July 13 – Just when you thought it had all died down, outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter and English FA chairman Greg Dyke have engaged in another unsavoury war of words.
Blatter was quoted as telling a Swiss magazine last week that the English wanted him out and that they hated FIFA because “they no longer control football”.
Dyke, whose association was set up in 1863 and is part of football’s law-making body, the International FA Board, was quick to respond at the weekend.
“He’s always disliked me, he hates the British media and doesn’t like the English at all which is fine because we don’t really like him,” Dyke told Sky Sports, suggesting Blatter was using every opportunity to rebuff his critics after announcing he was stepping down.
“I do think he’s coming up with some rather strange things. He’s probably in a state of shock. This is a man that was triumphant, he thought he was going to run FIFA for four years when actually he only ran it for four days.”
Blatter’s successor will be chosen at a special FIFA Congress some time between December and February. The date will be selected next week.
“The only thing we can argue and complain about is that FIFA is an organisation that has been corrupted over 40 years. The single most important thing now is to talk about how we reform FIFA and not get Blatter mark II,” said Dyke.
“Until we know who is going to stand then we don’t know who we’re going to support. But we’re very friendly with (UEFA president Michel) Platini and supported him in the past. So we’ll see what he decides.”
Platini, until recently, has not been known for his love of the English, in fact generally the opposite even though he endorsed the privileged FIFA executive committee position held by the four British “home” nations to stay with them once it became a UEFA position instead. He is also a strong supporter of hosting the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, something that Dyke has railed, often rabidly, against. Sometimes there are more kicks to the balls in sports politics than there are on the field of play.
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