Is Blatter the sacrificial lamb?

Editor, Refer to the article, “Blatter resigns as FIFA president” (The New Times, June 2). Lest FIFA’s sins and crimes are all heaped on Sepp Blatter’s head as the convenient sacrificial lamb for all these worthies who have been eager to slip their daggers into him. Now that he is down, we learn that a former FIFA executive, Chuck Blazer, has pleaded guilty to American authorities for accepting bribes with respect to the attribution of 1998 (France) and 2010 (South Africa). We all remember that Michel Platini, now UEFA boss and among Blatter’s most virulent critics, was co-chair of France 1998 Organizing Committee. If the attribution to France was a result of a corrupt bid, Platini himself, as a co-chair of his country’s organizing committee, has no better moral standing than Blatter and should get off his moral high horse. As for South Africa, which nowadays is better known for disowning any relationship with the rest of us Africans, now all of a sudden wants to accuse those highlighting its alleged bribery of FIFA honchos in order to win the bidding to hold the 2010 World Cup as attacking Africa’s right to organise the tournament. Sorry South Africa, this was your Cup and now there are allegations that you may have used underhand methods to win the hosting rights. Don’t drag the rest of us Africans into your problems. We refuse to be insulted by you, your constant claims not to be really Africans like the rest of us, and then wanting to leverage the rest of us to claim you should get something as our representatives. You are certainly not. Mwene Kalinda

Opinions

Is Blatter the sacrificial lamb?