In more than one television interview given today, Sepp Blatter seems to intimate that racist remarks made on the pitch should be settled after the fact with a simple handshake. Moreover, Blatters says that after the World Cup in South Africa in 2010 there is “no more racism in football.”
Blatter sure is a genius with timing, managing to find the perfect moment with allegations of racism coming out left and right in club football, to make a pronouncement that can only be viewed as absurd, if not harmful to anti-racism efforts. Either he or his Twitter minions tried to correct the damage on the microblogging site, but failed, particularly with this Tweet.
But today he’s out-done himself. Not ten minutes after Blatter’s remarks made the light of day, the FA revealed it would be charging Luis Suarez:
The FA has today charged Liverpool’s Luis Suarez following an incident that occurred during the Liverpool versus Manchester United fixture at Anfield on 15 October 2011.
It is alleged that Suarez used abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour towards Manchester United’s Patrice Evra contrary to FA rules.
It is further alleged that this included a reference to the ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race of Patrice Evra.
We’ve yet to see the fallout of all this, but at a very tense time in football and with FIFA and UEFA’s relationship with the European Club Association who are threatening to split away in 2014 unless their demands are met, this only makes the world football governing body look more out-of-touch with the reality of the game than ever before.
Yet another calamitous statement from the supposedly boss of world soccer. This guy is clearly out of his depth, out of tune with reality and the game of football. The sport will be a much better place whenever he leaves his post, hopefully after having been given the boot.
I read the article where Suarez attempted to defend himself by saying the word used was culturally acceptible in Uruguay. Well the old parable of when in Rome, do as the Romans comes to mind ! This is not accetible behavior and ignorance cannot be a justifiable defense.
I didn’t read that about Suarez – link? I read that he said he called Evra simply what his teammates call him regularly on the pitch
I am glad that the FA is taking some action against Racist comments. When will someone take action against Sepp?
Racism has no place in the game. But, a far more serious issue is the fact that Sepp apparently still does.