Forbidden from using his office to solicit votes for his re-election, FIFA president Sepp Blatter instead took time on Friday to use his position to address the crisis in Ukraine.
The soccer world’s master politician insisted he is not campaigning for himself, despite appearing to do exactly the opposite at his first news conference since the four-candidate contest was declared last month.
However, Blatter did take time to lecture the media about soccer’s potential to calm geopolitical strife, told unnamed lawmakers to back off calling for World Cup boycotts and evaded requests to apologize for upheaval caused by switching the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to the end of that year.
“The World Cup in Russia will be able to stabilize all this situation that is in this region of Europe,” said Blatter, who has been closely allied to the 2018 host’s president, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Blatter also said that he was unimpressed by politicians who have used FIFA’s marquee event to make their point.
“The message is leave sports alone,” said FIFA’s top man, days after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko urged allies to boycott the next World Cup.
“Boycotting a World Cup or any sporting event has never brought any solutions to nobody,” added Blatter, who has been an International Olympic Committee member for 16 years.
Blatter said sharply that the Council of Europe had switched their boycott calls in recent months from the World Cup in Qatar to Russia’s tournament.
“This is a direct interference,” said Blatter, adding that FIFA — which counts Russian Minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko among its executive committee members — has rules against government meddling in soccer affairs.
The 79-year-old Swiss official is the favorite to win a fifth term as FIFA president from a majority of the 209 member federations, who seem to have little wish to change his leadership style and the grants, bonuses and committee positions which flow from the headquarters in Zurich.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS