In the end, it all happened very quickly. One minute he was there and then he was gone. A bit like this. The man who just a few days ago declared euphorically to be the ‘President of everybody’ suddenly wasn’t feeling the love anymore. “I do not feel that I have a mandate from the…
Tag: Sepp Blatter
The killing fields of the Qatar World Cup
The 2022 FIFA World Cup will be held in a graveyard. Already an estimated 1,200 workers have died building Qatar’s World Cup stadiums and associated infrastructure. This number is expected to rise to 4,000 over the next seven years. Basically a worker a day. The International Trade Union Confederation compiled these numbers based on statistics…
Friday Funnies: “This is good,” says FIFA
To the untrained eye, FIFA has had a very bad week. Nine officials past and present arrested. Allegations of bribery, corruption, money laundering and all-round dodginess spanning decades. A persistent stench about the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids. But according to FIFA’s Communications Director Walter de Gregorio, everything is awesome. “This for FIFA is…
The year in sport… in song
Who better than Miley Cyrus and the cast of Deliverance, among others, to recap some of the highlights — and lowlights — of the year in sport? Budget schmudget Vladimir Putin spent $US51 billion staging the Sochi Olympics, more than every other Winter Games combined. It wasn’t enough to adequately furnish the facilities, light up…
How about a Nobel Prize for Sport?
In recent days there have been Nobel Prizes handed out for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. But not sport. Never sport. In the 113 years since they started bestowing these lofty awards on ‘those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind’, not once have they named a Nobel…
Survivor: Blatter Island
Imagine for a moment that FIFA is the reality TV show Survivor and Sepp Blatter the contestant that’s gone rogue. Delirious from a diet of media bile and the relentless glow of the public spotlight, his words and deeds become increasingly desperate and bizarre. Sitting round the campfire at night, he talks of the World…
Brazil’s World Cup countdown hits discordant note
In a game of word association, Brazil conjures many possibilities. Football. Carnival. Party. Colour. Movement. And, of course, music. Brazilian drums and samba beats that get those hips swinging as only Latino hips can. There’s also The Girl from Ipanema. And let’s not forget Peter Allen’s I Go To Rio or Barry Manilow’s Copacabana. Hey,…
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