I’ve always considered myself an outsider when it comes to soccer media here in the United States. This is why this set of words I’ve decided to put together might be considered offensive to the religion that US Soccer is to many. I honestly don’t mean it as such because I am one of those that defends the league when there are people attacking it. With Sepp Blatter’s comments, I just take them at the wooden coin worth.
Be wary of the source where stupidity comes from.
Sepp Blatter runs the same organizational body that “believed” Qatar would be a more viable World Cup venue than the United States. Sepp Blatter runs an organization that allowed hundreds to be killed just a few blocks away from the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires during the 1978 World Cup. He was a FIFA technical director then.
To this day he thinks he’s doing more than organizing football, he honestly thinks he’s changing the world through his non-profit. Changing the world to such an extent that he was telling people how they should deal with their sex lives when going to future World Cups.
He’s also the same guy that believes that the national associations are the one that should also worry about where that money goes. Yeah, the Bin Hammanns of the world. The Julio Grondonas and José María Maríns of the world. Those guys, like the ones that have been worrying about where the moneys go from the FIFA Goal Projects, remember those?
But Sepp Blatter is notorious for making idiotic comments, but to go as far as sending a petition to “force” Sunil Gulati’s hand into retracting his support for Blatter, please. Gulati is the head of US Soccer, but Bob Kraft is the top hat resting comfortably on top of that.
It is frustrating to see the numbers of a league like MLS grow at the clip that they have been the past few years and not get credit that they should be worthy of. It’s like the kid that all of their life is doing the impossible to get the recognition. Yeah, it should be shown love to. It should be looked at as a model of progress where the obstacles that been much greater than in any other nation in the world.
Ok, so Sunil decides to grow a pair and tell Sepp to piss off in all of the languages the FIFA boss speaks in. What then? US Soccer becomes even less influential than it is now. Just within an administrtive level within CONCACAF, US Soccer is third fiddle to the Caribbean nations and Mexico.
As far as how the game is evolving here in the United States There are imperfection to MLS and US Soccer, despite what many in the media domestically tend to say or not say.
“It is easy to control football when it’s played on the field because you have a referee, you have a time limit and you have boundaries. But outside of field of play you have no referee, you have no referee and you have no boundaries.” – Sepp Blatter
What people in the US took offense to was that Blatter was hailing China in his comments. What the US soccer media has failed to look at is that China’s youth pool (the amount of preteens in that country) is at 340 million people. More than the population of the United States. Yes, there are problems in that country’s league when it comes to investors and them paying inflated salaries. But the future is very bright in China and the potential they have is formidable.
But get over it. Sometimes it is very hard for non-profit organizations to look at growth statistics when they are buried under the tons of money. Let’s face it, he forgets what he says or he’s good at telling people what they want to hear. My dad always told me (and some of this gets lost in translation) that the village idiot occasionally has a dose of truth and logic in what he says. Old Man Sepp, has minimal credibility and lots of senility to boot. In the US, that has been typical Blatter Babble.
The second and third divisions are not as solid as many have thought they could be. There have been teams changing ownerships at that level as well as teams folding. Yeah, growing pains, but the sport here in the US is over that and they are here.
Yes, the league isn’t in the mouths of the media here in the US. Yet if he knew and lived in this country (or at least had a pulse or connection) he would know better. I never saw him go on David Letterman or Jay Leno to talk his smack. He has not clue about the mainstream, so just relax.
Many here in the United States forgot that Blatter said that football originated in China. Of course, you cannot offend the inventors of the game, can you? Although, if that is the case, then there has been some very slow development in the game there. But the reaction is yet another example of the country’s ethnocentricity and the soccer fans and the media to immediately go into attack mode when someone says something that is not agreed by the intelligentia.
What was more telling about his interview was not his views on how the US is “struggling” but how he says so much for nearly 24 minutes and really said nothing on issues such as racism and reform. Tap dancing around questions in a way where Fred Astaire and Gregory Hines would have been envious of.
US fans believe that this is the first time he’s ever said something dumb or has criticized a federation. Trust me, it won’t be the last time he goes after the US or any other country when he gets an attack of verbal diarrhea as a result his chronic megalomania.
It was a great spectacle in CONCACAF with 77,000 fans at Giants (Stadium) and we can say that it is great that in the Unites States- in New Jersey- to see a stadium ful with a great environment. For me this is football. For me it was a great pleasure to have been here.” – Sepp Blatter after 2009 Gold Cup final
All his drivel is not about the US, although in this country they think that is the case. It sounds lame and, dare I say, butthurt to think that FIFA, especially Blatter have a vendetta against soccer in this country. It was kind of awkward was Don Garber’s remarks as he walked on eggshells in order to not offend Blatter or anyone in FIFA. Yet if you look at it, it was the only response he could give without fighting words being hurled and diplomacy going with the wind. His best reaction would have been to do what the winning team does when they are winning. Point at the proverbial scoreboard. Yeah, the one where the numbers showing the popularity and the money being thrown at the game by fans and networks.
Ok, the ratings on television for MLS leave a great deal to desire; the answer is baby steps.
Blatter really loves the US. You want to see Blatter give credit to the US? Wait until a World Cup is just a few months away and a host nation is not even remotely close to being ready. Who do you think he’ll be coming to for a, and pardon the political term, ”bailout”? He’ll come here.
It could be that he’s been seeing too many reruns of old sports movies where the coach grabs the player by the helmet and insults them. That “pep talk” is the bit of motivation that he needs in order to become a dominating force on the field. Could it be that Sepp’s “pep talk” is what US Soccer needed.
It was a good competition from a sporting and technical sense. But also with the spectators. We’ve seen the number of spectators going in this so-called “non-footballing country” or “non-soccer country”- the US- and what has happened here. This is tremendous.”- Sepp Blatter before 2007 Gold Cup final.
So for fans of the US to get irritated over this just shows you that here in the US, soccer as a whole is wound up way too tight. In some cases as tight as the shorts that Blatter wanted women to wear when playing football.
Just let the dude babble. What needs to be done on this end is continue to help the league and the game grow even more. The job is being done, we don’t agree on it, but it is still going in the right direction nonetheless. The last laugh is always the most satisfying one.
Hey, it could be worse. He could have said that soccer here was being “run by idiots“.
