Mr
If the helmet fits, Sepp...
Sharp-eyed Fifa watchers have spotted that either Sepp Blatter has an unusual middle name, or someone in the South African government was relying on Wikipedia when knocking up the presidential website. Blatter, well known as the president of Fifa, since April has also been a proud bearer of the Order of the Companions of OR …
what right does someone who has never played the game at any level got to manage the world's favourite sport?
he ruined this world cup for many, and only now listens to all the major footy managers that goal-line tech is needed. after 3 teams went out because of it.
all much less popular sports have it (tennis, rugby, cricket etc) yet football doesnt. ridiculous!
What is this story actually about?
I've never heard of the man, but I expect a well written story to make it's point anyway and educate me as well.
As far as I can tell "Bellend" is "obviously" not one of his names, and in a subtly news-worthy sort of way - but the story here only hints that.
I'm sure I'm missing a lot.
That has to be one of the funniest web cock-ups I've seen in a very long time. It seems Wikipedia has since been corrected (as the rest of the text is almost identical so it seems likely the source) but the presidency website still shows the same thing.
So is this the first official, presidentially sanctioned bellend in history?
Goal scoring tech and football game rules are determined by International Football Association Board which should be called "International My A*se Association Board" as it consists of guess whom: English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh and FIFA as a not really wanted 5th member.
So, the entire Lampard affair is what is generally referred to in English as "Hoisted by Your Own Petard(TM)".
On this topic, the English (and unless the report i read was wrong the Scottish as well) have been pushing for the goal line tech. Wales and Ireland have been saying no (i imagine because of the cost involved and the fact there leagues dont earn huge amounts of cash). Therefore its 2-2 and that leaves FIFA to decide.
So far FIFA have buried there head up there *ss... Will that change now? I dont know, but no doubt its bound to leave a bad smell in the air for all of us...
Well, look who decide to whack on the AC and be a pedant.
The first rule of pedantry is never do it AC. The purpose is to demonstrate how awesome you are to the whole world, so don't be shy.
The second rule of pedantry is to make sure you are right. Unfortunately, this is where you fucked up. Loser.
IFAB is made up of the four home boards and FIFA. Each home board gets one vote, and FIFA get 4.
The Northern Irish and the Welsh boards are arse-bendingly tight, and have always refused to discuss goal line technology, as they would then have to pay for some of it.
FIFA exec seem to be mostly some sort of 'mm Jumpers for goalposts' old farts who refuse to ever change anything in the game, lest you make it different from how it was when they were kids.*
The FA have been trying to get FIFA and IFAB to allow them to trial goal line technology since 1999.
* One of the more interesting proposals I've heard for football is adjusting the size of the goal. Bigger goal-mouth -> more goals -> more emphasis on skill.
The size of the goal hasn't changed since it was first decided in the 19th century by some guy in a pub seeing how high he can jump. I shit you not.
I saw this yesterday and it was on another site as well, politifi.com. I just went back to check and it seems as if it has been changed although the google cache still shows the page as of yesterday:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:gDQUpCMZKVEJ:politifi.com/Businesspersons/Sepp-Blatter/page4+http://politifi.com/Businesspersons/Sepp-Blatter/page4&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
Very strange yet appropriate.
The pressure that Bellend Blatter put on Nelson Mandela to attend the final did not go down well in some quarters. Mandela's currently mourning the death of his 13yr-old granddaughter and is becoming increasingly frail. Mandla Mandela, one of his grandsons, was quoted, "Their focus is having this world icon in the stadium, yet not really paying attention to our customs and traditions as a people and as a family."
Even during the games there was growing restlessness at the level to which Fifa-inspired laws were being imposed on the local populace, although the 'Fick Fufa' campaign ended up rather low-key.
I suspect this jab was a manifestation of the level of discontent felt towards Fifa and their high-handed ways.
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-06-18-fick-fufa
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/jul/15/sepp-blatter-south-africa-fifa
Blatter was once known as Joseph B. Blatter. He now styles himself as Joseph S. Blatter, where the S stands for Sepp, an abbreviation of Joseph. It would be interesting to find out what the B really did stand for. It is reminiscent of when Rolls-Royce decided to re-name the Silver Mist when they found out what it meant in German.