Can 'Player Power' Provide a Challenge to Blatter's Ignorant Reign?

FIFA president Sepp Blatter is at it again. The most powerful man in football has an incredible knack for baffling and bewildering the entire sport that he is meant to be leading, but this time there is something more worrying about his latest revelations.

We have become accustomed to his ridiculous ideas of how to improve football. Yet, knowing full well that the prospect of female players wearing tighter clothing or increasing the size of goal frames are suggestions that will never get off the ground, much of what he says is taken with a pinch of salt.

However, his latest stance addresses a far more deep-rooted and concerning aspect of football, an aspect that mirrors society and its varying attitudes on the issue of racism.

For those who have not yet read or heard what Blatter said to CNN, he categorically denied that racism was present in the modern game.

“Maybe one of the players has a word or a gesture which is not the correct one, but the one who is effected by that, he should say that ‘this is a game’,” he is quoted as saying.

“We are in a game, and at the end of the game, we shake hands, and this can happen, because we have worked so hard against racism and discrimination.

“I think the whole world is aware of the efforts we are making against racism and discrimination. And, on the field of play sometimes you say something that is not very correct, but then at the end of the game, the game is over and you have the next game where you can behave better.”

Blatter’s frustratingly ignorant statement represents precisely why racism will remain in football. Until the game’s top brass full acknowledge the problems they are dealing with, then they will never be able to fully address them.

No-one will ever forget the horrendous scenes during England’s friendly against Spain in 2004 that witnessed England’s Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips being subjected to constant monkey chants from the Spanish crowd.

How can a man who once said: “I am so disappointed. It is a shame for football that in the year 2006, you still have racism” honestly believe that decades of prejudice from players and fans have simply been eradicated in the space of five years?

In that time, there have been numerous, ongoing race rows from all corners of the football world.

To focus on a few cases associated with the English game; in June 2007, Labour councilor David Phythian was given a 3-year football banning order after he was found guilty of racially abusing Tottenham full-back Pascal Chimbonda during their match against Wigan.

The following February, then Chelsea manager Avram Grant received anti-Semitic death threats in a package containing white powder. The Isreali went on to reveal that he had received numerous anti-Semitic letters and emails from supposed Chelsea fans during his reign at the club.

Then just a month later, two Plymouth Argyle fans were given indefinite bans by the club after they made racist remarks towards Watford players and officials.

These are just a few incidents in one country, a country that is considered – and rightly so – as possessing a cosmopolitan attitude towards its multi-ethnic population.

Racially motivated occurrences happen much more frequently in leagues around the world, with football in Eastern and Central Europe plagued by prejudice. So much so that many instances do not even make headlines due to being so commonplace.

So for Blatter, who once compared Cristiano Ronaldo’s situation at Manchester United to “being treated like a slave” when he was refused his dream move to Real Madrid, to believe that racism in football is gone, is simply dumbfounding.

If he truly believes that a handshake is a sufficient solution to racial abuse on the field of play, then the issue will never be truly tackled whilst he remains in charge.

The row currently embroiling football, that caused Blatter to make his comments, centres on England captain John Terry and alleged remarks he made towards QPR defender Anton Ferdinand.

Manchester United defender and older brother of Anton, Rio Ferdinand made his opinions perfectly clear when he took to Twitter to respond to Blatter.

He wrote: “'@SeppBlatter your comments on racism are so condescending its almost laughable. If fans shout racist chants but shake our hands is that ok?”

Ferdinand is considered a role model among football fans and his opinions are listened to and valued around the world. Therefore, in an age where player power is out of control, when demanding transfers and multi-million pound contracts, it has the opportunity to play an integral role in transforming the attitudes towards racism in football.

Whether in challenging FIFA’s belief that racist behaviour no longer exists in football or by transforming the attitudes of the players and fans who feel it necessary to resort to such behaviour, footballer’s now shoulder more responsibility than ever to cleanse their own game of such prejudices.

If the game’s influential figures fail to step forward and challenge the governing body as Ferdinand has done today, football will have to wait another five years until a leader is installed that can relate to the entrenched concerns of the game, its players and its supporters.