Senile old fogey ruining the beautiful game
Something for all soccer fans to ponder over. Some lunatic in FIFA trying to destroy the beautiful game with his insane ideas.
Article extracted from football365.com
By Sarah Winterburn
He might be making sense with his blast at the "pornographic money" being spent by football moguls. But here's the man who wanted a biannual World Cup, bigger goals, women in hotpants and no tackles...
* Perhaps his most famous and most celebrated idea was to encourage women footballers to wear hotpants to increase the popularity of the game, telling a Swiss journalist in January 2004: "Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball.
"They could, for example, have tighter shorts. 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. That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?"
Of course, women don't actually play with a lighter ball, but how would football's most senior administrator be expected to know that? Or indeed be expected to live in the 21st century?
Norwegian footballer Lise Klaveness had this response: "If the crowd only wants to come and watch models then they should go and buy a copy of Playboy."
Which is fair enough - and possibly why there are rather more copies of Playboy sold than tickets to women's football matches...
* We have to go all way back to 1994 for one of Blatter's finest and most radical ideas - suggesting that USA '94 games be split into four quarters rather than two halves in order to suit the television networks. He lost that argument in the face of tradition and sanity.
Two years later he tried to better that one with a proposal to make the goals bigger to ensure there were more exciting games - suggesting another 50.8cm of width and raising the crossbar by 25.4cm. He lost that argument in the face of tradition, sanity and laughter.
Just when you thought he couldn't get any dafter - in 1997 he proposed the outlawing of sliding tackles because they are 'too dangerous' and were not allowing skilful footballers to show their true style. He lost that argument in the face of tradition, sanity, laughter and increasing boredom.
* Blatter, in his infinite wisdom, announced in April 2004 that it was time to eradicate dull draws from football, telling a German journalist: "Every game should have a winner. When you play cards or any other game, there's always a winner and a loser. We should have the courage to introduce a final decision in every game of football."
Would that be a penalty shoot-out, a coin-toss or a competition to think up the daftest idea, Sepp?
* Back in January 1999 his brainwave was to call for a World Cup every two years, a ridiculous idea born of his constant power struggle with UEFA chief Lennart Johansson. Blatter could not bear to watch the unstoppable march of the Champions League, so tried to up the stakes by staging his showpiece event every two years.
When that idea was roundly laughed out of town, Blatter's next brainwave was the Club World Championship - 'encouraging' an already-unpopular Man United to drop out of the FA Cup to take part in Brazil in January 2000 with the vague idea that it would help England's World Cup 2006 bid. Which clearly worked.
* Now he's making Liverpool travel to Japan for a money-spinning clash with the South American champions this December, despite the fact that their season had already been lengthened by the qualifying rounds for the Champions League.
"They must play the Toyota Cup because it is binding for them for 2005," said a not-to-be-budged Blatter. "The cup is in Japan. Do you think they won't play? They will play."
* Blatter may want to change just about everything else about football but his reluctance to move with the technological times is legendary, saying in an interview last year: "As long as I live there will be no technical help (for referees). You have to live with the uncertainty of the game and the mistakes of the referee. I don't ever want to see television cameras decide whether it was an offside or if the foul occurred inside or outside the box."
* Last year Blatter declared himself "astonished" and "disappointed" that clever David Beckham would admit to purposefully getting himself booked in order to serve a suspension while he was injured - putting pressure on the FA to hand down some kind of punishment.
This despite Blatter never once passing comment when Roberto Carlos admitted: "I have simulated many fouls and penalties. You have to be intelligent. Brazilians have always managed to get other players sent off using that intelligence."
* When in China, pander to the Chinese. During a trip to Beijing in July 2004, Blatter announced that the game of football had actually been invented by the Chinese, and not by the English as had been previously thought.
"We have to say thanks to the British associations - especially England - to have organised the game of association football," said Blatter. "But you cannot deny the history that in China there is a recollection and evidence they played the game a thousand years ago."
Someone's got a hell of a memory.
* In March 2004 Blatter certainly stuck his oar in where it's not wanted when he declared that the Premiership was too big - not leaving time for important international tournaments like the Confederations Cup, the Club World Championships and suchlike.
"The problem is that there's too much domestic football - 20 teams in a league are too many and those that play now know it. We came to the conclusion in the past that 16 would be good," said Blatter, who of course has no personal agenda. "I would not seek to take anything away but to reduce the number of matches in domestic football, perhaps to 45 matches a year including leagues and cups."
Or perhaps he could just shut up.
* Blatter on the scourge of shirt-pulling: "It is as if they have been signed up as textile testers."
Article extracted from football365.com
By Sarah Winterburn
He might be making sense with his blast at the "pornographic money" being spent by football moguls. But here's the man who wanted a biannual World Cup, bigger goals, women in hotpants and no tackles...
* Perhaps his most famous and most celebrated idea was to encourage women footballers to wear hotpants to increase the popularity of the game, telling a Swiss journalist in January 2004: "Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball.
"They could, for example, have tighter shorts. 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. That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?"
Of course, women don't actually play with a lighter ball, but how would football's most senior administrator be expected to know that? Or indeed be expected to live in the 21st century?
Norwegian footballer Lise Klaveness had this response: "If the crowd only wants to come and watch models then they should go and buy a copy of Playboy."
Which is fair enough - and possibly why there are rather more copies of Playboy sold than tickets to women's football matches...
* We have to go all way back to 1994 for one of Blatter's finest and most radical ideas - suggesting that USA '94 games be split into four quarters rather than two halves in order to suit the television networks. He lost that argument in the face of tradition and sanity.
Two years later he tried to better that one with a proposal to make the goals bigger to ensure there were more exciting games - suggesting another 50.8cm of width and raising the crossbar by 25.4cm. He lost that argument in the face of tradition, sanity and laughter.
Just when you thought he couldn't get any dafter - in 1997 he proposed the outlawing of sliding tackles because they are 'too dangerous' and were not allowing skilful footballers to show their true style. He lost that argument in the face of tradition, sanity, laughter and increasing boredom.
* Blatter, in his infinite wisdom, announced in April 2004 that it was time to eradicate dull draws from football, telling a German journalist: "Every game should have a winner. When you play cards or any other game, there's always a winner and a loser. We should have the courage to introduce a final decision in every game of football."
Would that be a penalty shoot-out, a coin-toss or a competition to think up the daftest idea, Sepp?
* Back in January 1999 his brainwave was to call for a World Cup every two years, a ridiculous idea born of his constant power struggle with UEFA chief Lennart Johansson. Blatter could not bear to watch the unstoppable march of the Champions League, so tried to up the stakes by staging his showpiece event every two years.
When that idea was roundly laughed out of town, Blatter's next brainwave was the Club World Championship - 'encouraging' an already-unpopular Man United to drop out of the FA Cup to take part in Brazil in January 2000 with the vague idea that it would help England's World Cup 2006 bid. Which clearly worked.
* Now he's making Liverpool travel to Japan for a money-spinning clash with the South American champions this December, despite the fact that their season had already been lengthened by the qualifying rounds for the Champions League.
"They must play the Toyota Cup because it is binding for them for 2005," said a not-to-be-budged Blatter. "The cup is in Japan. Do you think they won't play? They will play."
* Blatter may want to change just about everything else about football but his reluctance to move with the technological times is legendary, saying in an interview last year: "As long as I live there will be no technical help (for referees). You have to live with the uncertainty of the game and the mistakes of the referee. I don't ever want to see television cameras decide whether it was an offside or if the foul occurred inside or outside the box."
* Last year Blatter declared himself "astonished" and "disappointed" that clever David Beckham would admit to purposefully getting himself booked in order to serve a suspension while he was injured - putting pressure on the FA to hand down some kind of punishment.
This despite Blatter never once passing comment when Roberto Carlos admitted: "I have simulated many fouls and penalties. You have to be intelligent. Brazilians have always managed to get other players sent off using that intelligence."
* When in China, pander to the Chinese. During a trip to Beijing in July 2004, Blatter announced that the game of football had actually been invented by the Chinese, and not by the English as had been previously thought.
"We have to say thanks to the British associations - especially England - to have organised the game of association football," said Blatter. "But you cannot deny the history that in China there is a recollection and evidence they played the game a thousand years ago."
Someone's got a hell of a memory.
* In March 2004 Blatter certainly stuck his oar in where it's not wanted when he declared that the Premiership was too big - not leaving time for important international tournaments like the Confederations Cup, the Club World Championships and suchlike.
"The problem is that there's too much domestic football - 20 teams in a league are too many and those that play now know it. We came to the conclusion in the past that 16 would be good," said Blatter, who of course has no personal agenda. "I would not seek to take anything away but to reduce the number of matches in domestic football, perhaps to 45 matches a year including leagues and cups."
Or perhaps he could just shut up.
* Blatter on the scourge of shirt-pulling: "It is as if they have been signed up as textile testers."