Who Said What - The Gruniard

TBH there is just so much this last few weeks.

Credits to The Gruniard as usual.

1) ‘Zero tolerance is my battle horse’
Sepp Blatter: Promised delegates in Zurich on Friday that he’ll deliver a “turning point” to “stop the boat rocking and glide it placidly into port” – building on the turning point he promised after his unopposed win in 2011. Blatter told Fifacongress then, as he celebrated alone on stage with a bunch of flowers: “I am the captain weathering the storm. Let’s put our ship back on course, in clear transparent waters.”

• Blatter’s other best turning points: 2007 – “During my third period in office, football will take on a more pronounced and extensive social role”; 2002 – “Give me 100 days to examine how I can initiate structural change in Fifa. The past few months have not hurt me physically but in my heart. I want to restore peace, harmony and unity to Fifa”; and – after a new round of allegations in 2011 – “I’m fighting to clean Fifa – and zero tolerance is my battle horse.”

2) ‘Generally without credibility’
Chuck Blazer: US executive – enjoys fancy dress, tax evasion, money laundering, racketeering and wire fraud, and indulged in so much fine dining “that he neededa fleet of mobility scooters to move from feast to feast”. In 2006 he faced court on behalf of Fifa when MasterCard alleged deception in a sponsorship deal. The judge ruled Blazer was “generally without credibility” and had fabricated his testimony; Fifa paid $90m to settle; Blatter called the remarks “very biased”, and promoted Blazer to head of marketing.

3) ‘I will sue to the high heavens, court after court’
Jack Warner: Former Fifa vice-president – on bail in Trinidad and denying wrongdoing. In 2014 he called allegations against him an example of press “foolishness” – a repeat of 2010’s “BBC foolishness” and 2012’s “damn foolish” early rumours of an FBI inquiry: “I will sue to the high heavens … It will be court after court after court.”

4) Caymans, captains and compliance
Jeffrey Webb: Arrested a month after hosting Blatter at his confederation’s congress in the Bahamas. A former member of Fifa’s Transparency and Compliance Committee, and its Finance Committee, the Cayman Islands FA president has business links to the Captain’s Bakery food chain, owned by Jamaica FA head Captain Horace Burrell – who spent six months out of the game on a bribery ban in 2013. Webb later rehired him as Concacaf’s head of finance, compliance and integrity.

5) ‘I have not stolen so much as a cent’
Nicolás Leoz: The 86-year-old former head of South America’s Conmebol confederation – arrested last week, along with his successor, the Fifa finance committee member Eugenio Figueredo. Leoz, who denied in 2010 that he offered his World Cup vote to England 2018 if they secured him a knighthood or had the FA Cup renamed after him, resigned from all Fifa roles in 2013. “I am retiring with the tranquillity and knowledge of having done a sincere, honest job. I have not stolen so much as a cent.”

6) ‘**** you lot. I can do what I want’
José Maria Marin: Former Brazil FA head, arrested last week – famous for being caught on camera in 2012 pocketing a young player’s medal during a presentation ceremony. Marin succeeded the since-exiled Ricardo Teixiera, who revealed in 2011 how two decades of “pathetic” press attention alleging bribery, money laundering, embezzlement, fraud and tax evasion meant nothing. “I don’t care about that. **** you lot. I can do what I want to the press. Seriously, they cannot touch me.” Marin left office in 2014, succeeded by Marco Polo del Nero, 74 – who fled Switzerland last Thursday. In 2012, Del Nero defended Marin, then his boss, over the medal-pocketing incident, telling a reporter that Marin’s act was “totally normal. There are always spare medals. Would you like one too?”

And the rest
Last week’s other football family news:

• Best comeback: Spain’s FA head Ángel María Villar Llona, still the subject of aninquiry into alleged ethics breaches, restored as chair of Fifa’s Referees Committee to oversee the “application and interpretation” of fair play.

• Toughest setback: Tahiti FA head Reynald Temarii, banned for eight years for ethics breaches having previously served a one-year ethics ban in 2010. Between the two bans Fifa appointed him head of the 2013 Beach Soccer World Cup.

Leading the war on racism last week:

• Peru’s Cienciano apologising after fans reacted to being confronted by a player’s mother over their racist abuse of her son by assaulting her. In March, Cienciano officials rejected claims they had a racism problem - accusing another opponent, Luis Tejada, of “incitement” and “playing the victim” after he walked off due to abuse. Cienciano were fined; Tejada was booked for kicking the ball away.

• Russia: Torpedo Moscow president Alexander Tukmanov clarifying his club’smultiple racism fines - blaming “misunderstandings … I do not think that racism is a massive occurrence in our football. I would call these isolated incidents.”

Meanwhile
Broadening football’s debate on prejudice:

a) Felice Belloli, president of Italy’s Lega Nazionale Dilettanti, recorded in the minutes of a board meeting discussing funding for women’s football: “Enough! We can’t keep talking about giving money to this bunch of lesbians.” Belloli denies using the phrase: “I never signed off those minutes.”

b) And The Gambia president, Yahya Jammeh: banning gambling on football - “Gambian society has been built on the foundations of promoting positive social values” - and pledging to execute “vermin” homosexuals. “If you do it [in The Gambia] I will slit your throat.”

Timing of the week
• 24 Apr: Sepp congratulates Olympiakos on their fifth successive Greek title, praising the club’s leaders for promoting football as “a school of life for the young people of today”. • 28 Apr: Olympiakos president Evangelos Marinakis chargedwith match-fixing, extortion, bribery and arranging for an ex-referee’s bakery to be blown up. He denies wrongdoing.

Said and Done by the Gruniard...guaranteed to return.