Just
as the international news was getting really bleak and boring along
comes Sepp Blatter to cheer things up and add to our waning
excitement over former Prime Minister José Sócrates.
It
turns out that apart from anything else, the diminutive Blatter is a
dirty old man and nearly got a punch in the gob for eyeing up the
glamorous girlfriend of John Dalaney, chief executive of the Irish
Football Association. He stared at her for seven or eight whole
seconds before Delaney warned him to “move on”, or words to that
effect.
This
revelation came after the shock news that thrice-married Blatter,
aged 79, turned up at his re-election ceremony with another man’s
wife, a stunningly attractive woman almost 30 years his junior.
All
we are waiting for now is Sepp’s arrest. It may take a month or
two, but stand by. Even the handful of people in this country who
don’t follow football and had never heard of Fifa, or perhaps
thought it was a brand of chocolate bar like KitKat or Crunchie, will
be rejoicing. Corruption, particularly among the filthy rich and
famous, is not appreciated, especially by those struggling with
austerity.
Blatter’s
tirade about how he was stitched up by the press and legal
authorities raises smiles. We’d heard it all before from none other
than Portugal’s former prime minister who is still banged up while
a judicial enquiry continues into his alleged corruption and
money-laundering activities.
Almost
seven months after his arrest, Sócrates was this week faced
with the choice of staying in his prison cell or accepting an offer
of house arrest wearing an electronic bracelet. Easy decision for
most of us, but José is not like us: he chose to stay in jail.
According
to a survey by the anti-corruption organisation Transparency
International, Portugal all but topped the list of nations urging
Blatter’s removal from office. The Portuguese Football Federation
and a whopping 97% of Portuguese respondents to the Transparency
International global poll opposed his re-election.
Transparency
International has been critical of Portugal in the past but
Portuguese prosecutors chalked up a major milestone by arresting the
former prime minister last November. Newspapers in Portugal and
beyond dubbed it a “political earthquake.”
Sepp
Blatter knows a thing or two about earthquakes. He told critics it
would take “an earthquake” to change Qatar's controversial
hosting of the 2022 World Cup. Let the eruption begin!
The
press used the word “earthquake” to describe the arrest of
numerous senior Fifa officials, but that tremor was way, way off the
Richter scale. The arrests are also said to be merely “the tip of
the iceberg.” If so, Blatter is almost certain to be brought in
shivering from the cold.
Sócrates
was probably not in the same league as Blatter and there is no
suggestion - not yet anyway - that the two collaborated. But both had
been connected with scandals long before the one that brought them
down. Both are suspected of involvement in complex “webs” of
corruption featuring the movement of millions of euros around
Switzerland and various dodgy offshore places.
Although
Sepp has yet to feel the hand on the back of his collar, his days of
super luxury living may be severely numbered as his chirpy former
Fifa friends start singing like canaries.
Both
Blatter and Sócrates will have to come up with something
better than the corny old line about being victims of press hate
campaigns. Much of the groundwork on the Fifa scandal was done by
top-notch investigative journalists. For once, the media are on the
receiving end of accolades. Hard to believe it, eh?
Certain
elements of the free press deserve hearty pats on the back for
getting on with the job of digging out the truth about mega
corruption and cover-ups, something that lackadaisical authorities in
many countries have been turning a blind eye to for years.
Prosecutors
in Portugal will probably be closely watching their counterparts in
the US and Switzerland for hints on how to sharpen their knives, not
only against the former prime minister, but the likely legions of
other corrupt officials in this country.
Even if he agreed to being released with a bangle, I think we could trust José, I think.
But while Sepp remains at large, no woman can feel safe.
