Dirty TackleSepp Blatter says protests could make blameless FIFA question Brazil as World Cup host
FIFA president Teflon Sepp Blatter has pointed a hypocritical finger squarely at the Brazilian government as he addressed the 2014 World Cup host nation's civil unrest that his organization helped trigger. From the beginning of this summer's Confederations Cup, outrage over the cost of two FIFA tournaments combined with mounting anger over government corruption led to massive protests throughout Brazil spanning the entirety of the competition. Though many of these protests took place in and around the stadiums FIFA occupied, Blatter is maintaing his usual complete lack of awareness on the matter.
From the AP:
"If this happens again, we have to question whether we made the wrong decision awarding the hosting rights," Blatter told German press agency DPA on Wednesday.
FIFA spoke with the Brazilian government after the Confederations Cup, and Blatter said he'll discuss the issue again with Brazil President Dilma Rousseff in September.
"We didn't do a political debriefing, but we did emphasize the fact of this social unrest being there for the entire duration of the Confederations Cup," he said. "The government is now aware that next year the World Cup shouldn't be disturbed."
Heaven forbid anything disrupt FIFA's host-nation funded corporate cash-grab. I mean, we need to have priorities here. Forget the vital social and economic issues that affect an entire nation. FIFA's traveling circus — incapable of any wrongdoing — comes first.
"It's not we who have to learn lessons from the protests in Brazil - politics in Brazil have to do that," said Blatter, adding that "FIFA cannot be held responsible" for social problems in the country.
Nevermind the fact that FIFA's uncompromising demands for expensive stadium and infrastructure improvements have been a drain on national economies around the world, leaving white elephants in their wake. Or that their demands for a sanitized atmosphere have led to the destruction of poor neighborhoods and forceful eviction residents in both South Africa and Brazil.
Though governments should be able to refuse FIFA's requirements, to say that "FIFA cannot be held responsible" for the situations they demand being carried out is, well, exactly what we've come to expect from an organization that has grown accustomed to doing whatever it pleases wherever it pleases.
