By RYAN TOLMICH
Sepp Blatter hopes to remind everyone that he is not to blame for the world’s troubles.
The FIFA president hit out at his critics Thursday while stating his belief that he has been made a scapegoat for FIFA’s recent controversies. Given that he has not yet been charged with a crime, Blatter says he cannot be to blame for all of FIFA’s misdoings, insisting that it is impossible for him to monitor every person in the organization.
“I not only see everything, I’m responsible for everything, even for the English women’s own goal at the World Cup recently,” the 79-year-old said. “Am I responsible for climate change too?”
“It is impossible to stamp out robbery and murder, even with a functioning courts system down to community level. Soccer is not better than our society. But this envy has been festering for years. Envy is a predicate to jealousy. And jealousy is rooted in love. This can, however, turn to hate. And that’s what happened when this tsunami hit us two days before the congress.”
Here are some more news and notes to kick off your Friday morning:VELA TURNS DOWN INTEREST FROM WEST HAM
Carlos Vela had the opportunity to make his triumphant return to London, but the Mexico star has opted against it.
Vela is reportedly set to remain with Real Sociedad after turning down interest from West Ham. The Premier League club reportedly were prepared to meet Vela’s buyout clause of £21.4 million ($33.2 million) before Vela made his intentions known that he would like to remain with his current club.
Prior to joining Real Sociedad, Vela spend seven years with London club Arsenal, playing sparingly while enduring five loans away from the club. Since joining the Spanish club, Vela has contributed 39 goals in 101 games played.
Vela is currently on international duty at the Gold Cup with Mexico, who throttled Cuba, 6-0, in Thursday night’s Group C opener.
STERLING RETURNS TO TRAINING WITH LIVERPOOL AMID GERRARD CRITICISM
After missing two days of training with an illness, Raheem Sterling has returned to Liverpool while still pursuing his move elsewhere.
Sterling reportedly continues to push for a move away from the club, with Manchester City still considered the frontrunner to acquire the young English forward. Sterling reportedly told the club that he would prefer to remain in England rather than join the club on its preseason tour of Asia.
Sterling’s latest actions prompted ex-Liverpool captain and current LA Galaxy midfielder Steven Gerrard to voice his opinion on the matter, telling the young forward to step up and handle his business.
“I’m not happy with all that carry on and I don’t think there’s any need for it,” Gerrard said. “They all need to be men about the situation. Raheem needs to go in and speak to the owners and to Brendan himself, tell them what he wants and go about it that way. You don’t have to throw illnesses in and refuse to go on tour.
“There are millions and millions of Liverpool fans around the world who are itching to see Raheem Sterling in a Liverpool kit. So I don’t think it’s fair on them if he is behaving like that.”
QUICK KICKS
Robin van Persie will reportedly see his transfer to Fenerbahce finalized on Monday. (REPORT)
Jordan Henderson has been named Liverpool’s latest captain following the departure of Steven Gerrard. (REPORT)
Marcelo has signed a new contract that will keep the fullback with Real Madrid until 2020. (REPORT)
Germany will face England for a friendly in Berlin on March 26, 2016 as preparation for Euro 2016. (REPORT)
Crystal Palace has signed Yohan Cabaye from Paris Saint-Germain for a club record fee. (REPORT)
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What do you think of Blatter’s comments? What do you expect from Vela this season? Where do you foresee Sterling ending up?
Share your thoughts below.
Can’t wait to see what Vela brings.
If Blatter were to stand up before the world and proclaim his innocence ONCE and say he was ready to take responsibility that anything that was proved his fault I might actually find him credible and feel some respect towards him, but….wow, he sure sounds like a GUILTY man.
All I hear from him is that he is innocent because there is no evidence.
What he fails to realize is that it was under his leadership that the culture of corruption and unethical behavior was allowed to grow/fester/continue. Blatter is part of the problem.
Blatter is not that far off. How is he responsible for Blazer being a complete scumbag? He probably should’ve known but there were a bunch of other people that knew exactly what was going on and did nothing about it. Where is the Gulati and Compean outrage? Where is the Grant Whal expose?
Blatter is completely off base. He knew what was going on and even if he didn’t, which is impossible, you accept some blame because it occurred during your watch. Otherwise, I completely agree with you. The whole world knew FIFA was corrupt so why does Gulati escape this with no questions? He worked with Blazer all those years. Why didn’t he ask questions. Why was he willing to associate himself with corruption
There is a difference between fault and responsibility. Blatter is right it is not necessarily his fault that members of fifa took criminal action (of course we will see if he was also involved and it seems highly likely he was at least aware of some of the malfeasance and let it slide for political reasons). That said as president of the Organization Blatter is responsible to make sure it runs cleanly which he clearly blatantly failed to do. He might not be a criminal but at least he is an ineffective CE because he was not adequately monitoring or creating a calture to prevent this type of blatant systemic corruption. Like every organization if the underlings mess up that is a reflection on the management of the boss. The boss is just as much part of the problem and needs to go to.
Blatter should be held responsible and removed but what about those who kept quiet while their federations made bundles of money with Blazer in charge? Even if what they did was noncriminal it was at the very least unethical and irresponsible, the same things Blatter is being accused of.
first of all, if you needed a straw man, you could’ve just used blatter’s “climate change”. nobody is saying that he’s responsible for blazer being a scumbag; blazer was likely a scumbag long before he had anything to do with fifa.
they’re saying he’s responsible for the prevalent and entrenched corruption within fifa–an organization that he’s presided over for almost 20 years. i really hope you’re not trying to argue that.
and secondly, i’m not sure exactly what you have against gulati. should he be investigated? absolutely. but he was never, to my knowledge, in any position of authority over blazer, and he’s been one of the most vocal in support of the garcia report, this investigation, and fifa reform in general. i mean, *could* he be dirty? of course. but your “outrage” would be premature at the least.
When Warner and Blazer, along with FIFA officials and other nefarious football marketing companies started taking bribes and kickbacks, Sepp Blatter will want you to believe that no one in FIFA was tipped off, or no one had knowledge. Even though this same corruption was reported under the Havelange stewardship
But Blazer’s testimony refutes that.
Soon we will find they were, and these warnings were ignored or covered up, which makes Blatter, and members of the EXCO who may have heard about them, all culpable and legally liable.
What? Who me? I cant watch everybody! are NOT legal defenses, no matter how big a price you pay your lawyer. Blatter will be tagged as equally liable and maybe because of his age, under Swiss Justice, he may never go to jail. But he will always be looked upon as a buffoon, that will be his legacy.
So basically the leader of any organization says: “it’s not my fault, I can’t monitor everyone in my organization?” Whut? Isn’t that their main job as, well, the leader of the organization?
Sepp Blatter school of leadership has three main rules:
1. I don’t know
2. It wasn’t me
3. Somebody else did it.
But yet I am righting the boat and steering it forward!
He is basically saying, ‘Don’t look at me, I just work here.’
Didn’t he just take responsibility for global warming?
Must be all that hot air.
He later cited the Chewbacca defense: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwdba9C2G14
You know what never made sense about the Chewbacca defense? Chewbacca didn’t LIVE on Endor, or even on Endor’s moon. He had a job to do on the moon of Endor, and as soon as the job was done, he left.
“But this envy has been festering for years. Envy is a predicate to jealousy. And jealousy is rooted in love. This can, however, turn to hate.”
Shut the feck up, you Bill Shakespeare wanna-be. Or was he paraphrasing Yoda? “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. MmmmMMMmm.”
And I be hearing the sh*t you say through the grapevine,
But jealousy is just love and hate at the same time.
– Drake (Sepp?)