FIFA’s Blatter Targets Rich Clubs, Drug Users
Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, the increasingly autocratic president of FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, Wednesday took a broad swipe at drug users and wealthy European clubs.
In a first-person column in Britain’s Financial Times, Blatter said FIFA might move to ban players for life if they are found guilty of using illegal substances and also said he finds it “despicable” that rich European clubs plunder Africa, Asia and South America for the best young players.
Criticizing the English Football Assn. for taking months instead of days to resolve the situation of Manchester United and England national team defender Rio Ferdinand, who claimed he “forgot” to take a drug test in September and faces a disciplinary hearing today, Blatter said FIFA would act if clubs and national federations fail to do so.
“If this type of behavior persists, we may well consider promulgating a law to impose a lifetime ban on any player caught taking performance-enhancing drugs and [might also force] relegation on his club,” Blatter wrote.
“If clubs can’t control their players, who can?”
The former Swiss public relations man had even harsher words for Europe’s most powerful clubs and the way they stock their rosters.
“I find it unhealthy, if not despicable, for rich clubs to send scouts shopping in Africa, South America and Asia to ‘buy’ the most promising players there,” he wrote.
“This leaves those who trained them in their early years with nothing but cash for their trouble. Dignity and integrity tend to fall by the wayside in what has become a glorified body market.
“Europe’s leading clubs conduct themselves increasingly as neocolonialists who don’t [care] about heritage and culture, but engage in social and economic rape by robbing the developing world of its best players.”
Koloskov Reelected
Vyacheslav Koloskov, the 62-year-old who has ruled Russian soccer for 24 years, won reelection to another five-year term as president of the Russian Football Assn.
Koloskov, a FIFA and UEFA executive committee member, ran unopposed because his only rival for the position, former Kremlin chief of staff Pavel Borodin, withdrew his candidacy Tuesday.
Korean Newcomer
South Korea’s professional league, the K-League, has grown to 13 teams with the addition of Inchon United, which said it would invest $8.4 million in “quality players,” including three or four foreigners.
The club has signed Germany’s Werner Lorant as coach and will play its first match March 1, a friendly against Gamba Osaka of Japan’s J-League.
UNCAF Tournament
The Coliseum this weekend will stage the four-team final round of Central American qualifying for the 2004 CONCACAF Champions Cup, with doubleheaders Friday evening and Sunday afternoon.
On Friday, the Costa Rican clubs Saprissa and Alajuelense will play at 6 p.m., followed by an all-Guatemalan game between Comunicaciones and Municipal.
The two winners will qualify for the Champions Cup and will meet Sunday at 4 p.m. for the Union Centroamericana de Futbol (UNCAF) title.
Friday’s losers will play at 2 p.m. for the remaining Champions Cup berth.
Quick Passes
The Galaxy’s stadium, which opened this year as part of the Anschutz Entertainment Group’s $150-million Home Depot Center complex, has been voted the best soccer stadium in the United States in an online poll of fans conducted by U.S. Soccer....Sao Paulo, the Brazilian club being visited by Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid, appointed an unheralded minor league figure, Cuca, 40, as its new coach after firing Roberto Rojas, who led it to third place in the Brazilian championship that ended Sunday and qualified the team for the Copa Libertadores....Bahia, another Brazilian club, fired 1986 World Cup player Edinho as coach after being relegated to the second division....Indepentiente, fresh off a disappointing season in the Argentine league, selected four-time former coach Omar Pastoriza to lead it next season. Pastoriza, 60, was chosen ahead of former Argentina coach Cesar Luis Menotti and former River Plate coach Americo Gallego....AC Milan and Italy national team defender Alessandro Nesta will be sidelined for at least one month after undergoing knee surgery, the club announced.
Times wire services contributed to this report.
