on Friday, sitting in bed as the weekend kicked off, rehashing the impromptu lines from his speech — "I am the president of everybody!" — before his wife told him to shut up and go to sleep already.

We've all experienced how an amazing weekend can crumble before our very eyes. Great week on the job. A few days to bask in your accomplishments. (Blatter took a day to preen and claim that the Justice Department's investigation came as retribution for the United States's not being chosen to host the 2022 World Cup. "It doesn't smell good," he said, with a strong hint of conceit.)

Then, one wrong step, one piece of bad news. Then another. And another. So much bad news that you dread showing up for work.

In the wake of a corruption inquiry at FIFA, Mr. Blatter first said, "I would like to stay with you," while promising to reform the organization. But on Tuesday he said he would step down.
 
So what was it that turned Sepp Blatter from defiant to defeated? Tell us, Sepp. You're a man who likes to talk and talk.
What, exactly, created such a sea change between Friday, when you basked in the admiration of those FIFA delegates who voted for you, when you accepted their handshakes and their back slaps and their kisses on your cheeks, and Tuesday, when it finally dawned on you that your sport didn't want you anymore?

Maybe it was the persistent drumbeat of criticism and the avalanche of damning headlines and the not-so-subtle jabs about your character. You probably couldn't hear that above the applause after Friday's election, but they have been there all along.

Maybe it was a long conversation between you and your lawyers. They surely must have warned you that the Justice Department could add you to the list of FIFA officials under suspicion of corruption. Maybe they already knew you were on the list.

That might make anyone jump ship, even the captain, especially now that we know that you personally — and not just FIFA as an organization, or a few bad actors inside it — are among the targets of the Justice Department investigation.

Perhaps you heard the news that some former colleagues are being asked to turn on you and tell the feds everything they know about you in exchange for leniency in their own cases.

Did that make you rewind, in your mind, your interactions with those colleagues over the last few years? Or the last 20, 30, even 40 years?

It's possible that you heard the clopping of Budweiser's Clydesdales stalking you in the night? Or that you started having nightmares about the clowns at McDonald's, another FIFA sponsor?  Sepp Blatter had been overconfident that he and his organisation were above the law and that, whatever they have done, they would get away... For years, those companies have been so good at turning a blind eye. Did they finally rip off their blinders and ask for your head?  Did those sponsors hold a power that was finally — belatedly — even greater than your own

At least once you realized that you had a giant bull's-eye on the back of your bespoke suit, you had the skills to say "It's over" in five languages.

In your speech announcing that you would step down, you said it was because you simply love the game so much.

You said your only concern was what was best for the sport, and for FIFA.

Nice sentiments. It would be great if they were true.  "I cherish FIFA more than anything," you said on Tuesday in your declaration that you no longer merited a place as its leader. Who knows if that was your motivation, or if it's just another unimaginative excuse after a long, long weekend thinking things over? But that explanation will have to do.

For now.  In another few days, we might know so much more.

[ron]

The ship he was captain of in his metaphor is unfortunately the titanic. The job of raising this one to its former state, pre-corruption , will be just as difficult...

There must now be a fair bit of plank-walking as well.

[sunburywhite]

The ship he was captain of in his metaphor is unfortunately the titanic. The job of raising this one to its former state, pre-corruption , will be just as difficult...

There must now be a fair bit of plank-walking as well.

And keel hauled, after receiving one hundred lashes strapped to the main mast.

ohh Matron

[Oakeshott]

I visited one of my sons this morning. He is a senior fraud lawyer (ex SFO) and, sad to say, a keen West Ham supporter. He tells me that the buzz in London-based fraud lawyer circles is that Blatter will be arrested and charged within a few days and the evidence is reported as being such that "he'll spend years in jail".

Maybe just wishful thinking, of course, but his action in standing down suggests something impacted hard on Blatter over the last few days, and an intimation of impeding arrest and charging would be such a something.

[YankeeJim]

It would seem that at least one of the arrestees' rolled over pretty quick. Not unusual among thieves.
I feel like I'm watching the stretch run at the Kentucky Derby, "come on you Loretta Lynch"!

[YankeeJim]

Thye must have got something on him and let him know it

This.

Now we just need to make sure the arab prince doesn't get the position. His only contribution to football so far was ensuring the Hijab can worn at games.

whats wrong with that? why shouldn't women be allowed to wear that when they play?

I agree.

Yes nothing wrong at all.

i am a free spirit and libiterian and actually i find the idea that in 2015 women are obliged toi be covered up when they play deeply unsettling.
I repeat 2015 not 1515...    we are allowing repressive regimes and medieval practices to have far too much sway....   i wouldn't outlaw it but I loathe it and I am stunned fifa and the football federations of the world haven't done more to make the players wear the proper outfits.

If they cave on this, will non Muslim women be forced to cover up if they happen to play a match in one of those countries? If you've ever seen Alex Morgan, I'm sure you'd agree with me that it would be a crime. I'd like to see this apparel being worn in, say Columbus, Ohio in August. The clothes would weigh ten pounds in very short order. Cultural respect should be given, but this seems excessive to me.

[ToodlesMcToot]

Anyone else find it ironic that we are talking about the forced use of such things while using a picture that so obviously portrays a woman's personal choice to wear the hijab??

[CincyFulham1]

Saw this and found it entertaining.  It's pre-Sepp resignation, but still good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr6ar3xJL_Q&feature=player_embedded

[Nick Bateman]

Petr Cech wears a hijab....