Support for UN can't mask the stench of corruption

LONDON, Sep 22: Anyone can tell a joke, but the secret ingredient of all great comedians is in their timing.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who never misses an opportunity to tell the world how wonderful football is, has been accused of many things in his time, and some people think he's a comedian.

But he isn't. He hasn't got the gift of great timing.

Despite that, he certainly knows how to get people to have a good laugh.

Two days after the BBC Panorama programme alleged that corruption is rife in English soccer with Premier League managers, agents and other assorted characters lining their pockets, FIFA's media department issued the following statement.

''FIFA is holding the tenth World Fair Play Day over the week of 18 to 24 September.

The dates have been chosen, say FIFA, to mark the United Nations International Day of Peace on Sept 21.

''The football family therefore wishes to commemorate the International Day of Peace by using the beautiful game and most notably its annual fair play celebration,'' says FIFA.

That's not all. The statement confirms that ''FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter recognises the fundamental role of fair play in sport and the need to apply it to all sporting activities, including children's activities.'' WRONG MESSAGE Nothing wrong with those laudable sentiments, but the reality of European soccer is somewhat different and any child interested in soccer ought to be protected from some of its worst malaises.

For this year has been a particularly lamentable one in terms of Fair Play -- on and off the pitch.

Jack Warner of Trinidad&Tobago, a FIFA vice-president and a member of FIFA's executive committee is, for the second time this year, in hot water with FIFA over World Cup tickets.

He's at the centre of allegations that his family sold World Cup tickets on the black market. He denies the charges.

During the World Cup another executive committee member, Ismail Bhamjee of Botswana, was sent home in disgrace by Blatter and subsequently resigned from the executive committee after admitting selling black market tickets. He claimed he was set up.

MATCH-FIXING

Another high-ranking FIFA official Franco Carraro, head of FIFA's Internal Audit Committee, announced in May he was resigning as the president of the Italian FA after five years ''to allow the federation to deal with various topics that have affected Italian football in recent times''.

The ''various topics'' included the biggest own-goal to hit Italian soccer for 25 years -- a match-fixing scandal in Serie A that resulted in champions Juventus being demoted to Serie B, and other significant bans, fines and punishments that have left reputations in ruins and careers in tatters.

Over in Spain, the Real Madrid presidential election was and still is being tainted by allegations of bogus postal votes.

The legal case is continuing.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta was forced to call a presidential election by a court after he was judged to have tried to exceed his mandate as president.

Meanwhile the days and times of Spanish La Liga matches are not being scheduled until Thursday or sometimes Friday before the games because of a dispute between the Spanish League and the company that holds the TV rights.

JAIL SENTENCES

In France, on the day the World Cup began in Germany, former Olympique Marseille coach Rolland Courbis and club owner Robert Louis-Dreyfus were found guilty of involvement in a fraud scandal involving player transfers in the late 1990s.

Prosecutors said some 28.21 million dollars were illegally diverted from club funds as part of the transfer of 15 players between 1997 and 1999.

In Greece, there have been persistent accusations of match-fixing, bad refereeing and a conflict of interest in how the League is run.

UEFA have excluded PAOK Salonika from playing in the UEFA Cup for failing to meet its financial requirements, while FIFA took the ultimate sanction against the Greek FA in July briefly suspending it for what it claimed was the state's interference on how the game was run.

Germany had its own troubles, too, before the World Cup with a scandal involving corrupt referee Robert Hoyzer threatening to damage the image of the World Cup.

FIFA has every right to support whatever causes it chooses and it is unlikley anyone disagrees with its backing of the UN's peace initiatives in these troubled times.

But perhaps declaring war on football's own enemies, reminding everyone of its own task force to fight wrong-doing in the game and emphasising that cheats will not be tolerated might have been a rather more apt message right now.

REUTERS