A scathing load of nothing

It was called ‘scathing’ and he used words like ‘pornographic’. Clearly the comments, in part, were aimed at Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and new Manchester United owner Malcolm Glazer but failed to convince me that FIFA president Sepp Blatter is nothing but a false populist, saying what he felt others wanted to hear to take the load off himself.

Let’s fill in the blanks here: Sepp Blatter published an interview in the Financial Times yesterday and hit out with lots off bru-ha-ha about how football is awash with too much money and owners that have no real interest in the game. Yes, Mr. Blatter, this is big news. Did you pop your head out of your Swiss chalet to notice?

You can clearly tell Blatter is up to his old games by announcing a task force. A task force? Isn’t that what governments do when they want to appear to do something but really don’t want to do anything? It sounds really good, ooo, a task force, but how many times have we heard that, especially from the master of cronyism himself, Sepp Blatter.

Blatter also talked about the practice of agents buying the contracts of young African kids, a practice which often ends with many young men being badly lied to when their careers don’t pan out. Surprise! This is news? This has been happening for 20 years, what’s the newfound motivation to ‘tackle’ this issue now? There is none.

Sepp Blatter is a wind bag and has run FIFA for many years like his own private kingdom. The Belgian government (Belgium is probably the worst offender) should be the ones arresting these agents for fraud, they don’t care either.

Populism has been a useful tool for eons for men who want to cover there bad intentions. Populism is a tool to keep you popular. Say what people want to hear, wink at your powerful friends and assure them nothing new will happen. ‘Task force’ is code for ‘don’t worry, my rich friends, I am going to say a scathing load of nothing; as you were’.