Sepp Blatter urges Cristiano Ronaldo to leave Manchester United for Real Madrid

[Elano]

As president of Fifa, world football's governing body, Sepp Blatter has a lot of influence. As the unofficial founder and life president of the Foot-in-Mouth Society, he has been at it again, describing the sport over which he so erratically presides as little more than “modern slavery”.

Blatter was once labelled “a man who has 50 ideas a day, 51 of them bad”. In yet another of his regular and wide-ranging rants, he lived up to his “Mad as a Blatter” reputation, suggesting that Cristiano Ronaldo should be allowed to leave Manchester United for Real Madrid.

Critics of Blatter often struggle to know whether to laugh or cry. Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, is likely to be similarly bemused, if not outraged, that the sport's most powerful administrator appears to be giving his blessing to the potential exit of Ronaldo, the Portugal winger and Ferguson's star turn at Old Trafford.

Asked about Ronaldo's public flirting with Real, Blatter said: “The important thing is we should also protect the player. And if the player wants to play somewhere else, then a solution should be found. If he stays in a club where he does not feel comfortable to play, then it's not good for the player and for the club. I'm always in favour to protect the player and if the player wants to leave, let him leave.”

During the interview in Zurich, to be screened on Sky News today, Blatter at least offers a possible solution to the Ronaldo saga. Again, though, Ferguson is unlikely to be impressed by the suggestion by the 72-year-old Swiss that the player should be able to buy out his contract.

“In football, there's too much modern slavery, in transferring players or buying players here and there and putting them somewhere,” Blatter said. “We are trying now to intervene in such cases. The reaction to the Bosman law was to make long-lasting contracts in order to keep the players. Then, if he wants to leave, there is only one solution: he has to pay his contract.”

With Frank Lampard, the England midfield player, having turned down an offer of wages of about £130,000 a week from Chelsea, Blatter's use of the phrase “modern slavery” is curious. However, he did appear to return to Planet Earth briefly.

When asked about the Premier League's controversial plans to stage a “39th game” abroad - or for League Cup fixtures to be played outside of England - Blatter was adamant. “They [the Premier League] should just forget about that,” he said.

Blatter did concede that the 2010 World Cup finals, which are scheduled to be held in South Africa, could be moved elsewhere because of construction problems with stadiums and concerns over the rise in crime in the country. If Plan B were needed, though, he declined to reveal which potential new hosts had been approached.

“I cannot say to whom I have spoken,” Blatter said. “But I have spoken to three possible, not only possible, but three associations and countries that would be able to stage the World Cup in one year's time. They need one year.”

When asked whether England was one of the triumvirate, Blatter became suddenly and strangely reticent. “I cannot give you names,” he said. “You can ask and ask. That's another question I have to answer by no answer.”

Blatter offers an insight into how women's football could be made easier on the eye. “They could have tighter shorts,” he said.

[7even]

Senile nigga.

[Furor Teutonicus]

“In football, there's too much modern slavery, in transferring players or buying players here and there and putting them somewhere,” Blatter said. “We are trying now to intervene in such cases. The reaction to the Bosman law was to make long-lasting contracts in order to keep the players. Then, if he wants to leave, there is only one solution: he has to pay his contract.”

Blatter is such a stupid idiot. How can you call that slavery when he already earns like 10 million a year and has one of the best jobs in the world. Nobody forced him to sign a contract for 4 or 5 years.
Why are there stills contract in football when they are worthless anyway. Players are all whores these days, only because they can make a few bucks more per year they want to change suddenly.
And Blatter supports this. He fucks up little clubs with that bs
No wonder football is fucked up these days... Fuck Blatter, Fuck Fifa   

[Elano]

Ronaldo's £120k per week 'slavery

Just when Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United's supporters thought that Cristiano Ronaldo could sink no farther in their estimation, the Portugal forward managed to do so last night by endorsing the comments made by Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, that likened his situation at Old Trafford to slavery.

Blatter provoked anger among United officials and ridicule throughout the football community yesterday when he declared that a disaffected Ronaldo should be free to pursue a transfer to Real Madrid rather than be kept to the £120,000-a-week contract that he signed less than 18 months ago. The player at the centre of the controversy, however, suggested that the sport's most powerful figure was right.

“I agree with the statements of the president,” Ronaldo told TVI, the Portuguese television channel, when asked about the “slavery” comments. “What he said is correct. You know what I said, what I want and what I would like. Now I have to wait and see what happens.”

Speaking in Lisbon, where he is convalescing after having surgery on his right ankle in Amsterdam on Monday, Ronaldo revealed that he would be on crutches for another fortnight and that it would be ten to twelve weeks before he is ready to return to competitive action. That schedule, which suggests that he may struggle to play before the end of September, raises doubts as to how far Real will go with their bid to sign the 23-year-old this summer, but, with the Spanish champions' interest seemingly as strong as ever, Ronaldo appears convinced that he has played his last game for United.

They maintain that Ronaldo will not be sold at any price, but his comments represent a resumption of his campaign to talk his way out of Old Trafford. Again he refused to state his intentions outright, but by now even the most blinkered United supporter has realised that their leading player and Real are not merely fluttering their eyelashes at each other.

On messageboards on the club's official website last night, supporters wrote that they had “really lost respect for him”, that he should “rot in Madrid” and wished him “good riddance”, saying that he was “another brilliant footballer who would fade into his own ego in the Spanish sun”.

Even the Professional Footballers' Association, which has fought for the rights of its members for more than a century, were appalled by Blatter's comments about slavery. Mick McGuire, the PFA's deputy chief executive, said: “It is so inappropriate that he loses any credibility in the argument. There are some words that should never be used in such a context. The word ‘slavery' gets people wound up and destroys any argument he has. I think he [Blatter] does it for effect. By focusing on Ronaldo's future, it creates the biggest interest.”

To United's frustration, the saga of Ronaldo's future will rumble on for weeks, with the player and Real convinced that they will join forces sooner rather than later. Even though he appeared reticent in last night's interview, frequently saying that there was no agreement with Real and that he did not wish to elaborate on the matter, Ronaldo continues to tell friends that he will be moving to Madrid.

It is unclear when he will be ordered to return to United, with the next few weeks to be spent recuperating in Portugal, but, with every week he spends away from Old Trafford, he seems to drift farther from the club with which he won the Champions League last season.

At the end of the interview, Ronaldo endorsed the imminent appointment of Carlos Queiroz, the United assistant manager, as Portugal coach, in succession to Luiz Felipe Scolari, calling him a “great coach” and a “good option”.

He declined to answer whether the departure of Queiroz gave him greater motivation to leave United, but the departure of the Mozambican-born coach will leave Ferguson without a significant ally in the increasingly forlorn battle to win back the mind of a player in a world of his own.

(times)

[da_notorious_mack]

haha sepp blatter might have finally done himself in with that statement



i wonder how the african nations took to years of their opression being compared to the life of a pampered portuguese pansy who earns obscene amount of money to play football for one of the worlds most illustrious clubs...


what a prick!