LOST MARBLES ?..

Sometimes I`m not sure I`m living in the real world.   There are so many examples of madness around, but perhaps the craziest is  the enduring saga of FIFA and its head honcho Sepp Blatter.  

 In just the most recent weeks, we have seen the disgrace of the FIFA presidential `election,` which bore all the hallmarks of some hitherto Marxist state.   We then learned that Blatter and his cronies are going to cop for ringside seats at next year`s London Olympics, five star hotel accommodation, chauffeur driven limosines and any other `luxury` that can be showered on them just because they are who they are.   All of which leaves the `general public` - dreadful phrase anyway but especially when referring to people who, as taxpayers, have coughed up the vast bulk of the £12billion cost of staging the Games - wondering not only why yet another abuse of power but also why they seem unable even to get tickets for the Olympics being held in their own country.

Now we see that as one of President Blatter`s initiatives to `clean up` FIFA, he has invited those twin fountains of all football knowledge Henry Kissinger and Placido Domingo to  sit on the ‘council of wisdom’ at football’s main governing body, which sounds more Monty Python than responsible governance.  Blatter told CNN on a visit to  Azerbaijan: ‘These gentlemen are more or less advisers, they are not the experts but advisers. What they should be also is the kind of council of wisdom.’   Quite so, but why stop there, Sepp?  How about Katherine Jenkins or that bloke who sings the Go Compare ads?  Or Ann Hayden-Jones and her husband Pip?

But of course the craziest issue of all is the prospect of the 2022 World Cup being held in the 40C heat of Qatar.   For once I agreed with the Germans, who called for that decision to be reviewed.   However, now that Blatter is back in the presidential chair for another four years, he has now said that he doesn`t want to initiate an investigation into the Qatar decision.   Looking at the picture above, I`m not surprised.

Now if these are just a taste of the issues surrounding Blatter, FIFA and the beautiful game that I have played, refereed and observed for over half a century, small wonder I`m beginning to wonder whether it`s me or Blatter whose marbles have gone astray.  But last time I looked, most of mine were still where they should be.