Blatter’s Bomb Appears to Be a Dud

He has been FIFA’s president for only seven months, but Sepp Blatter already has stirred up a hornet’s nest by making the bizarre suggestion that the World Cup be played every two years, rather then every four, as it has been since 1930.

There was some lukewarm support for the proposal, mostly from those like Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer and Italy’s Dino Zoff, who realize the idea has no chance of becoming a reality but want to stay on Blatter’s good side for political reasons.

Mostly, though, the plan has been treated with scorn, and rightly so.

The World Cup is soccer’s showpiece event. Having four years between tournaments adds to its appeal. It is something to look forward to, something to build toward.

There is no reason for increasing its frequency other than greed. The World Cup is FIFA’s cash cow, bringing millions into the coffers of world soccer’s ruling body.

Some commentators figured Blatter was merely sending a warning--”the Blatter Bomb,” France’s L’Equipe newspaper called it--to the International Olympic Committee, in effect saying that if the IOC wants to force its doping controls on FIFA or insist that FIFA open the Olympics to all players rather than merely those under 23, FIFA would pull soccer out of the Olympics and stage the World Cup in Olympic years.

Blatter denied that.

“If we go to two years, we will not play the same year as the Olympic Summer Games,” Blatter told reporters after meeting IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.

Others said it was simply a move to increase the power of national teams at a time when top clubs are becoming richer and more powerful.

Blatter did not deny that.

“I am not toying with this idea,” he said. “It is not a toy. . . . This is something done for the protection of the national teams.”

And nothing to do with money, of course. Even though worldwide television rights for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups will bring in $1.8 billion.

“It would not upset me if we received only 1 billion Swiss francs [$730 million] for the final rounds in 2008 [a Summer Olympic year] and 2010,” Blatter said. “I want the change in football out of love, not because of the money.”

But more frequent tournaments would only serve to cheapen the event. Fortunately, Blatter’s remarks brought the hornets out in a hurry.

“It is totally unacceptable,” said Sweden’s Lennart Johansson, president of UEFA, European soccer’s governing body. European nations might not participate in a biennial World Cup, he told BBC radio.

In an interview to be published in Monday’s edition of Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine, Johansson again blasted the concept. “We shouldn’t willingly devalue the biggest sporting event in the world and degrade the World Cup like in ice hockey where they stage it every year and few people watch it,” he said. “We can’t be so greedy.”

Vyacheslav Koloskov, the recently reelected president of the Russian soccer federation, told reporters, “If the World Cup appeared every two years, it could soon lose its special status both for the spectators and for the players.”

Gerhard Aigner, general secretary of UEFA, was quoted as saying, “Economically, the market is not inexhaustible and we cannot continually expand, hoping to multiply the profits. I fear something which we are already seeing--fatigue and a sense that the coinage is being debased.”

Said Miroslav Blazevic, who coached Croatia to third place in the France ’98 World Cup, “I am not for a change. I think increasing the number of competitions could destroy their significance and make the fans blase.”

Sir Bobby Charlton, a World Cup winner with England in 1966, told English papers he was saddened by the proposal.

“My own personal feeling is that every four years is often enough because it’s something to look forward to,” he said. “You have to wait for it and it increases the whole value of it. I just hope it’s not based on finance. My own feeling is that it wouldn’t have the same attraction, and that would be very sad.”

Blatter is Swiss and it was left to a Geneva journalist, Eric Walter, to hopefully nail the lid shut on a preposterously poor idea with these words in the Tribune de Geneve:

“A high-class juggler, full of good and bad ideas, Sepp Blatter has the defect of many politicians: He talks too much without thinking beforehand.”

NORTH AMERICA . . .

International soccer returns to the Coliseum today with a pair of games featuring top Mexican clubs. At noon, league champion Necaxa will play Monterrey. At 2 p.m., league runner-up Chivas of Guadalajara will play Club America. . . . The most recent games played in the Coliseum were in the CONCACAF benefit tournament, Nov. 17-18, which raised more than $625,000 for the victims of Hurricane Mitch in Central America. An additional $200,000 was raised by a match between D.C. United and a team of Central American all-stars at RFK Stadium in Washington.

The next edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the region’s championship for national teams, will be played Feb. 12-27 in 2000 at Miami, San Diego and Los Angeles. . . . The final round of CONCACAF qualifying play for the Sydney 2000 Olympics will be held in the United States April 21-30, 2000. The sites have not been announced.

Mexico World Cup ’98 midfielder German Villa left Espanyol in Spain to rejoin Club America. . . . The U.S. men’s national team, which opened training camp Saturday in Orlando, Fla., includes midfielder John O’Brian of Playa del Rey. O’Brian’s name was inadvertently omitted here last week from the list of foreign-based players called in by Coach Bruce Arena. O’Brian plays for FC Utrecht in the Netherlands.

. . . AND THE WORLD

If Galaxy Coach Octavio Zambrano, on vacation in Ecuador, had wanted to liven up the team’s offense, he might have brought Ivan Kaviedes back with him to Los Angeles. Now, it’s too late. Kaviedes scored 43 goals this season in leading Emelec to the runner-up spot behind Liga de Quito in Ecuador’s league. The forward has been snapped up by Perugia of Italy’s Serie A.

Colombia’s national team goalkeeper, Farid Mondragon, signed for Real Zaragoza of Spain on loan from Independiente of Argentina. . . . Mario Zagallo, the 67-year-old coach and four-time World Cup winner fired by Brazil after it finished second in France ‘98, was named coach of the Sao Paulo club Portuguesa.

Faustino Asprilla, the controversial striker sent home from France during the World Cup, was recalled to Colombia’s national team by new coach Javier Alvarez for a game against Denmark. It will be Colombia’s first game since the international retirement of Carlos Valderrama, now with the Miami Fusion.

Former European champion Ajax Amsterdam is forming an affiliated team in Cape Town, South Africa, to be known as Ajax Cape Town. . . . Kazuyoshi Miura, once rumored to be heading for the San Jose Clash, instead last week signed a 1 1/2-year contract to play for Croatia Zagreb. . . . Japan, co-host with South Korea of the 2002 World Cup, plans to introduce a government-controlled soccer lottery in 2000.

English league and cup champion Arsenal has signed 15-year-old Jermaine Pennant from second-division Notts County for $3.28 million. . . . Oleg Romantsev, coach of Russian champion Spartak Moscow, was named Russia’s national team coach for the second time. He had been in charge in 1996. . . . Liverpool has offered English national team striker Robbie Fowler a five-year, $13.2-million contract. That would make Fowler, 23, the highest-paid player in club history at $49,540 a week.

Jesus Gil y Gil, mayor of the Spanish holiday town of Marbella and president of Atletico Madrid, was jailed for embezzlement and falsifying documents. He was accused of illegally funneling

$3.17 million of Marbella city funds to the Madrid club and of falsifying documents. Gil’s lawyer denied the accusations.

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FIFA Rankings

The final 1998 world rankings with previous rankings in parentheses:

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Position Country Points 1. (1) Brazil 73.44 2. (2) France 68.86 3. (3) Germany 66.87 4. (4) Croatia 66.75 5. (5) Argentina 66.22 6. (7) Yugoslavia 64.70 7. (8) Italy 63.82 8. (6) Czech Republic 63.80 9. (11) England 63.13 10. (10) Mexico 61.93 11. (9) Netherlands 61.67 12. (12) Romania 60.01 13. (13) Morocco 59.58 14. (14) Norway 58.99 15. (15) Spain 56.63 16. (16) Chile 57.81 17. (18) South Korea 57.17 18. (17) Sweden 56.27 19. (18) Denmark 55.10 20. (30) Japan 55.01 21. (20) Tunisia 54.88 22. (21) Austria 54.76 23. (22) United States 54.74 24. (25) Kuwait 54.69 25. (24) Paraguay 54.57 26. (28) South Africa 53.64 27. (44) Iran 53.61 28. (23) Egypt 53.56 29. (26) Zambia 53.31 30. (27) Saudi Arabia 53.25

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