With his organization still reeling from corruption allegations, FIFA president Sepp Blatter faced calls for his resignation Thursday after saying racial abuse on the soccer field could be settled by a handshake and quickly forgotten.
The comment in television interviews Wednesday drew outrage across soccer. British Prime Minister David Cameron called Blatter’s suggestion “appalling,” while the country’s sports minister urged Blatter to leave “for the sake of the game.” The European Union described his remedy for racism as “completely unacceptable.”
Former Manchester United and English national team player Andrew Cole wrote in a newspaper column that Blatter was “clueless” and an “out-of-touch buffoon.”
Blatter’s latest gaffe follows previous verbal missteps such as suggesting that female players should wear tighter shorts, and gay fans should refrain from having sex at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where homosexual acts are illegal.
Blatter managed to further discredit FIFA just weeks after he won some praise for promising to confront allegations of financial wrongdoing by senior colleagues as part of reforms following damaging allegations of bribery, vote-rigging and ticket scams.
The 75-year-old Swiss official sparked a furor in England, where authorities are investigating two allegations of racial abuse involving Liverpool and Chelsea players in Premier League games.
“This is the latest episode that calls into question whether this man should be the head of world football,” British sports minister Hugh Robertson said. “For the sake of the game, he should go.”
Cameron said “now is not the time for complacency” in the campaign to stamp out racism.
“It’s appalling to suggest that racism in any way should be accepted as part of the game,” Cameron said in a statement. “A lot of work has gone into ridding racism from all aspects of our society, including football.”
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If Blatter did resign, FIFA rules require that his senior vice-president, Julio Grondona of Argentina, take over until a likely election at the next congress, scheduled for May in Budapest, Hungary. Grondona, who is 80 and has led Argentina’s soccer federation since 1979, sparked controversy in 2003 when he said Jewish men could not be top-level referees because they “don’t like hard work.”
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