The Fifa president stooped to new lows by ridiculously suggesting that racism could be sorted out with a handshake, while Tevez continues to go loco and Torres showed his class
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Let's kick Sepp Blatter out of football
There's one thing that unites football fans of any persuasion, that will cause them to pause for a moment from spouting bile over something insignificant, to link arms and rally round for the good of the game.
That thing, of course, is Sepp 'Did he really just say that?' Blatter. When he's not telling female players to wear skimpy clothes to get viewers interested, or saying that goals need to be bigger to create more entertainment, or giving his family and friends massive kickbacks, or comparing men who earn £100,000 a week to slaves (for more, read this and weep), he's claiming that there is no racism on the football pitch, and if there is, victims should just shake the bigot's hand and pretend it never happened.
"There is no racism, there is maybe one of the players towards another, he has a word or a gesture which is not the correct one," the blithering idiot who lords it over world football said when asked if there was a problem with discrimination on the pitch. “But also the one who is affected by that, he should say that this is a game. 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."
It was like the mutterings of an old granddad totally out of touch with the 21st century. Unsurprisingly, to everyone but Blatter, there was outrage at his statement (the best of the bunch was undoubtedly a certain Arsenal midfielder, who threatened to "Frimpong" the Fifa president should he ever turn up to see them play – something WWLTW would love to see happen).
The 75-year-old took to Twitter when he (or more likely, one of his minions) realised that he'd properly put his foot in his mouth. He posted links to all sorts of things purporting him to be some sort of anti-racism pin-up boy, with most of them accompanied with a picture of him and a man or woman of colour; he might as well have just trotted out the "some of my best friends are black" line of defence. (One such picture showed him embracing Tokyo Sexwale – pronounced "Seh-Kwa-Le", so there's nothing funny about that.)
While no-one is saying that Blatter is racist, his ridiculous sweeping under the carpet of the issue and his crass ignorance of the affect it has on people is totally depressing for a man who is, to all intents and purposes, the most powerful individual in the sport. He was at great lengths to portray himself as a progressive man, but the only thing that he cares about, clearly, is maintaining his Fifa fiefdom (he pointed out that South Africa was chosen as the World Cup 2010 hosts in part because of their opening up since the end of apartheid, conveniently ignoring the deplorable racist incidents in Russia, who have been awarded the 2018 edition).
His comments and his arrogance in defending himself were as laughable as they were depressing, but at least he is on Twitter and can be hounded by the likes of you and me, not to mention professional players such as Rio Ferdinand, who have been vocal in pointing out what an ignoramus he is. Hopefully – although he has survived so much and arguably much worse that it almost seems futile to fight – the big Swiss cheese can be kicked out of the game for good in the near future.
Carlos Tevez doesn't give a damn
The Argentine has picked up a terrible habit of late of not turning up to training, and this Monday was nowhere to be seen despite Manchester City warning him last week that he faced severe repercussions for sodding off to Argentina for a holiday without their consent.
There were reports that the striker had a medical certificate to excuse himself from flying back to England (WWLTW's guess is that he's gorged on so much steak and chorizo on his jolly that he's now too plumpy to fit into a plane seat home) for training, and despite City having a game at the weekend for which he is eligible to play in, Tevez is still seemingly sunning it up in South America.
The flabby forward gets paid a fortune but is racking up more fines than Mario Balotelli gets parking tickets (which is to say shedloads), so evidently he just doesn't care, which for a man not yet in the peak of his career is utterly baffling.
Forget Roberto Mancini, you'd need a team of the best psychiatrists in the world just to crack the surface of Tevez's troubled mind.
"Fly back to England? Nah" | Tevez fails to understand it wasn't optional
| What we will learn this weekend... |
 Fernando Torreswill unintentionally continue to repair his relationship withLiverpool fans by missing sitters when the Reds travel to Chelsea on Sunday.Carlos Tevez will flop into the Etihad Stadium unannounced, to boos from all around the stadium, halfway through the first half of the game between Manchester Cityand Newcastle wearing a leotard before grabbing the microphone and challenging Roberto Mancinifor a winner-takes-it-all cage match next week. He'll then fail to turn up. In the bottom-of-the-table clash at the DW Stadium, Blackburn fans will continue to berate Steve Keanfor being rubbish despite picking up a win, while Wigan managerRoberto Martinez will be lauded because he's a cuddly, cute little fella who plays a bit of tippy-tappy football, even though his side are drifting into the abyss. |
Estonian security is rubbish
The Republic of Ireland picked up a memorable 4-0 win in the European minnows' Le Coq Arena last weekend en route to their first qualification for a major tournament in 10 years, and for one fan it was all the more memorable.
Intrepid Conor Cunningham travelled to Tallinn ticketless for the first-leg game but was determined to see his nation play and managed to get in via a rather sneaky route.
"I just spotted an open door and I thought I will stick my head through there but it was just a closed-in room but I found an Estonian tracksuit and I just threw it on," he said with a beaming smile.
"I threw the bag of balls over my shoulder and just went for it. I didn’t know what to do, to be honest, so I thought I'd better go into the Estonian dugout. No-one said anything to me and then I realised I was sitting beside their manager."
That man can drink out on that story for the rest of his life, and good on him for having the stones to pull that off, but what a joke Estonia's security staff (and the manager, for that matter) are. Conor was sat in the dugout for 15 minutes before someone realised that this bloke, who presumably was jumping with joy and shouting himself hoarse like a madman whenever Ireland attacked, wasn't actually part of the home team's technical staff.
Fernando Torres still loves Liverpool fans
Say what you want about the Spaniard's controversial move to Chelsea in January, but you can't deny that the man himself is a bit of a class act – unless, of course, you're still a Red rocking in the corner of your bedroom clutching a 'Torres 9' shirt and sobbing at the thought of the club wasting £35 million on a Bluto lookalike.
Torres has become something of a hate figure, not to mention a walking joke given how much of a disaster he's been for the Blues, ever since he swapped Merseyside for London, but he's still got a whole lot of love for the team he used to play for.
"The Liverpool fans have only paid attention to what the club made them see and they don't know the true story of my transfer to Chelsea," he said.
"That's why I don’t hold any grudges; they will always be special to me."
Aww, ain't that nice? One suspects he might be saying the same thing about Chelsea fans in a few months if he continues to stink out Stamford Bridge.
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