FIFA IS NOW A JOKE.

FIFA has to be the biggest, and most appalling, example of corruption ever seen.

The last few days have seen the only candidate opposing the current incumbent in the forthcoming Presidential election, Mohamed bin Hammam, accused of bribery and now suspended pending further investigations. At the same time, the current President, Sepp Blatter, has himself somehow contrived to be accused of something of which he has been cleared by the FIFA Ethics Committee. One has to wonder whether Blatter's own indictment was simply a mechanim designed to give the organisation an opportunity to tell everyone that he was 'clean'.

The upshot is that Blatter now has a clear run for the re-election he has so yearned and, no doubt, most nations will vote for him in order to remain in favour. A few, the FA included, will abstain but it is a shocking indictment of world football that their governing body is being allowed to carry on regardless even after plumbing the depths of such dirty dealings. Blatter has presided over years of alleged corruption and has done nothing about it; suddenly, the organisation has roused itself and taken action, but against Blatter's only rival for the top job. That this smacks of political intrigue can not be a coincidence. 

By the end of his next Presidential term, Blatter will be 80; what possible connection with, or understanding of, modern football can he then have ? Will he even survive or, if he does, still be capable of carrying out his role ? It is utterly ludicrous that a person of his age should be considered for, let alone elected to, a post of such international standing. Why doesn't anyone of sufficient status say so ?