Sepp Blatter: Yaya Touré's proposal to boycott the 2018 World Cup in Russia would achieve nothing

Sepp Blatter claimed on Friday night that Yaya Touré’s suggested boycott of the 2018 World Cup in Russia would achieve “nothing” as the Fifa president came under uncomfortable questioning at the Oxford Union about the world governing body’s stance on racism.
After Touré was the subject of racist abuse during Manchester City’s match at CSKA Moscow on Wednesday night, the midfielder indicated that players should seek to boycott Russia’s World Cup if the chanting continued. But Blatter, making his first address in the Oxford Union’s debating chamber, said: “It will stop, I tell you, but it is not only about what Fifa can do.
“Fifa has six confederations and 209 national associations and they have to take responsibility, too. And in the case of Touré it is about Uefa. He suggested a boycott, but a boycott has never been any solution.
“We have already seen boycotts of the Olympic Games, and what was the result? Nothing – because if you have a problem, you cannot run away from it. The problem is still there. You have to solve it, and we know this. We will make sure at the next Fifa executive committee meeting, in Brazil in December, we will again appeal to everybody to deliver sanctions. If you take one of the teams out of the Champions League, think about what will happen. This will only stop if the sanctions work.”
Asked what punishments could be imposed ahead of the 2018 World Cup, Blatter, returning from a meeting with Fifa officials in the Cayman Islands, explained: “We have to take more sanctions that hurt clubs because financial sanctions do not hurt. The Fifa has taken a resolution and has said after a warning you can have other sanctions and these would mean you could deduct points or expel people from a competition. The disciplinary committees are there to take these decisions, which have been taken unanimously by the congress in Mauritius. We have to work hard against racism.”
Blatter was also forced to fend off an inquisition about the wisdom of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as he was pressed on the deaths of migrant workers in the Gulf state. The questions were posed by Union president Parit Wacharasindhu after the Fifa chief vetoed all questions from the floor.
“Fifa cannot be responsible for everything in the world,” Blatter argued. “If you look at the workers concerned, most were not working on stadiums but on other infrastructure. We have to look at the politics. When you look at what has happened with Syria and the chemical weapons, we don’t know whether to look at the right side and the left side. We have to look at both sides and make a decision.”
Throughout his address to the Union Blatter was at pains to give the impression that Fifa, contrary to its image as a shadowy star chamber, was striving for greater transparency under his watch. Acknowledging that some of his critics perceived him as a James Bond villain, he said: “You will have heard that the world of Fifa is one of secrets and intrigue. Well, I am going to open the door to this mysterious world: the hidden ways and clandestine operations of Sepp Blatter.”
Warming to his theme, he declared: “There are those who will tell you of the supposed sordid secrets that lie deep in our Bond villain headquarters in the hills above Zurich, where we apparently plot to exploit the unfortunate and the weak. They would have you believe that I sit in my office with a sinister grin, gently stroking the chin of an expensive, white Persian cat as my terrible sidekicks scour the earth to force countries to host the World Cup and to hand over all of their money.
“You might laugh. It is strange how fantasy so easily becomes confused with fact. And it feels almost absurd to have to say this. But that is not who we are. Not Fifa. Not me.I have dedicated my life for the good of football around the world. You might have been led to believe Fifa is the evil sheriff of Nottingham of football. But the truth is we have more in common with Robin Hood – taking the money and ploughing it back into the grassroots of the game for all to benefit, not just the few.”

FIFA boss Sepp Blatter defends claims he is a 'ruthless parasite sucking the lifeblood out of football'

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has hit out at portrayals of world football's governing body as a corrupt cabal of ruthless parasites.

In a speech Friday to the Oxford Union debating society at Britain's prestigious Oxford University, the 77-year-old said FIFA was more Robin Hood than Bond villain.

"Perhaps you think I am a ruthless parasite sucking the lifeblood out of the world and out of football! The Godfather of the FIFA gravy train! An out-of-touch, heartless schmoozer!" he said, according to The Independent newspaper.

"There are not many names that the media haven't thrown at me in the last few years. And I would be lying to you if it did not hurt, even if you know that it goes with the territory.
"You would have to have a heart of stone for it not to hurt. You ask yourself, what have I done?"

Defending FIFA, he told undergraduates that hosting the 2010 World Cup in South Africa had "changed people's perceptions and people's prejudices", while more money was going into women's football.

"There are those who will tell you that FIFA is just a conspiracy, a scam, accountable to nobody and too powerful for anyone to resist," the Swiss said.

"There are those who will tell you of the supposed sordid secrets that lie deep in our Bond villain headquarters in the hills above Zurich, where we apparently plot to exploit the unfortunate and the weak.

"They would have you believe that I sit in my office with a sinister grin, gently stroking the chin of an expensive, white Persian cat as my terrible sidekicks scour the earth to force countries to host the World Cup and to hand over all of their money," he said.

"You might have been led to believe FIFA is the evil Sheriff of Nottingham of football. But the truth is we have more in common with Robin Hood."

Blatter has been roasted in the British press in recent years, especially after England's failed bid to host the 2018 World Cup, in which they garnered just two votes out of 22 -- one of them their own, as Russia won out.

There have also been allegations in British newspaper exposes about goings-on behind the scenes in FIFA circles and general disenchantment with the organisation.

In his lecture, Blatter said it was a "falsehood" that "we at FIFA have something against the United Kingdom and its people".

Better known for roles such as a bloodied undercover cop in heist-gone-wrong movie "Reservoir Dogs", Tim Roth is set to depict life in the corridors of football power by playing Blatter.