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FIFA president Sepp Blatter has proven once again that he has a flair for attention-grabbing comments. Fresh from opining that England player John Terry’s sex scandal would be applauded in some countries, Blatter told Germany’s DPA news service that criticism of the decision to hold the 2010 World Cup in South Africa was nonsense.
He was responding to comments by German soccer officials who raised security concerns about the tournament and referred to the attack on the Togo soccer team when it was attending the Africa Cup of Nations. That attack took place thousands of miles away from Johannesburg in a country separated from South Africa by all or part of five nations.
But he went further. In fact, he walked right up to the edge of calling these doubters racists, labelling them neo colonialists who lacked respect for Africa as a whole. His attack also dredged up the controversy around the habit of European clubs swooping in and buying Africa’s most talented players for their teams, thus lowering the standard of play in African leagues, doing long-term damage to the chances of African nations in international tournaments and stunting the development of African soccer.
“It’s kind of an anti-Africa movement, this is not right,” Blatter was quoted as saying. “There is still in the so called ‘old world’ a feeling that why the hell should South Africa organise a World Cup. Why the hell?
“It was easier for them to go down to Africa, the colonialists in the past hundred years, to take out all the best, and now to take out all the best footballers.
“And when you have to give something back they don’t want to go. What’s that? It is a lack of respect, a lack of respect for the whole of Africa.”
Blatter’s comments are not the first to hit out at statements linking the tragic attack on the Togo team to concerns about security in South Africa. But they are the most explicit to date, and may in their directness get closer to the root of the cause of the doubts and criticism that is swirling around the decision to hold the world’s most popular sporting event in South Africa.
He was responding to comments by German soccer officials who raised security concerns about the tournament and referred to the attack on the Togo soccer team when it was attending the Africa Cup of Nations. That attack took place thousands of miles away from Johannesburg in a country separated from South Africa by all or part of five nations.
But he went further. In fact, he walked right up to the edge of calling these doubters racists, labelling them neo colonialists who lacked respect for Africa as a whole. His attack also dredged up the controversy around the habit of European clubs swooping in and buying Africa’s most talented players for their teams, thus lowering the standard of play in African leagues, doing long-term damage to the chances of African nations in international tournaments and stunting the development of African soccer.
“It’s kind of an anti-Africa movement, this is not right,” Blatter was quoted as saying. “There is still in the so called ‘old world’ a feeling that why the hell should South Africa organise a World Cup. Why the hell?
“It was easier for them to go down to Africa, the colonialists in the past hundred years, to take out all the best, and now to take out all the best footballers.
“And when you have to give something back they don’t want to go. What’s that? It is a lack of respect, a lack of respect for the whole of Africa.”
Blatter’s comments are not the first to hit out at statements linking the tragic attack on the Togo team to concerns about security in South Africa. But they are the most explicit to date, and may in their directness get closer to the root of the cause of the doubts and criticism that is swirling around the decision to hold the world’s most popular sporting event in South Africa.
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