Mr. Blatter once again gets it all wrong.

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FIFA president Sepp Blatter has hit back at critics of South Africa hosting the World Cup.

Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness has said awarding the tournament to South Africa was “the biggest wrong decision” FIFA has made.

But Blatter says these comments mask a disrespectful prejudice.

“It’s an anti-Africa prejudice. There is still in the so-called ‘old world’ a feeling that why the hell should Africa organise a World Cup,” Blatter said.

Hull manager Phil Brown has previously said the terrorist attack on the Togo team bus in Angola which killed two members of the support staff put a question mark against this summer’s finals.

But Blatter said: “I think it’s a nonsense to combine what has happened in Angola, a terrorist attack for political reasons, and mix it up with the World Cup in South Africa.

“In Germany people like Uli Hoeness and also representatives of the professional leagues are saying we should not go there.

“But every year 11 million tourists go to South Africa and nobody says they should not go there.

“Colonialists over the past 100 years have gone to Africa and taken out all the best things, and now they are taking all the best footballers. There’s no respect.” (BBC Sport)

Now far be it from me to take this opportunity to once again repeat that Sepp Blatter is perhaps the most foolish man in the footballing fraternity but on this occasion I think he has gone the entirely wrong direction when attempting to rebutt those who claim the upcoming World Cup is doomed to failure.

There is no reason whatsoever, that I can see, for the FIFA President to claim that anyone who believes that the hosting of the 2010 World Cup by South Africa may have been an incorrect decision. I think it is fair to state that there are some very real safety concerns in play in relation to the cities being used to play host to World Cup matches. Just about every country partaking in the tournament has made a point of telling its supporters to be on their guard against potential threats, they do not do so lightly and certainly don’t make such claims out of some sort of ‘neo-colonialist’ need to look down upon South Africa, they do so because there are parts of the country hosting the World Cup that are frankly not 100% safe.

Would Sepp Blatter accuse those who believe that the next European Championship should not be hosted in Ukraine and Poland of being colonialist in their assertion? Of course he wouldn’t, making these claims make the Swiss man look rather silly indeed.

That doesn’t mean that there will certainly be trouble at the tournament this summer but Mr. Blatter is being rather naive to take the argument down the direction that he has. It is fairly typical of the man to try to avoid any issues that could detrimentally affect his association by trying to move the blame onwards and away from FIFA.

Personally I can’t wait for the tournament to begin and it is totally correct that the continent finally gets to host a finals tournament and whether of not that honour should have been bestowed on South Africa can only really be answered once the World Cup is complete, then, and only then, can any potential post mortem take place.


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