In a FIFA sanctioned event of great importance to the football world, the African Cup of Nations, the Togolese team is attacked by a bunch of machine gun wielding whackos.  Three people are killed and two players are shot and in serious condition.  The rest of the players feel fortunate to have escaped with their lives.  Angola, where the attack occurred, is two countries to the north of South Africa, which will host FIFA’s World Cup this summer and where there are already a lot of security concerns in that high-crime nation.

So what has FIFA President Sepp Blatter had to say about this atrocity?

“I have confidence in Africa and it’s on the strength of this confidence that we will together organize the flagship competition of world football in 2010,” Blatter said in a letter to African Football Confederation (CAF) president Issa Hayatou.

“This terrible incident will not make us forget that African football has written some beautiful pages in the history of world football. It is also the cradle of the pure jewels of football.”

Hey Sepp – thanks a lot for that.  If anyone has ever doubted that you are one of the great useless, egotistical weenies of all time, this should put that issue to rest.

“Cradle of the pure jewels of football?”  Huh?  I literally have no idea what he is talking about.  Maybe his statement needs a little re-write.  This attack is one of the most brazen, violent and horrific in the history of international football, but King Sepp is too much of a gladhander and pontificator to say something like this:

As President of FIFA, I care passionately about, and am ultimately responsible for, ensuring that our events are safe for the players and fans.  This horrific attack represented a clear failure of that sacred duty.  I am formally asking Issa Hayatou to suspend the games in Angola until he can present to me a detailed plan assuring the players’ security for the rest of the tournament.  Moreover, we at FIFA will redouble our efforts to work with the organizers of the World Cup this summer to make sure that all security concerns are addressed for the players and fans who will come to Africa to enjoy one of the great events in the history of sports.

I know putting out a statement like this, let alone actually doing the work required to ensure that his sanctioned events are safe, would get in the way of Sepp’s primary agenda, which includes:

  • Populating the FIFA Committees and boards with cronies who kiss his ass;
  • Flying around the world and have his ass kissed by other important people who want the World Cup staged in their country;
  • Putting out banal, vacuous statements about controversial things that need to be analyzed and judged, like the France vs. Ireland game, adding technology to aid the referees, cheating scandals in Italy and Eastern Europe, etc.;
  • Occasionally opening his pie hole to pontificate about how something associated with player transfers needs to be changed “for the good of the game.”

The lack of accountability of FIFA as a whole and Sepp Blatter in particular is simply staggering.  In the world’s most popular sport, its leaders have somehow fashioned a deal which leaves them completely unaccountable to the fans that ultimately finance and support their organization.  I feel nothing but sorrow for the Togolese players who found themselves in a war zone through no fault of their own, and nothing but contempt for the twits who refuse to take responsibility and address this catastrophe.