Putting football aside for just a brief moment, not even 12 months ago Blatter practically condoned homophobia by "joking" that Gay football fans should refrain from homosexual activity in Qatar during the 2022 cup. This was clearly an issue overlooked by Blatter when he and his unscrupulous FIFA cronies decided to give Qatar the 2022 World Cup and I will come onto the Russia 2018 later. For reasons which I needn't go into football fans have a bad enough reputation as it is, but I'd like to think in recent years the image of your typical football fan has changed somewhat, but Blatter's comments again won't have helped our cause to clean up our image. As the most authoritative figure in football it should be his job to encourage all types of fans into watching "The Beautiful Game" not ostracise certain types of fans even more as he has done with the above comments.
Almost 12 months on from his comments about Homosexuals and Blatter has gone a step further and now undermined racism, even saying categorically that there is no racism on the field, well that's strange because I'd be willing to bet that if he asked any Black or even Asian Footballer if they would agree with him I'd be willing to bet my bottom dollar they wouldn't. To suggest that footballers that have suffered racial slurs/abuse should simply shake hands and get on with it for me is a step too far. Now I appreciate the rest of Europe may not frown upon racism but one of the things I'm proud of is that in this country we do, I am not saying racism isn't prevalent in the UK because only a fool would believe that and I have experienced racism many a time in this country despite being of a fairly tender age. Clubs in the UK have worked tirelessly over the last few years to try and kick out all forms of discrimination at grounds, particularly racism. The "Kick it Out" Campaigns have been hugely successful and professional footballers have played a huge part in that.
My main concern is that in 7 years we have a World Cup in a country which is well known for its overtly racist fans and the President of FIFA basically condoning racism with his condescending comments. The fact that Russian Football has done seemingly nothing to combat racism is even more telling.
The above picture shows a banner from fans of Lokomtiv Moscow which was aimed at West Brom thanking them for signing Nigerian striker Peter Odemwingie with the depicted banana used as a racial slur. Odemwingie even described the racism in Russia as extreme and had depressing experiences of playing football. Now I can't say too much about Russia as I have never been there but would this behaviour be tolerated in the UK nowadays? You bet not. In what way will Blatter's comments deter the sections of racist Russian fans from continuing with this behaviour? Well of course they'll be able to shake hands with the many black players they have abused and probably have a cup of tea and a few biscuits in the changing room and get signed autographs with them afterwards.
The most depressing thing about this isn't just the nature of Blatter's comments, it's the fact that most people (outside the UK) will probably agree with them. So after Brazil 2014 which will probably be the last World Cup worth watching for the best part of a decade, we then have a World Cup in a country where racism is rife and then four years later we then have a World Cup in a country where Homophobia if forbidden by law, all of this with the FIFA president all but condoning both types of discrimination.
So thank you Sepp Blatter, for undermining everything we in the UK are trying to do to combat racism and homophobia. We have clubs trying to set an example by issuing life bans from football grounds for racist behaviour and then you simply saying it should be settled with a handshake and then we have clubs also issuing banning orders for homophobia and you simply saying homosexual fans should refrain from homosexual sexual activity whilst in Qatar. Just what do you expect the clubs issuing these banning orders to say to those fans when you condone discriminatory behaviour?
