According to Grahame L. Jones, Times Staff Writer for L.A. Times, Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, FIFA's president, criticized the Spanish soccer federation and the Spanish league for disregarding the international soccer calendar and thus harming the eight-nation FIFA Confederations Cup, which begins today in France. "There is still a league in Europe which is playing now, and this is a lack of respect for the FIFA rules," Blatter said at a news conference in Paris. This is also a lack of discipline from this league. "The calendar voted by the Congress of the FIFA in 2000 and implemented since 2002 set specific dates for national teams from June 15 to the end of July." The Spanish championship will not end until Sunday, with two teams, Real Madrid and Real Sociedad, still in contention for the title. That has left the Confederations Cup without Zinedine Zidane of France, Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos of Brazil, and Nihat Kahveci and Tayfun Korkut of Turkey. "When I talked to the Spanish federation's chairman [about the problem], he closed his ears, he closed his eyes and he closed his mouth," Blatter said, indicating that FIFA might sanction Spain. Wow, I agree with Blatter. Will FIFA vote to sanction Spain [for stubborn and ignore]?
Doubtful It will be interesting to see if Blatter does sanction them. I suspect any penalty will be rather minor. FIFA tends to not harshly sanction the countries that are major players in the world soccer scene.
If he sanctions them, than what about Germany for declining to participate in such an important tournament. Fifa should do away with these worthless tournaments played after long seasons our in the case of the MLS right in the middle of their season. This is great for MLS taking away its stars in the middle of the season for a worthless tournament.
Is he also going to sanction CONMEBOL for having the audacity to hold Copa Libertadores matches during this Confederations 'no no no, these aren't friendlies, it's a real competitive and meaningfull Cup, no really, it is, it is!" Cup?
Sepp Blatter is working a tightrope. He wants to encourage the smaller nations and promote soccer in countries where it is not the national (or sometimes even a major) sport. To do this he has to make things easier for these smaller nations and this angers the current soccer world powers. The soccer world is dominated by a few countries and these countries do not want that to change. The question is do you want soccer to be the most popular sport in the world where the World Cup qualifiers are stunning games between all the countries participating or do you want it dominated by a few? You are asking why should things in the soccer world change? Ask the black players in the English team who had to listen to the crowd making monkey sounds everytime they touched the ball. Ask the parents of the Leeds supporters who were stabbed in Turkey. This is not soccer. If that is what the soccer world powers want soccer to be then maybe the smaller nations are better without it. Crowdie.
Yes, because UEFA asked those Turks to kill those Leeds supporters, they even gave them the knives to do it with. What the fu©k does that have to do with this Cup anyway? (a little hint: nothing) Why isn't Blatter talking about giving sanctions to CONMEBOL? Because the players that are playing in the Copa Libertadores aren't 'stars' (yet) in the eyes of the world like the ones who can't be there because they're still playing for an actual meaningfull prize in la Primera, i.e. Blatter will have less money to put in his pockets because less people are inclined to watch this joke of a competition without the Zidanes and Ronaldos. Why are there 2 European teams? Why are there 2 South American teams? If this Cup is meant to help develop the lesser countries like you say, wouldn't it make sense to use 2 nations from those other federations instead? Oh wait, that means even less tv money being generated for FIFA, because even less people will give a damn. Like that world cup for clubs thing, this is just another way for FIFA to try to make money off teams from CONMEBOL and UEFA. Don't be fooled into thinking otherwise.
I can't make my mind up which of these two tournaments is worse. The world club thingy got more coverage here, but that was solely because Man U were in it, and they had binned the FA Cup for that year so they could get stuffed by a Brazilian team that had Edmundo and Romario up front. (I forget which team) Of course, its stock has fallen even further (if that was possible) after it was cancelled last year. But this cup is equally daft. It looks like a World Cup, but then you see the empty seats and reserve teams playing. Then Blatter moans that it isn't being given enough respect. No, Sepp, the joke is that you should be given any respect at all.
Germany had more important things to do, like drawing with Scotland and (just) beating the Faroe Islands, LOL. What gives Blatter these delusions of grandeur?
Wasn`t it Scotland which drawed against Faroer? Blatter hasn`t achieved anything during his time. He wanted to equalize the playing calenders, missed. He wanted to hold a World Club Championship, missed. He wanted to make the Confed Cup a "little World Cup", missed. He missed a lot, I guess.
The attitude of those supporters is very similar to the attitudes reflected in some of these newgroups. I am OK and I don't care other other people or countries. The teams for the Confederations Cup are: France-host, defending champion and winner of UEFA European Championship 2000. Brazil-winner World Cup 2002. Japan-winner AFC Asian Nations Cup 2000. USA-winner CONCACAF Gold Cup 2002. New Zealand-winner OFC Oceania Nations Cup 2002. Cameroon-winner CAF African Cup of Nations 2002. Colombia-winner CONMEBOL Copa America 2001. Turkey-special invitation as France was already participating as European Champions and Germany/Italy had turned down the offer. Germany and Italy turned down the offer to participate and that is their right. Nobody is suggesting that Germany or Italy should be punished in any way. The Confederations Cup is a bi-annual tournament (the World Cup is every four years which is too long for the smaller nations) and it gives Oceania teams a chance to play against the bigger confederations. The fact that not all teams are at full strength does show that the Condeferations Cup is ranked below the World Cup (and so it should be) but for the stronger countries it gives the players just below the country's starting XI a run and for the smaller countries it gives their starting XI a run. If you don't want to watch it then watch ER or whatever other programmes are showing on different channels but don't try to belittle a tournament I am enjoying watching or the players that are participating in it. Crowdie.
Fair dos, I understand that principle well enough from being a fan of Scottish football, . As for choice of television - the television companies are already making that choice for the vast majority of people in the UK. Only the smallest of the five terrestial channels is showing any coverage whatsoever, and most of this is well after midnight our time (recorded screenings). The only live coverage is on a specialist sports channel, which you can only subscribe to if you have cable or satellite. Presumably the television income for the confed. cup must be very low if this is typical of most countries. Therefore its long term prospects must be dubious.
Eat spuff and die, you fat, corrupt, irrelevant Swiss rent boy. I hope your intestines turn into the fires of hell and explode in front of your children's eyes. I hope the ravens are pecking out your liver before your heart stops beating.
Yes, he's a totally corrupt, greedy, selfish, kickbacked to the hilt lying ex-lawyer. He does have a few good ideas though (of course his reasoning is self-motivated though, ie: kickbacks), however the Confederation's Cup is not one of them. If this is moved to one year before WCs so be it. Every 2 years is stupid. Give me an annual World Club Championship any day over this nonsense. They can't even fill French stadiums, that's crap.