Blatter...Blatter, the man never ceases to flabbergast. In fact, he can’t stop attracting criticism, it appears as though he profits every time he courts controversy, but that’s him and him alone.The president of the world’s governing body, FIFA full name Joseph Sepp Blatter has won four terms of office but has often been dogged by controversy and allegations of corruption. His reign since replacing Joao Havelange back in 1998 has seen storm over allegations of financial mismanagement and the taking of bribes resulting in Qatar’s successful 2022 World Cup bid. But that aside, the man himself has attracted criticism from the media, football figures and casual observers due to his sometimes controversial statements. The latest being the suggestion that an alternative to penalty kicks be found.Some of his critics have reached a level of labelling him mad for his latest proposal, which comes just a week after English side Chelsea beat Germany’s Bayern Munich on spot kicks to win the final match of the UEFA Champions League.“Football can be a tragedy when you go to penalty kicks. Football should not go to one to one. When it goes to penalty kicks football loses its essence.Perhaps Franz Beckenbauer with his football 2014 group can show us a solution, perhaps not today but in the future,” Blatter was quoted to have said while addressing FIFA’s delegates’ congress in Budapest (Hungary) on Friday.So ironical is the fact that the task to find an alternative to spot kicks was handed to a man whose team is the latest in the line to suffer the tension and drama of a shoot-out. But one thing for certain is that penalty shoot-outs won’t be scrapped anytime soon since the pertinent alternatives are either non-existent or make little (if) any sense whatsoever. On a personal level, I hate the idea of penalties to decide the winner especially in major competitions but that said, nothing else would match the dreaded tension and drama of a penalty shoot-out—the whole situation makes the beautiful game even more beautiful, but to a larger extend when your team is the victor. Nonetheless, I think they should be scrapped for deciding finals. In all honesty, did Chelsea, who pretty much “parked the bus” (...and even removed the wheels!) to suffocate Bayern and play for a shoot out, deserve to win last Saturday’s final in Munich? No, because a final should be decided on footballing merits not spot kicks.Some will say, the FIFA president at 76 years old isn’t capable of coming up with rational ideas which affect the integrity and beauty of the world’s biggest sport, but he is the one we have and until he’s gone, we must brace ourselves for more and even worse or better ideas all in the name of reforming the game.The other day President Museveni (of Uganda) was saying how after 75, one is, scientifically, not strong and competent enough (anymore) assume top leadership position(s), so when a 76-year old is still very much calling the tunes at the top world football, we could soon find ourselves in a more odd state than having to imagine football without spot kicks.
