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Football News: FIFA Blame CONCACAF

Now we know Sepp Blatter's survival strategy is, as usual, to bluster his way through the issues and feign ignorance of what is going on. This time though, he has taken a completely new tack from his usual method of protecting the corrupt officials.

This time Sepp has realised he can no longer protect them, instead he has heaped the blame squarely on CONCACAF, thrown them under the bus completely, so to speak. Last time Jack Warner got protection from the police by getting a slap on the wrists from Blatter, this time he has been cut loose to face the music.

Could this be the beginning of the end for Blatter? Losing one member of his powerbase, though a small one, could be the first step in losing support from around FIFA.

Up until now he has maintained support by protecting corrupt officials while ensuring the smaller federations, such as those in CONCACAF, had more of a cut of the TV money etc that FIFA shares out.

Once this support starts defecting, then he could very easily be swept out of power. Sadly it is unlikely to happen this time around, particularly because of his lack of support from UEFA.

The smaller nations see Blatter are their protection from the greed of the big (in football terms) European nations, who would otherwise keep all the money to themselves. UEFA's talk of leaving FIFA is just strengthening his position, rather than likely to lead to his downfall.

So far though, there has been nothing to suggest Michel Platini is any better than Blatter, even Platini's vote in the 2022 World Cup was given to Qatar, at the request of the president of France (the country not football federation).

That on its own should have seen the vote cancelled, as the FIFA statutes clearly forbid political interference. Despite Platini publicly admitting his vote was swayed by this political interference, he has faced no censure, nor has the vote been declared null and void.

It does suggest Platini is no better than Blatter, just substitute sponsors telling him what to do for France.

Written by Tris Burke May 29 2015 07:26:42