admindown the extent of racism in the sport.
Blatter triggered widespread condemnation on Wednesday after suggesting that footballers who are subjected to racist abuse by opponents should settle their differences with a handshake.
Britain’s sports minister led calls for Blatter to resign after the global football supremo played down the extent of racism in the sport.
Hugh Robertson said Blatter’s position as head of world football was no longer tenable after he said in a television interview that disputes on the pitch involving racist abuse should be resolved by a handshake.
“This is incredibly serious but it is part of a pattern of behaviour,” sports minister Robertson told BBC Radio.
Asked whether Blatter should resign, Robertson said: “Yes. I can’t see there’s anything terribly new in this. We’ve been saying this for some time.”
The head of England’s Professional Footballers’ Association, Gordon Taylor, also said Blatter should quit over the remarks.
“He is the leader of world football, he has to be a leader in anti-racism,” Taylor told Sky News.
“Racism is divisive and for him to say the player on the receiving end should forget about it at the end of the game and shake hands . . . We are going backwards . . . It is not good enough, it’s embarrassing. It is time for him to go.”
Although the 75-year-old Fifa chief later said in a statement his remarks had been miscontrued, his comments were greeted with incredulity by the British media and anti-racism campaigners.
The Sun tabloid led the condemnation with a front page story headlined “Blind as a Blatt”, while the paper’s editorial said it was time for the veteran Swiss official to step down from his post.
“Blatter has long been a serious embarrassment to the game,” the paper said. “Now we know he thinks racism is no big deal. What a toad he is.”
Blatter’s comments came as Liverpool’s Uruguayan international Luis Suarez was charged by the English Football Association for allegedly racially abusing Manchester United’s France international Patrice Evra.
England captain John Terry is also facing a police and FA investigation over allegations he hurled racist abuse at QPR defender Anton Ferdinand.
The Daily Telegraph’s respected football correspondent Henry Winter, meanwhile, said Blatter’s position at the summit of the sport was unten- able.
“Any politician who had uttered similarly offensive comments would have been sacked or resigned,” Winter wrote. “Yet Tyrannosaurus Sepp carries on, an embarrassment to a wonderful sport, an affront to common decency.”
Blatter’s suggestion that players who are the victims of racist abuse should simply shake hands with their abusers at the end of a match was “unbelievable,” Winter commented.
“Why should a black player tolerate that? Denigrating an opponent on account of skin colour is despicable, and illegal . . . such words would be shameless if coming from a humble kitman; spilling from the lips of the most powerful man in football is staggering.”
The Times’ football correspondent Oliver Kay questioned whether the furore would be enough to unseat Blatter, who was re-elected to another four-year term in June.
“Nobody is saying that Blatter is a racist,” Kay wrote.
“But if the Fifa president believes that footballers who encounter racist abuse should live with it, shake hands and move on, he is even more dreadfully out of touch than was feared.” – AFP.
Online Reporter