Sepp Blatter to the rescue

Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president is on an India visit these days. His visit, the first by a president of the governing body of world football, is aimed at “reviving the sleeping giant” that is Indian Football. He feels that Football has ‘saturated ‘in Europe and South America, and growth can only come from new geographies like India.

Blatter’s strategy is to put in place a world class technical and administrative infrastructure. A professional environment will soon beckon world class coaches and footballers, improving the overall standard of the game. A FIFA technical committee will do a detailed study and come up with a detailed improvement plan. FIFA will provide extra funds in addition to the regular 1 million USD. Absolutely brilliant, isn’t it.

It is so thoughtful of Mr. Blatter to come down to India and give this brilliant panacea for India’s footballing woes. If only, the AIFF president, Mr. Priya Ranjan Das Munshi had figured this out, himself. But let’s not blame Das Munshi. He’s only been 19 years in the job, and has to perform his day job as a politician to support his family as well. I just hope he helps himself to some of the extra funds to ease his financial burden. And with Mr. Blatter around, he is surely going to fly (all over the world that is). He has already made up for letting India slip more than 50 places in the FIFA rankings, during his tenure, by becoming the first Indian to be a match referee at the World Cup. Mr. Blatter played a vital role in this; making Indians feel part of the World Cup, and the least our grateful nation can do, to return the favour, is to continue to blindly support him and his supporters in all future FIFA elections.

Though, a Swiss national by birth, Blatter has never been given his due in Europe. The European associations have been baying for his blood all along, and if not for the support of the developing nations, the world would have missed out on the contributions of this great man. Their good karma has paid off and Blatter has played a yeoman’s role in developing the game in these countries, as highlighted by the India example.

The media is another of Blatter’s fiercest critics. Come to think of it, a journalist once said, "Every day Sepp Blatter has 50 new ideas to improve the game and 51 of them are bad.” But in true visionary fashion, he has been unflustered by the criticism and executed two ‘killer’ ideas to change the face of the game.

The first was the World Club Championship. He made sure that football fans across the globe don’t waste their time wondering; which is the best club side in the world? And the players got to travel across the globe to play in this tournament. As usual the critics whined about ‘too much football’, but football celebrated its first World Club Champion. Just can’t seem to remember who it was though.

Blatter’s second moment of inspiration was, when he expanded the World Cup to include 32 nations, from the earlier 24. That, most of the extra spots went to the developing nations was a manifestation of his social credo; the desire to give the poor and downtrodden nations their due. I have a feeling, Arjun Singh secretly worships Blatter. The inclusion of more minnows also ensured that there were more goals scored.

God has finally taken pity on the state of sports in this country, by sending his messenger in the form of Sepp Blatter. This is a petition to make him the next president of India. Kindly pass this on to show your support for this mission.

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