This week's theme is 'Calling A Halt'. Well, there is so much to take exception to - and to want to put a stop to - that your Saturday Blogger could keep typing righteously all through the week-end and beyond. Bankers' bonuses, child abuse, ethnic cleansing, grooming, gun and knife crime, human trafficking and religious fanaticism would be pretty much at the top of a lengthy list, but I decided a few weeks ago that I was going to use this topic to tackle the issue of corruption in the upper echelons of football's governing body and show a red card to FIFA.
Thanks to the FBI (I never thought I would write those words) and the Swiss police, the task of exposing the cynical corruption and greed that is rife within FIFA is already underway. Warrants have been issued, some arrests have been made and no one in the organisation that runs world football should rest easy at night or feel that they are beyond the law. I hope the investigation will be extensive and rigorous and I hope that FIFA will not be entrusted with putting its own discredited house in order. World governments need to align on this issue and invoke the offices of the UN and the International Courts to enforce changes in the constitution, governance and accountability of FIFA and we, the people (and football fans of every hue), need to hold our governments to that task.
I am very pleased that FIFA president Sepp Blatter has stepped down days after he was re-elected. I like the aphorism that states: You don't sweep a staircase clean by starting at the bottom. As head of that self-evidently corrupt organisation, Blatter needed to take responsibility for allowing such immorality in the ranks - a clear sending off offence. It remains to be seen whether he is implicated in anything illegal in addition.
My poem this week is an attempt to open a window into the psyche of Sepp Blatter. I've written it as an affectionate pastiche of T S Eliot's 'The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock' (from Prufrock and Other Observations, published 1917). You don't have to be familiar with the original to enjoy my Blattering of Eliot's poem, but I think it will resonate more if you are...
Thanks to the FBI (I never thought I would write those words) and the Swiss police, the task of exposing the cynical corruption and greed that is rife within FIFA is already underway. Warrants have been issued, some arrests have been made and no one in the organisation that runs world football should rest easy at night or feel that they are beyond the law. I hope the investigation will be extensive and rigorous and I hope that FIFA will not be entrusted with putting its own discredited house in order. World governments need to align on this issue and invoke the offices of the UN and the International Courts to enforce changes in the constitution, governance and accountability of FIFA and we, the people (and football fans of every hue), need to hold our governments to that task.
I am very pleased that FIFA president Sepp Blatter has stepped down days after he was re-elected. I like the aphorism that states: You don't sweep a staircase clean by starting at the bottom. As head of that self-evidently corrupt organisation, Blatter needed to take responsibility for allowing such immorality in the ranks - a clear sending off offence. It remains to be seen whether he is implicated in anything illegal in addition.
My poem this week is an attempt to open a window into the psyche of Sepp Blatter. I've written it as an affectionate pastiche of T S Eliot's 'The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock' (from Prufrock and Other Observations, published 1917). You don't have to be familiar with the original to enjoy my Blattering of Eliot's poem, but I think it will resonate more if you are...
The
Attenuated Love Song of J. ‘Sepp’ Blatter
Senza tema
d’infamia…
Let
us go then, you and I,
Leave
this half-completed stadium
Spread
out against the sky,
To
purr in limousines
Down
dusty half-deserted streets,
The
muttering retreats
Of
poor exploited workers from Natal,
Arriving
in a sweep
Before
a luxury five-star hotel
With
air-con and an ocean view.
Our
insidious intent?
Oh,
do not ask “What’s in it for us?”
Let
us go and make our visit.
In
the penthouse, women come and go
Offering
fellatio.
Now
is the time to wonder
“Do
I dare?”
Time
to turn back,
With
famous bald spot in the middle of my hair,
My
necktie rich and modest,
Conscience
clear.
But
no.
Here’s
no great matter. I am J. ‘Sepp’ Blatter,
Meticulous, urbane, most powerful of men,
Shaper
and broker of a global game,
I am peerless and immune from blame.
I am peerless and immune from blame.
This
is my universe. I have the vision.
I
have the right to officiate
And
I have the right to recreate.
Do
not disturb!
Negotiate
my fee discreetly
And
satisfaction will be guaranteed,
A
cast-iron decision immune from revision.
Then
there will be time
For
all the works and pay-days,
Time
for you and time for me.
This
and so much more -
Wealth
and power and glory for us all.
Behind
the scenes, detectives come and go
Compiling
their portfolio.
I
have seen the moment of my greatness flicker.
I
believe my minions start to bicker,
I
know the voices lying with a dying fall
In
the sunsets and the dooryards;
I
have heard reporters snicker
And
I’ve bitten off the matter with a smile.
However,
when I am penned and wriggling
In
the hall of justice
Then
how should I begin
To
defend my days and ways?
Rebut
those who presume to accuse?
Full
of high sentence, but a bit obtuse,
Should
I have the strength to ride the crisis?
And
will it have been worth it, after all,
To
have squeezed the universe into a football,
To
be brought in upon a silver platter
To
be auctioned to the highest bidder?
I
am J. ‘Sepp’ Blatter. I grow old.
I
shall wear the bottoms of my prison trousers rolled.
I
may hear the klaxons and the vuvuzelas singing
Each
to each in the favelas
And
the football anthems ringing out of reach
But
I do not think that they will sing for me.
Thanks very much for reading. I'd encourage you to check out Eliot's original. It's a brilliant poem and you'll find it in most collections of his best writings.
Have a great week, Steve ;-)
Have a great week, Steve ;-)