While the European investigation agency Europol is busy in finding more and more fixed matches in the recent times. FIFA president has come forward in support of the game’s pride; he believes soccer has always been a gentlemen’s sport, and deposit European investigators’ allegations that more than 600 matches from last eighteen months were fixed; there are more than a million other matches which were played in a clean environment; hence there is no way match fixing can damage the esteem of the game. FIFA president Sepp Blatter played down the exaggerated revelation made by Europol and said, “Football is so big, we will overcome. It is a small percentage. Football will not die.” Notably, he is on his four nation’s tour and right now he is in South Africa ahead of AFCON’s final to be played between Nigeria and first timer Burkina Faso on Sunday. His verbal comments about match fixing are not going to cool down angry fans world over who believe on the findings of Europol as there are virtually billions of soccer fans who take the game as their religion.
Significantly, Blatter also refused to accept whatever Europol has found out is new and sensational, coz according to him, most of these matches have already been in their knowledge for a long time; perhaps most of these cases have already been investigated by the FIFA; hence there is no logic in making an hyperbolic statement in from of billions of soccer fans. What he said about the novelty of the findings is, “Most of the matches which they put in this tray, 600 or 800, have already been analyzed, dealt with and even were at court. We’re fighting against that. Because if the matches are fixed there’s no more interest in going to watch football.”
Sepp Blatter has always been a controversial soccer personally for his overstated words. He recently commented about Real Madrid’s walked out coz of racial chanting from the crowd, where he said, they should have remained on the pitch rather leaving it. This time too, he believes racism is much bigger problem than match fixing; hence world should concentrate on it rather diverting attentions from one of the most dangerous soccer epidemics. Moreover, he has always been in favor of point deduction or throwing a team out of the competition if it involves in racial activities.