Sepp Blatter has 50 new ideas every day and 51 of them are bad." Thus spoke a sceptical German football journalist to me long ago — but he would hardly be moved to change his opinion now after Blatter's asinine words about racism on the football field.
Such insults, he airily tells us, should simply end with a handshake at full-time between the players involved. This, almost concurrently with the decision of the English Football Association to charge Luis Suarez, Liverpool's prolific Uruguayan striker, with racially insulting Manchester United's French defender Patrice Erva, allegedly calling him a "nogrito" or "little black". Which Suarez insists is a mere endearment.
But if this piece of inanity leads as some, including Prime Minister David Cameron, desire to Blatter's long overdue demise, it will be a little like the sending of Al Capone to jail merely for income tax evasion.
Blatter's chequered Fifa presidency has abounded with risible moments. He once suggested that women footballers should wear tighter shorts, he wanted goals to be enlarged and kick-ins to supersede throw-ins — an idea once put disastrously into practice in world youth finals.
Far more serious has been his close, even affectionate relationship with the notorious Jack Warner and his presiding blandly over an organisation steeped in corruption and malfeasance.
League games
European Champions League football is with us again this week — today Manchester City play a vital group game in Naples, where their fans have been seriously warned to take all possible means of avoiding being stabbed, not least near the railway station, as were half a dozen Bayern Munich supporters when their team visited that turbulent city recently.
Bayern will win this group but second place is still up for grabs. In Munich last European timeout, Napoli went 3-0 down to Bayern and its dashing attack, but still got a couple of goals back by the end. This Napoli team, though it can't call on the extravagant wealth available to City, was good enough to draw in Manchester.
And if City call on Aguero, Silva, Dzeko, but not of course Carlos Tevez, then Napoli have their own attacking stars in the likes of Edinson Cavani of Uruguay and Ezequiel Lavezzi of Argentina, well supplied by Marek Hamsik from central midfield.
But it is an Italian striker in the ever combustible Mario Balotelli, lately in vigorous form and apparently better disciplined for City, who could prove decisive.
Arsenal tomorrow receive Borussia Dortmund in a return group game after they were somewhat fortunate to escape with a 1-1 draw in Germany even if, much against the balance of play, they actually took the lead only to give way at the death to a spectacular strike.
Since then, however, Borussia's form has been patchy. Last time out in Europe they managed a 1-0 home win against modest Olympiakos, who gave the Gunners a surprising amount of trouble at the Emirates Stadium.
Such insults, he airily tells us, should simply end with a handshake at full-time between the players involved. This, almost concurrently with the decision of the English Football Association to charge Luis Suarez, Liverpool's prolific Uruguayan striker, with racially insulting Manchester United's French defender Patrice Erva, allegedly calling him a "nogrito" or "little black". Which Suarez insists is a mere endearment.
But if this piece of inanity leads as some, including Prime Minister David Cameron, desire to Blatter's long overdue demise, it will be a little like the sending of Al Capone to jail merely for income tax evasion.
Blatter's chequered Fifa presidency has abounded with risible moments. He once suggested that women footballers should wear tighter shorts, he wanted goals to be enlarged and kick-ins to supersede throw-ins — an idea once put disastrously into practice in world youth finals.
Far more serious has been his close, even affectionate relationship with the notorious Jack Warner and his presiding blandly over an organisation steeped in corruption and malfeasance.
League games
European Champions League football is with us again this week — today Manchester City play a vital group game in Naples, where their fans have been seriously warned to take all possible means of avoiding being stabbed, not least near the railway station, as were half a dozen Bayern Munich supporters when their team visited that turbulent city recently.
Bayern will win this group but second place is still up for grabs. In Munich last European timeout, Napoli went 3-0 down to Bayern and its dashing attack, but still got a couple of goals back by the end. This Napoli team, though it can't call on the extravagant wealth available to City, was good enough to draw in Manchester.
And if City call on Aguero, Silva, Dzeko, but not of course Carlos Tevez, then Napoli have their own attacking stars in the likes of Edinson Cavani of Uruguay and Ezequiel Lavezzi of Argentina, well supplied by Marek Hamsik from central midfield.
But it is an Italian striker in the ever combustible Mario Balotelli, lately in vigorous form and apparently better disciplined for City, who could prove decisive.
Arsenal tomorrow receive Borussia Dortmund in a return group game after they were somewhat fortunate to escape with a 1-1 draw in Germany even if, much against the balance of play, they actually took the lead only to give way at the death to a spectacular strike.
Since then, however, Borussia's form has been patchy. Last time out in Europe they managed a 1-0 home win against modest Olympiakos, who gave the Gunners a surprising amount of trouble at the Emirates Stadium.
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