World Football - Blatter row: The verdict from Europe
FIFA president Sepp Blatter's ill-advised comments on racism have sparked huge controversy and given rise to prolonged debate in England.
England international Rio Ferdinand has become involved in a Twitter spat with Blatter himself, while the FIFA boss has faced calls to resign from influential figures.
Sports Minister Hugh Robertson and PFA chief Gordon Taylor are among those to have demanded that Blatter step down, while his face dominates the newspapers, websites and TV news bulletins on Thursday.
But how have his comments on racism in football been received across the continent?
We asked our network of sites to report on whether Blatter was making headlines and what the reaction to his comments had been.
Jose Luis Prados (Eurosport Spain)
The only article that has been published about Blatter and racism in the Spanish media came in AS. In Spain Blatter is only criticised because of corruption problems in FIFA. No one has made any comment on the racism problem.
Matteo Marceddu (Eurosport Italy)
We are focused on the new case that involves Blatter and I can ensure that he is heavily criticised in Italy too. We have written an article about the comments and other Italian media are covering it too. In our country Blatter is related to corruption and many people think he should have resigned years ago. Also in Italy, FIFA has a bad reputation. We think that the case between Bin Hammam and Blatter was very strange. Blatter represents FIFA, so our opinion about this institution is equally bad.
Maxime Dupuis (Eurosport France)
I have to admit that this story hasn’t been relayed much in France. He can’t say these kinds of things: I understand what he means, but there are better ways to explain it. We know that trash-talking exists, but you can’t tolerate racist trash-talking. In France, Blatter doesn’t represent much except the establishment. Always politically correct, not very interesting. His function warrants that. People don’t really care; and what he says is taken lightly. Should he resign? If the answer to that is yes, it is for other things from over the years. France is much more interested in UEFA. I think you can understand why: we’ll be more interested in FIFA when Michel Platini takes the lead of the organisation.
Igor Zelenitsyn (Eurosport Russia)
We have such a huge amount of problems in Russian football that we don't have time to think about Blatter. Secondly, he gave the World Cup to Russia so we can forgive some of his controversial quotes. Personally I can't agree with Blatter saying that there is no racism in football as there have been two cases in Russia with bananas being thrown at Roberto Carlos. I can't say if FIFA has a good or bad reputation. I can say that FIFA exists and that is all - nobody is thinking about it as good or bad. We read translated articles from British newspapers and we read about all the scandals and while some newspapers question what Blatter is doing, it is very rare. I must repeat that our problems are much heavier than FIFA's. The president of the Russian Football Union Sergey Fursenko is considered the big evil in football.
Cagri Develioglu (Eurosport Turkey)
Sepp Blatter is not a popular man in Turkey. The media criticise Blatter for different issues but at present only our site is reporting on the racism issue. In the past we wanted him to resign, but right now he is not at the forefront of Turkish public opinion as Turks are interested in the domestic bribery scandal. But as I said, Blatter is not loved in Turkey, just like other countries.
Daniel Sjoberg (Eurosport Sweden)
Of course the press have picked up on this and it has made news, but I have not seen anyone pressing for Blatter to leave as a result of this. As Sepp Blatter was the main opponent of our own Lennart Johansson in the bid for the FIFA presidency there has been a lot of press about him, but mainly news articles rather than opinion. People in general don't discuss him in the streets. Among journalists we don't talk about him especially either. I think we share your view of FIFA here. As I explained we don't think much about it because it is big and we are rather small. It is above our heads. UEFA comes up more in the press here, but if I was to ask people in the streets I would imagine their view of FIFA is that it is a club run by old men who are corrupt.
Peter Kwiatkowski (Eurosport Poland)
I think it is another of his rants which just shows what type of man he is. The fact that he says FIFA says no to racism is pointless, because in his view racism doesn't exist. So in that sense, FIFA's hard, back to basics work to change the thinking of players, supporters and everyone involved in football doesn't make sense. How can you change something if you don't think it exists? FIFA's program should probably be called "shake hands and forget about it after the match".
Comment 71 - 90 of 90
So, inclding us, 7 Associations say he must go. So UNITE and force him out. If the Associations stand against him and FIFA, then FIFA and Blatter are powerless!
Get out Blatter
It's obvious that nobody cares about this fake "scandal" outside England.
This is all about the English still being bitter and butt-hurt over their failed 2018 World Cup bid.
whoever or whatever Larry.Lee is i will rather not say whats on mind here because i will probably be charged for soliciting murder, No race deserves to be insulted and inability to conseal your dirty and sick mind and supremacists like you thats causing problems around the world, Do you personally know what to do with gold if you happer to be given some today?
Brits over reacting again ............ we are so scared of offending anybody who is not Anglo Saxon that we take all this rubbish seriously.
Let's get on with the game ..
Mr comment 82 You say that africa was exploited for gold and diamonds. The truth is the Africans were too ignorant and backward to know how to mine these things or what to do with them. These things were pearls before swine. If it was not for other nations the gold and diamonds would still be in the ground and so would the Africans ,who knew absolutely nothing about medicine or healthcare,
Well oh well "MR"
Your knowledge of recent history is very lacking it's the Chinese that are exploiting the African nations now! Who started the African slavery business? Why it was those god dammed Arabs. Read your history books and comprehend.
.As for you Mr "MR" I bet your are exploiting the British welfare system right up to the hilt.
As for the FIFA follow cricket, better not they are just as corrupt!
H M S Queen's government, hypeing the press after your loss for the world cup wont take you
nowhere. you are just bad losers. Blatter is doing a fine job. leave him alone.
BEL pa zed
balls man, balls, blacks are ill treated in the UK itself. In the US, before Martin Luther King's long march
on Washington, they were second class citizens and killed by the klu klax clan. Who is more racist, between
this old man, and the britons and americans?
BEL pa zed
Leave the old man alone you scousers. The US, UK nad the rest of europe are happy to bomb
libya and kill Gaddafi in the most bizzzare circumstances and leave a surrogate state israel alone
as it carries out atrocities against palestinian arabs. so who is more racist?
BEL pa zed
We all know that Blatter is a bloody joke this Man should never be in charge if FIFA but as long as we all sit back and do nothing this idiot will destroy football we all know and love it soon it will be illegal to tackle so Football will become a non contact sport and Die a slow death i have watched kids playing football and i have heard raciest comments so how can we expect to root out this evil at grass root level if FIFA are saying it does not excist tell that To Evera and Ferdinant and every other Black player who has had to endure insults regarding there skin colour
Its only this country that is so upset with blatter the rest of the world couldnt care less......sour grapes as we didnt get the world cup....moronic fanatical comments from Ibn A proves my point.....we are such arrogant bad losers !!!!!.
80 we all know what you do with your goat, Blatter is swiss and talks with a german accent, leave the goat alone
alcan99,
Your white ancestors have been spunging off black slaves for centuries, and still exploiting Africa to this day. Do your research as to who controls the gold mines, and diamond mines in Africa. They still haven't given back stolen land!
Considering that the rest of Europe don't really care about this whole thing, it can only mean one of three things:
1. The rest of Europe are inherently racist and as naive as Blatter.
2. The Brits are once again, being too sensitive and politically correct.
3. BOTH.
We all know the whites in France, the Italians, the Spaniards are blatantly racist anyway. And the rest of Europe (i.e. the countries that take the Eurovision Song Contest seriously) are not culturally diverse enough like England to care, or to form their own opinions on the matter of "race" because the average person there has very little interaction with people who are darker than them.
Sadly, my black friends, it seems that you dont have many allies in Europe after all. The evidence is glaring unfortunately.
What really gets my goat is that we invented football and yet we finish up having to tow the line of some French idiot who is as bent as a nine bob note. Worse still is when he does stand down there is another frog all lined up to take his place Platini.
Can we not just breakaway from this FIFA thing and go it alone after watching some of our recent performances on the pitch we are probably doing ourselves and others a big favour.
alcan99,
You obviously are deluded and don't know the facts regarding how black women and children, and even men were raped by evil whites during slavery, and various other facts. Unlike you I make sure I learned about the sufferings of black people both in Britain, Africa, the USA etc. It's amazing how uncomfortable whites get when they see all those black history books being put on the counter! Alcan99 your obviously in denial too :)
Mr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you are sprouting utter rubbish you know blowall about Africa unless you are African giving it to The English as all Africans do,too useless to see to themselves so sponge off the nearest "Milch Cow"
Mo its not the Uk, its our media, and everyone in the world knows that the UK media are the worst/best on the planet when it comes to exploding or exposing things. They are a hysterical lot, and that hysteria can at times be VERY childish, yet at the same time, they can also pick up a story, push it to hysteria until you actually realise they were pushing for a dam good reason. Iam a UK citizen but i am not the UK media. I can see the difference, im sorry you feel so closely aligned to our media, that you cannot.
The Race issue will be a problem for a long time as many white people get offended and get depressed when black people bring black/white history concerning the evil attrocities committed by whites against blacks i.e. whites raping large numbers of the women, men and children during slavery, whites brutal torcher of black people, denying them of education under pain of being mutilated, wiped with nails, or killed. Many whites complain and shut their ears refusing to listen to what is part of black history, but then call black people whingers. They can't bear to listen to the fact that white people lynched (murdered) black people and even kept the body parts and memorabilia. The truth is black people have to spend more time listening to the false history of the white man who was the real savage at the time of slavery. White people should stop deny the extent of the atrocities committed by their evil ancestors as this forms both white and black history for better or worse. So before you talk about black people playing the race card accept that your ancestors were evil racists, and stop glorifying them and calling them great men. The fact of the matter is that people today are still profiting from the plunder of non-white nations. Look at most of Iraq's oil, now controlled by whites via a consortium fronted by non-whites as their bribed puppets. Whites control African goldmines, from land stolen from black people. White nations divided Africa among themselves (search: 'Scramble For Africa') and still control of alot of their resources.
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