By RYAN TOLMICH
Rumors continue to swirl that Sepp Blatter is considering reneging on his plans to resign, but one FIFA official has called for Blatter to go through with his promise to step down.
Domenico Scala, the head of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee who appeared alongside Blatter during the president’s resignation, insists that Blatter must follow through for the good of reform. Earlier this week, reports in Switzerland stated that Blatter is considering staying on as president after receiving support from African and Asian federations.
“For me, the reforms are the central topic,” Scala said. “That is why I think it is clearly indispensable to follow through with the initiated process of president’s change as it has been announced.”
As things stand, Blatter is prepared to remain with FIFA until the organization can elect a successor at a FIFA congress between December and February.
Here are some more news and notes to kick off your Monday morning:
BRAZIL PICK UP LATE WIN, VENEZUELA TOP COLOMBIA IN COPA AMERICA
Brazil needed every last minute to avoid an upset at the hands of Peru.
Level at one for over 85 minutes, midfielder Douglas Costa played hero for Brazil witha 92nd minute winner, giving Brazil a 2-1 victory to open the group stage’s of the Copa America.
After seeing a fifth minute goal from Neymar cancel out a third minute opener from Peru’s Christian Cuevas, Costa snatched Brazil all three points after a spectacular effort from the Barcelona forward. After dribbling past four defenders, Neymar fed Costa with just one man to beat, and the Shkahtar Donetsk midfielder made no mistake in earning Brazil a tournament-opening victory.
Fellow favorites Colombia would not be so lucky in what ended up being a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Venezuela.
Led by a 60th minute header from Saloman Rondon, Venezuela sealed an upset to equal Brazil atop Group C through the opening round of games.
Brazil returns to action June 17 to take on a Colombia side now in need of a result, while Venezuela takes on Peru one day later.
TOTTENHAM INSISTS KANE WON’T BE SOLD TO MAN UNITED
Despite rumors linking the star forward with a move away from the club, Tottenham insists that Harry Kane will not depart White Hart Lane for Old Trafford.
ESPNFC is reporting that Kane will not be sold to Manchester United even if the club prepares a large bid for the 21-year-old striker. Kane has been linked with a £40 million ($62 million) move to Man United after scoring 31 goals in 40 games this season.
In February, Kane signed a new five-year deal to remain with Tottenham, giving the club further reason to hold on to their star striker.
QUICK KICKS
Liverpool are reportedly interested in acquiring Charlton Athletic defender Joe Gomez. (REPORT)
Gianluigi Buffon and Daniele De Rossi have withdrawn from Italy’s squad to face Portugal. (REPORT)
Mexico captain Rafael Marquez will miss the final two group stage games of the Copa America with a leg injury. (REPORT)
Cristiano Ronaldo will miss Portugal’s friendly against Italy after being allowed to leave early for vacation. (REPORT)
—
What do you expect of Blatter’s resignation? How can Colombia bounce back in the Copa America? How will Kane fare in the 2015-16 season?
Share your thoughts below.
One of the primary reasons UEFA (and especially the English FA) hate Blatter so much is that despite his being an Old School European fascist, Blatter oversaw the two-decade long globalization of the sport, doling out money and influence and power to African and Asian and yes, North/Central/Carrib soccer organizations where once they had none. Blatter greatly diminished the influence of the European powers in international football and they’ve never forgiven him. Was Blatter’s motivation pure? Of course not. He just realized that there was profit to be had (legitimate and illegitimate) in all these non-European regions and he went and took it. Yes, he created carnival side-show acts like Chuck Blazer in the process, but he also castrated UEFA and gave countries like oh, I don’t know, the US? A chance to catch up in the global game.
Hate Blatter all you want, but it is not impossible to imagine things being worse if UEFA takes over.
Bingo! FIFA was to a certain extent was just an extension of UEFA for decades, and UEFA liked it that way.
Sadly, I, along with apparently a lot of others have little confidence in the ability for FIFA to right itself, end the graft and corruption, and get on with task of administering football.
I really believe that in order fo “FIFA” to survive, you will have to kill it.
Set up an alternate Football Administration, one with a clear set of rules policies and guidelines and more importantly, transparency.
The initials members will be UEFA , the US and other countries in Concacaf who want a change.
Invite other countries from CONMEBOL who have watched corruption take over the game in their countries.
All of these countries football/soccer NOB’swill join knowing full well of the obligations, duties and responsibilities the will have upon joining. For many countries, this will be seamless, for others it will be doable but challenging, and for some, so entrenched in cronyism, graft and corruption it will be nigh impossible.
Invites other countries and confederations to join this new governing body. on the condition they ratify the new rules, policies, guidelines of the new Football Administration as a condition of their approval.
Use the leverage of television contracts and sponsorship money, by those commercial business that have dropped ties and sponsorships with FIFA to join the new Football Association as enticement for other countries from Asia to Africa, to join.
Make sure that all countries can join, but they also buy into the credibility and transparency of the new organization by adopting the same rules for its own national football administration and do not allow new football organizations to join, not even provisionally until they have their house in order.
Why reinvent the wheel?
The old “wheel” is so entrenched with its own agendas and territories, they will resist reform, or worst, water it down, to protect the current business model. So we simple do an end around, set up the new football organization. Allow FIFA to remain until, when all its member leave, becomes a shell of its self and simply become a relic of the past.
Fifa has a single problem, one country = one vote.
Imagine the UN without the Security Council. That’s FIFA.
Right off the bat, your plan excludes the smaller countries which led to a lot of the problems in the first place. When the smaller countries feel ignored or at a disadvantage that’s when you start to have corruption creeping in order to have equal footing, then you’re back where you started. A new organization would need to include everyone, big, small, whoever, and then work from there.
This Brazilian team would be nothing without Neymar, very unimpressive, Perú deserved a draw. If Neymar played for Perú it would’ve been Perú with the points for sure.
Brazil isn’t close to full strength right now, so they just hand the keys to Neymar and let him have at it. Which is not a bad option.
In what sense do you say they aren’t full strength other than just not being good? Their talent pool simply doesn’t have that many difference makers, they have a ton of good players, but only one real playmaker. Oscar is the only really big time player I can think that isn’t there and every country has to deal with injuries.
Here’s a revolutionary idea. Make him step down immediately.
The sad truth is that most of the FIFA delegates (or whatever they are called) don’t want him to step down. Asia and Africa are happy with the corrupt system. They only ones who want him gone are UEFA and the U.S. These countries have the money and the players, but they do not have any extra power. The only real power they have is the corporations who sponsor FIFA a and are based in those countries.
Outside of the US and a few other countries corruption is the norm. Pretty sad.
Corruption is the norm everywhere including the US. The only difference is that some countries crack down on it and others don’t to varying degrees.
There is truth to what you say but the comment lacks depth of the corruption, Like comparing Mt Everest to that sand pile in my back yard.
No I don’t think so. The housing crisis in the US which pretty much affected the world’s economies was due to corruption, that’s way bigger than bribing some cop in Latin America to get out of a speeding ticket. The corruption is different, but it still permeates. Richer countries just do a better job of hiding it.
JCC you have a very valid point but I believe in comparison that the “Mt Everest” amount of corruption is still in Asia & Africa. BUT let’s not forget the very corrupt Russia with its biggest crook & war monger Putin. Putin also wants to keep Blatter so that they keep the 2018 WC after all the money they have spent bribing FIFA.
the only thing is that banks and those housing corporations that preyed on the poor have been held to account. Has the system of the mordida ended? Possibly in 80years. My father remembers it in Mexico in the 60s.
Have they been held to account? No one has gone to jail and the banks got bailed out because they were “too big to fail”.
Sure there is truth to much of what you say. But I think you are trivializing the level of corruption in many countries by referring to Latin American cops taking bribes. I lived many countries near the bottom of every corruption index. One example – Tajikistan, where estimates of the percentage of federal funds taken by the President and his cronies goes up towards 50 percent. Roads and schools are horrendous even by third world country standards. If we had similar levels of corruption in the US we’d have similar levels of roads and schools.
It’s about perspective. Tajikistan is more corrupt than Bulgaria. Bulgaria is more corrupt than the US. The US is more corrupt than Sweden. Every level is different, and any improvement impacts people’s lives in a positive manner.
Corrupt officials the world over love to latch on to comments like yours and say “See! It’s exactly the same in America! Why should we change?” But it’s not the same. When our infrastructure crumbles to third world standards because the federal budget is making Obama a multi-billionaire then yes, it will be the same. Until then, let’s keep the proper perspective.