Wednesday 3 June 2015

A must see: Funny side of the FIFA scandal


The past 7 days has been a traumatic and horrendous one for FIFA and football lovers all over the world. It is one that has led to an abrupt end to Sepp Blatter's 17 year reign as president.

FIFA and Blatter got into hot water over corruption allegations with 7 exco member arrested in a hotel in Zurich, wednesday.



That aside, One positive from this debacle is, it brought out the comic side of our football administrators. Past/present FIFA exco members, country FA chairpersons, ex internationals as well as football fans has spiced our some time boring football industry with amusing remarks.

We, the audience, fold our arms and watch as our football leaders thrill us with some sarcastic, hilarious and provocative statements.

"It is not over," these were the words of an angry English FA boss, Greg Dyke, after Sepp Blatter was re-elected for the fifth time as FIFA president.

Now celebrating Blatter's conundrum, The FA boss, Greg Dyke kick started the humor when asked if he will run for FIFA presidency:
"I think my wife might kill me if I did. "

He also threw punches at the Qatar World cup organizing committee. " If I was the organizers of the Qatar World cup, I wouldn't sleep well tonight." He said

The Qatar FA immediately fired broadside at Dyke saying the English Supremo should rather concentrate on building a formidable team that will win the World cup in Qatar.

"We would urge Mr Dyke to let the legal process take its course and concentrate on delivering his promise to build an England team capable of winning the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar."

A season of punches and counter-punches right?

Now Let's fly down to Africa.

Recall Africa strongly backed Blatter? Nigeria's FA boss, Amaju Pinnick echoed his support for Blatter's fifth term quest saying "He makes us all enjoy benefits"

By benefits he meant? Share of the FIFA's treasure?

"It's very irritating for someone to ask me why I voted for Blatter- why shouldn't I? It's a lack of respect for Africa." Ghana FA boss stressed.

Irritating?

Nigeria's Amos Adamu was not left out of the drama. The football administrator must be dancing 'shoki' right now with the series of events at FIFA as he directly threw punches at Blatter and FIFA.

"The rot in FIFA is like an overheated or overloaded transformer which is bound to expode,"

Adamu, an Ex-FIFA executive committee member was suspended for three years and fined $10,000 after being found guilty of breaching bribery rules. He stressed that Blatter made a hero out of his case.

His words "Blatter handled my case politically. The poor handling of my case was the beginning of his downfall."

The question here is: 'Were you guilty or not Mr Adamu?'

One man who has benefited immensely from Blatter's reign is his cohort, CAF president, Isa Hayatou.

The Cameroonian is one of the few men Blatter confided in before he walked away on wednesday.

"Blatter called me an hour before his press conference that it had become untenable." Hayatou said.

The CAF head has come under criticism but stressed he wasn't disturbed by the current events.

"I was not bothered by whosoever. Neither by political authorities, nor by judicial authorities nor the Swiss police."

In 20 years I have been accused of being corrupt especially by the Cameroon media without proof but that's life."

Meanwhile, Blatter's recent fall has seen football followers question South Africa's world cup bid and hosting.

South Africa swiftly denied it paid any bribe to secure the FIFA world cup in 2010.

"We won the bid clean and did not bribe." South Africa's Sport Minister, Mbalula

He added "Sepp Blatter has been a good friend to South Africa". But was that why you won the bid?

With Blatter not standing, the flood gates are going to open for FIFA presidential candidates. Buckle up for the next 6-8 months. Could it be Michael Platini, Luis Figo, Prince Ali, David Ginola or even our Amaju Pinnick? Watch out.......

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