Blatter Blather
FIFA president Sepp Blatter is aptly named, as many have commented during this year's World Cup, but today really takes the cake. He's threatening to take the Golden Ball award away from Zinedine Zidane.
"I have ordered our disciplinary committee to open an enquiry regarding that episode," said Blatter. "We will await the result before taking action. The presumption of innocence until proven otherwise is and remains a sacred principle."He added in an interview to Italian national newspaper La Repubblica: "The winner of the award is not decided by Fifa but by an international commission of journalists. Having said that, Fifa's executive committee has the right and the duty to intervene when faced with behaviours that are against the ethic of sport."
Indeed they do. If the lip readers are correct and Materazzi made race-based insults to Zidane, FIFA must sanction him severely. In these circumstances if Zidane is stripped of his prize, it's nothing more than an endorsement of racism.
FIFA has not said whether they are investigating the content of the remarks that provoked Zidane. He is scheduled to do an interview on French television in a few hours, so if he decides to share what was said, we will know soon enough.
Of course FIFA cannot have people, deciding on the basis of Zidane's example, to headbutt others. No doubt this is a very serious concern. I'm curious how many people might actually make this decision, so let's have a little poll: