Sepp Blatter is FIFA’s President. He is the World Football’s voice. Yet, that voices always seems to be throwing damnation in the direction of the English.
In June 2006, he accused England of spoiling the World Cup in Germany:
I’m delighted that teams are playing offensively, one exception is the English.
During January 2008, he blasted the FA for choosing Italian Fabio Capello over an English manager to lead the England team:
I would say it is a little surprising that the motherland of football has ignored a sacrosanct law or belief that the national team manager should be from the same country as the players. I have never seen Italy, Germany, Brazil or Argentina with a coach from another country.
In Febuary 2008, he continued his rant he accused the Premier League of losing its English identity, despite being the best league in the World in terms of entertainment, standards and income.
March 2008 saw Blatter threaten to overrule the FA as they decided to hand Birmingham’s Martin Taylor a three-match ban for his tackle that broke Arsenal striker Eduardo’s leg. He also branded the mistimed tackle an ‘attack’:
It is shocking when you see how this player was attacked. It is not football.
The summer of 2008 saw his worse judgement of a situation in regards to Real Madrid’s pursuit of Manchester United’s Christiano Ronaldo, comparing the £120,000 a week wingers treatment to slavery:
I think in football there’s too much modern slavery in transferring players or buying players here and there, and putting them somewhere.
And today he is once again having a go at English football, stating that the Premier League is not competitive enough. It does not seem to matter than France’s league is on course for its seventh successive year of Lyon dominance. It also does not seem to matter that for the past 8 years the Liga title has rotated between Real Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia.
If all four English teams reach the Champions League quarter-finals, no doubt he’ll use that as a platform to attack England’s football. It does not seem to matter that there was an all Italian final in 2003, with three Italians in the semi-finals. It does seem to matter when the same thing happens, but its with English teams.
How long must we accept his biased attacks on England?