sepp blatter: the president of fifa, the football governing body, has more balls than the game he runs

FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s unerring ability for unadulterated chutzpah, this time asking the poor football fans of South Africa to get their hands in their penniless pockets to buy tickets for this summer’s world cup finals, continues to show the world that he really has little idea about long-term planning, or indeed the knowledge or intelligence to be the effective ambassador for football that he should be.

Anyone with half a grain of sand between their ears should have been able to tell him that holding a world cup in a semi-lawless country would keep the middle classes with the money he so craves away from the game’s showpiece event, while the double-edged sword of a country whose elite (ie. those with any money) regard the sport with contempt and its masses cannot afford to buy tickets will end in disaster.

It is almost sad to think that the first world cup in South Africa could quite possibly be seen as a public relations disaster, as the poor feel excluded and the masses worldwide who love the sport feel that they weren’t considered.

There is nothing wrong with allowing an African country to host the tournament. But why did it have to be South Africa? One hopes it is not because it is considered by the football authorities as a Western-friendly place. If it was to bring the poor deluded slum dwellers (where most soccer fans are from) a slice of the riches of the game, and the kick-start that they need, that’s all for the good. But then to isolate them and then castigate them for not coming to the party is a sham.

Most South African soccer fans never buy tickets in advance. The tradition is to buy on the day, as economic factors make most lives a strictly hand-to-mouth existence. Most don’t have access to the internet, either, which explains the lack of take-up to some extent.

What will be Blatter’s biggest worry (and he knows it) is that there will be very few visitors to the country for the tournament, in comparison to ever other cup in the last 40 years. That means the economic benefits will be minimal and the huge outlay a waste.

Why did it go to South Africa? It’s a bit late to be asking this question, maybe, but there were far better prospects in Africa to hold the first tournament on the last continent not to hold it.

The north African countries are mad for the game. In contrast to their southern friends, football attracts a lot of money. Egypt, Morocco, Algeria (to some extent) and even Nigeria are reasonably prosperous and have football infrastructure. South Africa has none. Those that have money love rugby and cricket, and there is little chance of that changing.

A final in Cairo would have been magical, but Blatter wanted something else, and was led up the garden path by the South African bid, which could never deliver what FIFA’s vision was for this event.

In the end, the crowds will be fudged. The football will be magnificent and, hopefully, the number of incidents of visiting football fans feeling the brutality of the crime that’s prevalent in the country will be kept to a minimum.

But it smacks of a hugely wasted opportunity – and another reason why Sepp Blatter is yesterday’s man.