Wednesday, June 03, 2015

Sepp Blatter

When I was in high school, the hippie chick teacher came to school with her arm in a sling and a black eye.  She offered that her VW van got into an accident.  By the time I was a senior, she had four accidents in three years, one of which put her in the hospital for a few months.  My father advised, "Son, when you have one accident in a while, it's probably an accident.  But if you have four accidents in three years, you have a driving problem."

It would be one thing if FIFA were known as this pristine organization and if international soccer were bribe-free.  Today, the FIFA board makes the IOC board look like the College of Cardinals.  Scandal upon riddle upon nuance upon scandal make this an ethical meal along the lines that the ethics version of Adam Richman would try (and fail) to eat in an episode of "Man versus Food."  There's just too much smoke and fire around FIFA.

Sepp Blatter tried to save himself, and despite his shortcomings realized that it was too little too late and for the game he loves, he had to resign.  It was the wise decision, because Sepp Blatter presided over a culture that seemingly became rotten to the core.  It would have been hard to expect him to clean it up, given that the apparent rot that occurred over decades happened on his watch.  How could any reasonable fan expect him to clean up all of the mess?

That fan couldn't, and now FIFA has to pick someone with the stature to fix things.  In a world where deals are made every day and leaders have to make difficult decisions, it will be hard to find someone who hasn't been a part of something that didn't go wrong at some point.  Find the person without any blemishes, and it could be that that person didn't lead anything of substance or try and fail at something.  There are warts everywhere.  The key will be to find someone who found something, spoke up about it and fixed it.  Whoever that may be.

FIFA couldn't continue with Sepp Blatter.  But who can they find who can help reform it? 

Many will want and take the job.  The question is who is worthy.

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