As football goes HD, Fifa stays black and white

MAY 1 — Sepp Blatter has proven beyond doubt that an absolute idiot sits at the throne of world football administration.

In an exclusive interview aired on CNN yesterday, the Fifa president was asked questions that are on the minds of the majority of football fans around the world.

Q: The game has turned to the use of hands by many players in grabbing shirts, pushing and pulling. What can you do to stop this?

Blatter: We will now have a fourth and fifth official standing behind the goal line to see if there is anything that is missed by the three main officials in the match. (err...what if it happens in the middle of the pitch?)

Q: What about the use of video technology to reduce referee mistakes? Understandably, many people stand to lose a lot or gain a lot. There are many lives that are changed, positively or negatively, by a wrong decision. Shouldn’t that affect the need to give a correct decision?

Blatter: We have to allow for the human decision. Football is a spontaneous game. And even with seven cameras capturing the action, there are times when you cannot see what is happening on the pitch with players crowded around an area and blocking the view.

Q: You promote football as the beautiful game, but then we witness how this reputation is tarnished by players who are hounding the referees. Why doesn’t football apply what is practiced in rugby, whereby only the captain is allowed to speak to the referee.

Blatter: Oh, there is a similar rule in football, but it is not followed. (what the . . . .?)  That’s why there is a captain in football too, for him to be the only one to speak to the referee during the game. (. . .and?)

That last question left me flabbergasted. Here was the most powerful man in world football saying how, get this, powerless he is in enforcing the rules of the game.

Worst still, he didn’t even flinch when he said it, nor seemed apologetic over the issue. That’s just the way it is . . . boys will be boys and we will just have to live with it. And if you don’t like it, well, go watch some curling.

Okay, I am just putting my impression of what he might be thinking to add to his shocking answer.

Seriously, all that he said above reminded me of some of the moronic responses from Malaysian politicians, local authorities and high-ranking police officers in the past. Actually, they are still giving such dumb answers, and we just have to swallow it because they said so.

Enforcement is the least of their concerns.  Their policy when it comes to enforcement seems to be “we will take action when we feel like it and (sometimes) against whomever we want to”.

The resulting confusion and controversy from such criminal negligence in the real world can have tragic consequences, but in football, it could mean an undeserved goal or win, and the rewards that come with it for one team, and total devastation for the other.

That is exactly how the contenders for the title and fourth place in the English Premier League (EPL) will be feeling too if just one error in judgement by a referee or a linesman makes the difference between winning and losing at such a crucial stage of the competition.

Though tomorrow will provide the highlight of Chelsea and Manchester United playing in the penultimate round of the exciting EPL title race, today will tell us more on the battle for the fourth spot. Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa and Liverpool are all still in it.

Tonight, Man City and Villa play each other in a match neither team can afford to lose. Should any slip up occur, then surely this lucrative fourth place for Champions League qualification will likely be heading to White Hart Lane in London.

Strictly speaking, Aston Villa have more to lose having played one more game than Spurs and City. This week's trip to the Eastlands amounts to their second cup final of the season. Lose and their top four hopes are over.

Win and, as the only one of the four contenders to have home advantage on the final day, they are made favourites.

As for City, their draw at Arsenal amounted to them 'blowing' their 'big' chance to go fourth. It might be a valuable point or it might be two dropped. Until all the other results are in, nobody can be sure.

What we can be sure of, however, is that despite Roberto Mancini's insistence that City did "not play for a draw", the Italian deemed the result to be perfectly satisfactory. The giveaway was his selection of an extra midfielder at the expense of a striker following Spurs' defeat at MU and refusal to attack a side vulnerable after two successive defeats.

The high risk of Mancini's low-risk approach at Arsenal is that he has placed all of City's eggs in the two baskets of their home matches against Villa and Spurs (next Wednesday night).

Mancini took over at the Eastlands claiming that the EPL title was still within their reach. Three games to the end of the season and not only has the title looked elusive but they may not even make it to fourth place.

While realistic expectations cannot be accurately measured by the amount of money spent, fourth place is surely a minimum requirement for a club with that sort of outlay, and there is every possibility that a fifth-place finish could equal the sack for the scarf model.

Facing a goalkeeping crisis, the boys in blue have also been given special permission by the Premier League to bolster their ranks for the closing games of the season after Shay Given suffered a dislocated shoulder in the 0-0 draw at Arsenal.

With Stuart Taylor also short of fitness and Joe Hart on a season-long loan deal with Birmingham, that left Roberto Mancini with only Faroe Islands international Gunnar Nielsen to count on.

Aston Villa start this match being in second place on the EPL form guide and will surely be a tough nut to crack for City. An interesting battle should take place in midfield with former Villan, Gareth Barry, taking on the man who has stepped up after his departure, James Milner, who was voted Young Player of the Year earlier this week.

Incidentally, Barry opted to make a £12 million (RM58.34 million) summer switch to Manchester City while Richard Dunne moved the other way. Dunne has been a rock at the back and was also recently named in the EPL Team of the Year.

This match is a tough one to call as a draw is on the cards. However, City might just nick this.

While the two teams battle, Spurs will entertain Bolton at the same time. Given the recent form of both teams, Spurs could be forgiven for underestimating their opponents. Bolton have only managed to get four points in their last six games while Spurs gained 12.

Last week, at Old Trafford, Spurs’ undoing may have been the result of a merry-go-round in their line up. Wilson Palacios, as the midfield enforcer, had to be recalled against MU. This meant Luca Modric returned to the left, with the knock-on effect that Gareth Bale went back to left-back and Benoit Assou-Ekotto switched to the right.

Written quickly, it sounds straightforward. But on the pitch, it added up to a jumble.

With the likelihood that Harry Redknapp will be tempted to rest players ahead of the crucial midweek battle with City, I expect Bolton to give Spurs a run for their money.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.