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FiFA president Sepp Blatter stands on the verge of another four years as the leader of world football's governing body, despite the organisation appearing to be teetering on the brink of outright revolt.

Following an extraordinary press conference in Zurich on Monday, Goal.com takes a sideways look at some of Blatter's most incredible statements during his reign at the top of football's political tree…

"The source of wealth is from individuals with little or no history of interest in the game, who have happened upon football as a means of serving some hidden agenda."
Sepp Blatter here talking about about himself and his FIFA pals greedy businessmen taking over football clubs to make a fast buck.
"Unfortunately there are other pressing and unpleasant issues that also must be dealt with: corruption, racism, betting and doping."
Zero out of four isn't that bad, I suppose.
"Because I love football and I love the footballers."
You just hate the fans, the ordinary people who aren't fortunate enough to have the money to go to Fifa tournaments, journalists asking fair questions, etc, etc.

"FIFA cannot sit by and see greed rule the football world. Nor shall we."
No, FIFA will not stand by, it will get actively involved to ensure its senior members make a killing too.
"If there is no winner at the end of 90 minutes of play, we would proceed directly to penalty kicks."
He obviously never watched the MLS, as he thinks there should be no drawn games at World Cups. 
"It can also be dangerous. It can be like to hang somebody."
On football's biggest issue: the snood.
"I do not think, and the FIFA Congress are of the same view, that you can afford to stop the game, and with the camera system HawkEye showed us, there is a delay in announcing the decision and the situation can change. The chip in the ball technology, which Adidas and Kairos trialled, was not accurate enough and the problem is that you have to put the chips in millions of balls made by lots of different companies."
Blatter bleats on about not using simple goalline technology in 2009 because it'd cost a lot of money. Hmm. Fifa has lots of money, so do football teams, so do ball manufacturers… where is the problem?
"As soon as we have a safe, fast and uncomplicated goal indicator, we will use it."
Sepp changes his tune on technology a year later. Don't know if you know, mate, but it's been around in cricket and tennis for plenty of years and works just fine.

Rather embarrassing associating myself with this… | … thinks the guy in the lion suit
"Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball. They could, for example, have tighter shorts."

Apparently Andy Gray and Richard Keys were appalled by this outburst.

"Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men - such as playing with a lighter ball."
For the head of world football, you'd think he'd know that the women's game is played with the same ball as the men's.

"I think in football, there's too much modern slavery, in transferring players or buying players here and there, and putting them somewhere."
Finished with being sexist, Sepp makes a ridiculous and lazily offensive analogy when asked about the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer saga, because, of course, a £100,000-a-week footballer really is just like a slave.
"The host of the 2018 World Cup is… Russia!"

And then everyone acted surprised.
"The host of the 2022 World Cup is… Qatar!"
But remember, they didn't buy the World Cup. Even if the general secretary of FIFA said they did. Because he didn't mean it like that, obviously.
"I'd say they [gay fans] should refrain from any sexual activities."
Ah good, back to offending people. Sepp laughs at a legitimate question about the World Cup being staged in a country where homosexuality is illegal.
"Handling the past will be presented to the Congress. We have to make sure that immediately after the election that we rebuild the image of Fifa."
Or you could rebuild the image of FIFA before and during the election. Just a thought.

"This committee will strengthen our credibility and give us a new image in terms of transparency. I will take care of it personally, to ensure there is no corruption at FIFA."
Sepp will investigate Sepp to ensure that Sepp is doing things by the book. Seems fair.
"I received once an envelope, when I was secretary general and in this envelope there was an amount of money. I couldn’t refuse because he put it in my pocket. I came home here to Fifa and gave it to the finance director and he put this money on the account of the Swiss Bank Corporation…. Then it was specifically known that please don’t try to give money to somebody who’s in the FIFA."
Sepp proudly boasts that he turned down a bribe, but receives full marks for incompetence by doing nothing about the man who tried to buy him off.
"Crisis? What is a crisis? If one of you can describe to me what a crisis is, I can answer."
It'd be two senior members of FIFA, one of them your best mate for years, being charged with bribing officials and it happening on your watch.

I've lost my dictionary! | Blatter fumes as he struggles to understand what 'crisis' means
"We are not in crisis, just some difficulties. The difficulties will be solved, and solved inside our family."
There was a load creaking noise as he said that: it was the sound of a giant carpet being lifted up so the whole corruption saga could be swept underneath it.
"…"
For a change, Sepp said nothing after being asked to respond to critics who say he should step down.
"Listen. I will not go into discussions with people that like to create problems."
Blatter seems to think that it's the journalists' fault that FIFA is in turmoil, rather than the in-fighting, the blatant corruption and the sham of an election set to take place on Wednesday.

Football, eh, isn't it great?

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Labels: Blatter, calling, crazy, footballers, Goalcom, president, shorts, slaves, suggesting, tighter, women, words

MONTCLAIR, N.J. (AP)—Top of the world—and underdogs, to boot.

The U.S. women are accustomed to being No. 1. Despite that lofty ranking and gold medals from the last two Olympics, the Americans won’t be the favorite when the Women’s World Cup kicks off June 26. Germany, which has won the last two world titles and will be hosting the three-week event, is the odds-on choice.

And Brazil—led by Marta, the world’s best player—will be just as strong a contender.

That merely ramps up the U.S. team’s eagerness to get going—and winning.

“If we are at our best, there is not a team in the world that can beat us, and we believe that,” said star forward Abby Wambach, who will be playing on her third World Cup squad. “Germany feels that way, too.

“Everyone has the final game on our minds, and winning it. But we can’t skip any steps to get there.”

Those steps include a difficult opening group of Sweden, Colombia and North Korea, which the Americans face June 28 in their opener.

“It’s more true now than ever that any team can beat any other team,” Wambach added. “You can see that in the Mexico game and against England. They proved that.”

Did they ever—at the Americans’ expense.

Qualifying for the World Cup has always been a foregone conclusion for the United States, which won the inaugural tournament in 1991 and won again in memorably historic fashion as host in 1999. But a stunning defeat against Mexico — a nation that had a 0-24-1 record against the Americans before a 2-1 win in Cancun last November—sent Pia Sundhage’s team into a home-and-home series with Italy just to get into the tournament.

The Americans survived that and seemed back on track this year with impressive wins at events in China and Portugal.

Then came a 2-1 defeat at England, a match in which the English, another opponent the Americans normally dominate, generally controlled play.

“That’s a sign of how strong the sport has become,” said U.S. captain Christie Rampone, a newcomer on the iconic 1999 team and now, at 35, heading into her fourth World Cup. “International teams have more money invested and more of a commitment to women’s soccer. The speed of play, the technical side of the game, it all has improved and so has the competition level.

“There’s not a team out there you can overlook. The game is more demanding. You have to make decisions quicker and read the game faster because of the speed everyone is playing at. If you are not locked in and focused, whoever you are playing, you almost have to be thinking three steps ahead, when before you could get away with one or two.”

The next step for the Americans is Sunday’s farewell match with Mexico at Red Bull Arena. The team is practicing this week in New Jersey with an eye more on fine-tuning and staying healthy than any sort of vengeance.

Besides, Rampone says, the players know better than to concentrate on anything but getting ready for the World Cup. From defenders Rampone and Heather Mitts to Wambach up front to midfielders Shannon Boxx, Carli Lloyd and Heather O’Reilly, there are enough veterans around to keep everyone, particularly the dozen World Cup rookies, headed in the right direction: toward Germany.

“We’ve faced a lot of adversity, and we’ve had experience dealing with all kinds of things,” Rampone said, “with losses or how to fix playing a bad half. Once we get to Germany and we have fresh legs and minds, I think we’ll be able to just play soccer.”

Labels: Ahead, topranked, Tough, women