Qatar World Cup - Blatter plays the racism card

Just heard on the radio news that Sepp Blatter is being quoted as stating that the corruption claims regarding the awarding of a World Cup finals to Qatar includes various racist slurs.

Is this a desperate attempt to create another smoke screen around FIFA's incompetence / corrupt regime on the eve of the 2014 Finals? Is he in denial, wrapped in the protective and artificial FIFA cocoon? Is he so out of touch with what is right and proper within the guardianship of our beautiful game? - or are there genuine 'cultural misunderstandings' around how business is conducted in Qatar?

It seems to me that if there is substantial evidence of corruption and therefore criminal wrong doing then charges should follow and lets see the evidence tested in court. Equally if there are suggestions of racism then these should be challenged.

I for one would like to see this all purged and aired in public. Clearly given the extent of the revelations in The Sunday Times over the last two weeks, following on from past allegations from BBC Panorama etc there is more than just a whiff of corruption here. Major sponsors are now publicly expressing their anxiety that this should be sorted out. I'm not sure that I trust FIFA to act as judge and jury on this.

Personally I feel this extends well beyond FIFA and the World Cup - not least into UEFA where Platini has turned a blind eye to Qatar's influence including at Barca and PSG. The latter was encouraged by the so called protectionist Sarkozy who allowed Qatar to buy into PSG and canvassed all sorts of French contracts in Qatar. I know there is a fine line between acceptable and what is corrupt in big business but there seems to be institutional corruption at the highest levels in the controlling bodies of World and European football.

I won't hold my breath as there now seems so much vested interest and Blatter has created a cunning legal firewall in Swiss law to protect his domain.

It'll be a near miracle if the world cup actually gets moved.

It will be a miracle if Blatter shows any conscience over the awarding of the finals to Qatar....................and there are still questions over how Russia won their bid. Bring that on too.

I recently heard an interesting interview from US and Australian football media correspondents describing how their football associations spent millions on their respective World Cup bids and are now lining up to sue FIFA for every penny if corruption is proven. This issue isn't going away anytime soon. This will be a field day for the lawyers.

Then the sponsors of the World Cup will also be queuing up for their slice of the action too, given their reputations are being associated with such allegations. No wonder that Blatter is desperately fighting a rear guard action here.

It will be very interesting to see if Blatter is willing to properly face up to the media during the World Cup. It won't be easy for him to hide now the 2014 Finals are here. I hope the football is special but also want to see Blatter given a very, very hard time too.

All about the sponsors reaction. If they demand change, then maybe....

Racism against the Swiss? That's something new.

I suspect there has been an international call received chez Blatter from a rather irate and slightly worried Qatari "businessman" demanding that Sepp do what he has been handsomely paid (in untraceable used banknotes) to do.
Playing the racism card smacks to me of a desperate man and I hope than the whole thing comes tumbling down on his corrupt head.

Blatter was playing the the crowd - his favorite game. he was at a Conferance of African Football, they are complaing that some of their members have been fingered for being corrupt (allegedly, or course) and that its all a racist plot by the British media. Blatter chips in with the same theme to curry favour.

He's being paid.