Blatter will be busy dealing with political interference

Fifa president Sepp Blatter is going to become a very busy man as more Presidents and Governments react badly to the poor performance of their countries at the World Cup.

Warned

Just the other day Blatter warned French President Nicolas Sarkozy that France could be banned from international football if his government interferes in the running of the national side.

Blatter said he was sending a “clear and clean message” to the French President who criticised the team after their dismal World Cup campaign and has pledged to personally lead an investigation into what went wrong.

One can only guess at the type of interference that might happen in, say North Korea, for example.

Suspending

Hot on the heels of Blatter’s warning for President Sarkozy came the news that Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, had taken the step of suspending Nigeria’s football team from international competition for two years.

Nigeria were knocked out in the group stage after drawing with South Korea and losing to Greece and Argentina. Whilst they were disappointing, a 1-0 defeat to Argentina is hardly disastrous and they were dominating the game against Greece until they were reduced to ten men. South Korea are far from being a bad side and a 2-2 draw could be regarded as a decent performance.

Nigeria’s special presidential adviser Ima Niboro has said,

“This directive became necessary following Nigeria’s poor performance in the ongoing World Cup. If any financial misappropriation is discovered, all officials responsible will be held accountable.”

Disbanded

The Nigerian Football Federation is being disbanded by the President.

Rotimi Amaechi, head of a special presidential task force on the World Cup campaign, explained that Nigeria needed time away from international competition to sort out some deep-seated problems.

“We went to the World Cup and found all sorts of problems and we felt we should sit back and look inward.”

Qualify

Nigeria are set to begin their bid to qualify for the 2012 African Nations Cup finals in September against Madagascar.

Fifa’s reaction is to again warn against political interference.

“Fifa has a very clear position on political interference but it is premature to speak further. The worst sanction available is that a national association can be expelled.”

It is quite right that Fifa should guard against politics getting involved in football but I can also see that Governments who back their football federations with time and money can expect to see a result for what they are doing.

Enquiry

As an England supporter I would not object in any way if our Government announced an official enquiry into why the squad performed so badly at the World Cup. I’m sure that most French football fans would back Sarkozy in what he is trying to do.

Nigerian football fans have long felt that the Nigerian Football Federation is a body not fit for purpose and they will shed few tears at its demise. However, they would also love to see their team take the field against Madagascar in a couple of months time.

I fully back Sarkozy and the idea of an enquiry into failure. In fact, I think all countries who badly under-performed should do the same. What I don’t support is the withdrawal from international football announced by Nigeria as the people who suffer, once again, are the fans.