Sepptic Blabbermouth Opens Gob + Roundup

Not very long ago I mentioned something about the UEFA president losing his mind. Yesterday it was the turn of the FIFA president; true to type, he didn’t disappoint.

This is what the great man had to say, read on:

“The important thing is, we should also protect the player. If the player wants to play somewhere else, then a solution should be found because if he stays in a club where he does not feel comfortable to play then it’s not good for the player and for the club. I’m always in favour of protecting the player and if the player, he wants to leave, let him leave. I think in football there’s too much modern slavery in transferring players or buying players here and there, and putting them somewhere.”

Mr. Blatter, it may seem now, has no idea of what he’s talking about or what he’s wishing for. Whilst comparing modern footballers to slaves is laughable there is something fundamentally wrong with the FIFA president’s statement that is worrying for the game at large, if he really meant what he said. Foremost among them is the fact that the president is not aware of the direction football is moving.

The Bosman Ruling and the Webster clauses have ensured that if there was any person benefiting, it was the footballer. If someone paid £120,000 a week to a slave then I wonder why anyone even banned slavery, in the first place. Most people would cut themselves in a million places to get that sort of wages. More importantly, sane people would like to believe that footballers ought to be rather happy with the wages they get in comparison to regular folk.

Dear Mr. Sepp, if you aren’t worried about agent and player power then you might want to get in touch with another of your minions, Mr. Platini, who wants to setup an egalitarian (rather utopian) European league system. If he wants equality giving more power to the player would make promising kids from smaller clubs move to the big ones at will with a few pennies thrown about as ‘compensation’ to the parent club. Players would be one phone call away from being poached. Contracts? What contracts?

Forget about the dream, where everyone competes on an even keel in Europe, entirely — although, even now, that dream is unlikely to be realised.

So Mr. Blatter, shut that trap of yours, and as Paul Doyle of the Guardian suggests, be careful for what you wish for.

* * *

Meanwhile, PFA deputy rubbishes Blatter’s comments. Paul Parker also chimes in, calling those statements ‘daft’.

Ahmed on Soccerlens has written a long, but very good, review on the 2007/08 season. We did that in RR over a month ago which you can find here: [Part I | Part II | Part III] But anyway do read Ahmed’s review too, was comprehensive and done in one post as against my three — which could be rather bothersome to navigate.

In other news, according to the Daily Mail, we seem to have signed the Brazilian twins. I am not sure how true this is because I have reported this very same bit of news three times before. I don’t see anything on the main site, though.

It appears as if someone pops into Guillem Balague’s website and take a dump — cue: this transfer rumours page.

And that’s that from me. Cheerio… and happy Blatter bashing.