Sepp Blatter has been criticised for his outspokenness, but this is the very
quality that makes him such sparkling company. For more than an hour, the
Fifa president was unflinching in his determination to give straight answers
to straight questions, to the point of talking in rare depth about his
private life and his enduring regret that his first marriage fell apart,
fracturing the life of his beloved daughter, Corinne.
Blatter came bounding into the presidential lounge on the first floor of
Fifa's futuristic headquarters in Zurich with a grin so warm and mischievous
that I was no longer at a loss to understand how a rotund PR man from a
remote Swiss community had managed to reach the pinnacle of football's
supreme body. “Isn't this such jolly fun,” his dancing eyes seemed to be
saying. “All this pomp and circumstance for little old me.”
The 71-year-old is in the second year of his third term as president and,
although he has not ruled out a fourth bid for office, he is aware that time
is running out to make an indelible imprint on the game he first played in a
village at the foot of the Matterhorn. He soon makes it clear that he
believes his legacy hinges on enacting a quota system, in which six places
in the starting line-ups for domestic league matches are reserved for
players eligible to play for the national team.
“Six plus five,” he said when I asked him about the biggest issues confronting
Fifa. “This is not only a question of identity but of protecting the spirit
of the game. In the old times, the football club was a local club, then it
was a regional club and then it was a national club. Now, in some cases, it
is not even a continental club.
“Take Inter Milan. They have had ten non-European players on the field in
recent matches. If you ask the fans if they want a strong national team, the
answer is yes. If you ask whether they want to see national players in the
clubs, they say yes. But they never get a chance to see the players.
“Look at Arsenal - almost all the players are from outside England. There is
no place for the young English players coming through because the clubs
simply take players from the wider market. This is damaging to the identity
and integrity of football.”
It is possible to object to Blatter's arguments on a number of levels, among
them the somewhat prosaic problem that any such quota would contravene EU
laws guaranteeing the mobility of labour. “But the EU has not said it is
impossible,” he replied. “The exemption for sport has already been
established in the treaty. It has been said now that there is specificity of
sport and its structures.”
Would you bet your job that the quota will not be vetoed? “I am very
confident,” he said. “We don't want to go into a confrontation so we are
preparing the field first. There is a movement that is led by Jacques Rogge,
of the International Olympic Committee, which embraces the wider sports
community, including basketball, ice hockey, rugby union, volleyball. They
are all involved in the same objective for the autonomy of sport.
“Subject to the approval of the Fifa Congress [on May 29 and 30 in Sydney],
the plan is that we evolve to six plus five over time. We will begin with
four home players in 2010, then five in 2011 and six in 2012. This is a
ruling that will apply to leagues worldwide.”
Blatter's reign has been punctuated with controversy, most notably when his
campaign for re-election in 2002 was marred by bitter allegations of
financial corruption. Next week a case will come before a court in
Switzerland involving the collapse of ISL, Fifa's former media partner.
Blatter is confident that Fifa will not be implicated in the case. “Of
course there will be many mentions of Fifa in the media during this trial,
but this is inevitable because ISL was our partner,” he said. “We provoked
this case because we wanted to recuperate money [from the collapse of ISL],
but we discovered that the money has already gone and been circulated in
other channels. But once you start a criminal investigation it must go on.
“I am very confident that nobody at Fifa will be implicated because the
prosecutor has already said that no official from Fifa, now or in the past,
is on the bench of the accused. In the election of 2002 many attempted to
hold such things against me, but it was only envy, jealousy and
maliciousness. I have done nothing that I could not share with my
conscience.”
Blatter's passion for football is undeniable. Before serving as Fifa president
he was technical director for seven years and general secretary for 17. “You
see this lovely headquarters today, but when I first arrived in February
1975 it was like a tiny village,” he said. “We had only 11 staff, now there
are 300. The growth of Fifa has mirrored the growth of the game, which has
itself been driven by the special wedding between football and television.”
Do you have a life beyond football? “Football has been my big love for the
last 33 years,” he said. “But I do not want you to think that I am an
abandoned or isolated man. I have girlfriends. I have a daughter and
granddaughter and this is my family.”
Do you have any regrets in your private life? “Yes, I have deep regrets that I
was unable to keep my family together when I was first married,” he said.
“When I was growing up in the small village near the mountains our family
was very close and this was a lovely thing. My father was a mechanic for 40
years and although life was tough, we were happy because the family was so
together.
“From the age of 12 I worked in the local hotels in the holidays, bringing
wine from the cellar. And then in the evenings I would brush the shoes of
the mountaineers and make them clean - my father allowed me to buy my first
football boots with the money I earned from this job. Our family was very
close.
“That is why I regret my first marriage. I was involved in tourism and
newspapers and I was not at home enough; instead I was writing articles for
football publications. This led to our divorce and my separation from
Corinne. I am lucky that I have such a good relationship with my daughter
today. My first wife has made a life with a new man and we met two weeks ago
during holidays. There is not a problem between us any longer.”
Blatter remarried twice but never rediscovered the love he had shared with his
first wife. Today he finds consolation in the literature of Paulo Coelho, a
Brazilian spiritualist and philosopher, and Su Doku. Is he any good at the
addictive numerical puzzles. “Good?” he replied. “No, I am not good, I am
very good.”
Blatter on . . .
The lack of gay footballers
“There are gay footballers, but they don’t declare it because they think it
will not be accepted in these macho organisations. But football is open for
everybody, which is why they made a gay competition in South America. And
look at women’s football: homosexuality is more popular there.”
Goalline technology
“So few conflicting situations have been identified since Geoffrey Hurst’s
goal in 1966 that it would be wrong to introduce a technology that is only
available to the top tier of football.”
England’s 2018 World Cup bid
“England is definitely one of the most important candidates. The way they
organise football in the league and international matches is highly
professional. They also have the stadiums in place.”
Football and society
“Football is a game but it is also a mirror of our society. Our society is a
cheating and a violent society. These are the things we have to take out of
football; it is our social responsibility.”
Dangerous tackling
“Players who do this kind of thing intentionally should be banned from the
game. Attacking somebody is criminal whether it happens on a pitch or
elsewhere. It is a crime and should be treated as such.”
Have they figured out how they're going to get this through the EU's freedom of movement laws yet? I'd take this with a pinch of salt otherwise.
Thomas Ralph, Dublin 4, Ireland
About the homegrowns. I am from poor country, our best players go to big clubs abroad and we can never see our teams success as we were able in 80's and 90's. Yes Arsenal plays nice, but I don't care for Arsenal. And what if some other leagues (Russian, U.S., German) start to pay even more ridiculous sums of money to the players? If at one point in 10 to 20 years suddenly Arsenal, M. UTD, Liverpool stay solely on the second grade players, because money went somewhere else??? Try to think how would you like to support your team made from 11 worst players that played in it last 20 years? Most of the Europe except England, Spain, Italy and maybe Germany feel like that...
Vinc, Rome at the moment,
A quota system for foreign players would not only give local youngsters a chance,but might put an end to the ridiculous sight of players from other continents trying to mouth the words of the national anthem of their host country
peter haller, berne, switzerland
English football just doesn't cut the mustard, and introducing quotas would be just burying our heads in the sand. Also it would probably illegal under EU law as a form of protectionism. The answer surely is for English football to raise its game and be lighter, faster and more technically skilled
Richard, Bexhill, UK
I'm not sure I agree about homegrown players. The quality of the premeirship is much higher now than in the nineties and english clubs are doing better in the champions league. Plues the games are much easier on the eye -patriotic as we are I'rd watch Arsenal with it's team of foreign internationals than the rough and tumble or kick and rush that English football used to be. And don't forget it was never much fun to see the top English side leave the competions like the champions league at the earliest stages to minnows from Scandinavia.
Yes I know it's about money but on the otherhand we want to see a good skillful set of players. Or else ultimately if we were all totally principled people in one horse towns would abandon the glamour sides like Atsenal and go and watch the local sunday league team.
D whitts, Sheffield,
I totally agree with the six plus five idea. It makes a lot of sense to try and blood home grown talent before shipping in a bunch of foreigners. I always admired the likes of Klinsman, Cantona, Ronaldo to name a few, but the british game has gone way too far in foreign players across all the leagues, and I for one would prefer to watch a slightly lower standard with a group of players who understand the pride and passion of a local derby, and how the english league used to be. Maybe England would then qualify for the next Euro and World Cup tournaments too. I have a vested interest in this too, as I have a son who's been at Leicester City Academy for six years.
Pete Diamond, Northampton,
"Our society is a cheating and a violent society"
Summed up perfectly. This man should run for EU president never mind FIFA.
Sepp Fan, Glasgow, Scotland