Blatter and other blather

There are ""pornographic amounts of money" being thrown around by the world's biggest soccer clubs. This is according to FIFA president Sepp Blatter. The head of soccer's world governing body claims that hugely wealthy owners of soccer clubs are threatening the future of the game.

"A fortunate few clubs are richer than ever before. All too often, the source of this wealth is individuals with little or no history of interest in the game, who have happened upon football [soccer] as a means of serving some hidden agenda. Having set foot in the sport seemingly out of nowhere, they proceed to throw pornographic amounts of money at it" he said.

"What they do not understand is that football is more about grass-roots than idols; more about giving entertainment and hope to the many than bogus popularity to a predictable few; more about respecting others than sating individual greed, whether for adulation or money."

This is a very tricky situation. On one hand, it's amusing to hear Blatter whine about these obscene sums of money. He doesn't seem to mind when such sums are thrown at FIFA's own pre-eminent tournament: the World Cup. A few years ago, Blatter was accused of corruption by his then-deputy.

Oil tycoon Roman Abramovich bought the London club Chelsea and has lavished his millions on the club. Chelsea went from being one of the top five or six clubs in England to being the prohibitive favorite to win the English Premiership (again). While most leagues have a handful of clubs who have won most of the championships, a certain degree of randomness and variety is necessary for the competitive health of a league.

Not only has it been almost 20 years since anyone other than the Glasgow clubs Celtic and Rangers won the Scottish championship, it's been a long time since it was CONCEIVABLE that anyone else would HAVE A CHANCE. The Edinburgh side Hearts are in first place now; though it's only 9 games into the season, it would do wonders for the health of the Scottish league to have someone other than the Old Firm challenge for the title.

And that's what's most dispiriting for most soccer fans. It's almost inconceivable that anyone other than Chelsea, Arsenal or Manchester United might win the English Premiership not only this year (and the latter two are almost out of the race already), but in the near future. It's almost inconceivable that anyone other than Juventus or AC Milan might win the Italian Serie A. It's almost inconceivable that anyone other than Lyon or Monaco might win the French Ligue 1. That lack of suspense makes for pretty boring soccer. Not surprisingly, nearly all the clubs mentioned above have a hugely wealth financial backer.

The problem with Blatter's comments is that there's not a lot that can be done. Professional soccer is a business as everyone knows. While fans would prefer their sport remain pure as the white snow, they also get really impatient if their team underperforms on the pitch.

***

After condemning the money men, Blatter found time to warn young Wayne Rooney. The Manchester United and England youngster has been in the news lately with much-commented on temper problems. Blatter said that Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson and England boss Sven Goran Eriksson should get tough on Rooney. Ferguson, who I'm not fond of, rightly told Blatter to mind his own business and deal with important issues in the global game.

Blatter also found time to controversially accuse smaller clubs of fielding second-string sides when playing bigger clubs.

I'm reminded of the old adage that Sepp Blatter comes up with 50 ideas every day, 51 of which are bad.

**

Leicester City goalkeeper Rab Douglas insists that his Foxes aren't a bad side.

Problem is they're not a good side either.

The Blues' current form is mediocre: 2 wins in 12 games doesn't exactly suggest promotion material. With half their games ending in draws so far (they drew 20 of 46 last year), it portends another mediocre season for the Foxes' faithful.

**

Now if you were from a tiny country with almost no soccer pedigree at any level and one of your youth teams unexpectedly won the continental championship, you'd probably be pretty happy. If that team went to the world championships and won two out of three games including a victory over one of the world's premier soccer nation, you'd probably be thrilled. But if you were sports minister of The Gambia, you'd order an inquiry.

The Baby Scorpions beat Qatar and Brazil at the Under-17 World Championships but lost to Holland. Holland, like Brazil, is one of the world's top soccer countries so there's certainly no shame in that. Or there shouldn't be.

But the nitwit who calls himself Gambian sports minister set up a commission to look into the team's display against Holland and the overall performance of the Gambia FA's technical committee.

The committee chairman said his panel's purpose was to "uncover the reasons for the team's failure" to reach the knock-out stages.

They were the first Gambian national team ever to win anything. They won two games at the world championships and stunned eventual runners-up Brazil. But because they lost a single game (to another giant), they are subjected to a humiliating inquiry.

With meddling clueless cabinet officials like this, no one they'd never won anything before.

**

At the senior level of international soccer: last weekend, five African teams qualified for the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany. Astonishingly, four countries will participate for the first time: Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Togo. They will be joined by defending African champions Tunisia.

Perrenial giants Nigeria and Cameroon will miss out on the World Cup, for the first times since 1990 and 1986 respectively. Nigeria failed to beat Angola in their two matches against each other and thus lost out to the Palancas negras on a tiebreaker; the southern Africans were accordingly ecstatic. Angola's 1-1 draw in Lagos snapped Nigeria's 20 match home winning streak in World Cup qualifying, dating back to 1981.

Cameroon was awarded a last minute penalty in their final qualifier against Egypt but Pierre Wome's spot kick slammed against the post. Cameroonian fans were not amused, though Ivorian fans were a bit more joyous. Oh and when I said unamused, I wasn't kidding.

Ghana finished ahead of South Africa and the DR Congo. Sometimes referred to as 'the Spain of Africa' in soccer terms, the Ghanaians have won a joint record four African Nations Cups but fans are celebrating their first trip to the world's biggest soccer party.

While Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana had some continental pedigree and quite a bit of international success at the youth levels, Togo's qualification was astonishing. The tiny West African country was completely unrated even in the African soccer scene but somehow managed to top a group with more fancied sides like Senegal (2002 World Cup quarterfinalists), Mali (2002 and 2004 African Cup semifinalists) and Zambia (1994 African Cup finalists). Togo's head of state was so impressed that he declared a national holiday.

And spare a thought for Morocco. The African vice-champions went undefeated in qualifying but five of their ten matches ended in draws so the Atlas Lions lost out to their north African rivals Tunisia. (Unfancied Israel suffered the same fate in European qualifying).

Congrats to fans of Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Angola and Togo. It's good to give new fans a chance to enjoy some time in the spotlight.

**

This is the last weekend of Major League Soccer's tenth regular season. San Jose Earthquakes has already clinched the Supporters Shield as the league's top regular season team. San Jose and the fantastic New England Revolution are co-favorites to lift MLS Cup as league champions, though you can't count out the holders DC United.

A lot will be determined by this last round of games. Boring, defensive-minded Kansas City Wizards would likely provide a much sterner first round playoff test for wide open New England than would the MetroStars. The New Jersey side needs to do better than the Wizards in the last regular season game to make the playoffs. San Jose is in an odd situation; the Quakes could avoid facing bitter rivals Los Angeles Galaxy in the first round of the playoffs by FAILING to beat the hot-and-cold Southern Californians in their regular season finale. If that happened, San Jose would end up facing mediocre Colorado next weekend.