Opinion | Right Field: Looks like Sepp Blatter is here to stay
What Blatter wants, Blatter usually gets, but another term as Fifa president would be a particularly unhealthy development
Admit it, we are living in the octo age. At a mere 84, Clint Eastwood directed and produced the current hit movie as well as the film version of . Another 84-year-old, Bernie Ecclestone, is showing no signs of slowing down as the supremo of the ridiculously lucrative Formula One circuit.
There are few nations that can match the sheer hubris and clandestine ways of Blatter's Fifa
They are just two of the inspirational octogenarians making so many feel bullish about the future. On the other hand, there are noted slackers who use age as a barrier, particularly in a professional context, like Fifa president Sepp Blatter. Two years ago when the general secretary of Uefa, Gianni Infantino, proposed Fifa should follow the IOC model and not allow anyone over the age of 72 to run for president, it was a moot point to Blatter. He had already announced that he would be retiring when his current term ends next year. He would be 80 then and would have already served as president for 16 years. He had done enough, Blatter claimed, he didn't need the job or the stress.
Well, maybe it was Eastwood, or perhaps Ecclestone, but somewhere Blatter found inspiration to continue serving and will announce this week that indeed he is running for a fifth term. Not for himself, of course, but for the good of world football. And one thing is certain, if Blatter is running, he's winning. He is the only person from whom Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin seeks career advice. There is no force in mankind more prominently shameless and indefatigable than Blatter. He has the keys to what is by far the biggest global sporting event in the World Cup and he knows it.
Fifa believes the World Cup is huge because of Fifa, not in spite of it, and you can be certain that those who run against Blatter will be routinely accused of age discrimination. Among those who have announced they will also run is Jordan's Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, who is described as a moderate.
"The world's game deserves a world-class governing body, an international federation that is a service organisation and a model of ethics, transparency and good governance," he said. But while Jordan seems somewhat enlightened in comparison with its neighbours in the Middle East, it is hardly a model of ethics, transparency or good governance.
Still, there are few nations that can match the sheer hubris and clandestine ways of Blatter's Fifa. For most, it's nearly impossible to not feel hopelessly cynical about the future of an organisation perpetually adrift in corruption and scandal, culminating in the awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the mind-numbing choice of Qatar in 2022.
