Posted by emotan77 on May 31, 2011

by Tola Adenle

[The essay on environmental pollution of Ibadan with election and religious posters is postponed - again.  It will come, as must the actual cleaning up of the city - some day.]

Apart from being a dapper dresser like the late John Gotti, nobody would compare the smooth Swiss, Sepp Blatter who has headed the world football body, FIFA since 1998 with the late Mafia don also known as ‘Teflon Don’ because none of the charges the FBI tried to nail him on ever stuck but trust the Feds, because they eventually got their man who was the head of the Gambiano crime ‘family’ in New York City.  For his impeccable GQ-type dress sense, “Johnny Boy” was also known as the “The Dapper Don” for his expensive clothes and big camera personality, is long dead  but his larger-than-life personality lives on.

Well, Blatter may not be Italian-type Mafia like Gotti but his reported dealings and actions at FIFA since 1998 have been as transparent as details behind a Swiss account has never gotten him sanctioned either by FIFA or by his secretive country, Switzerland.  I’ve therefore borrowed John Gotti’s moniker for the man because no accusations, allegations, etcetera – have ever stuck on him.

A man prone to uttering personal opinions before thinking them through, Blatter has perhaps had more occasions to say ‘sorry’ than a prostitute who thinks she has turned her life around but finds it difficult to say no to her old flames – pardon me – Johns in a parlance of the trade.  The gaffes are many but here are just two that brought the kinds of ‘sorry’ you know do not sound genuine: the gays should not have sex in Qatar during World Cup 2018; the Irish bad joke  – “33^rd team” after Henry’s handball “goal” denied Ireland a place in the last World Cup.

I’ve had quite some occasions to write on the 75-year old guy as regards his unseen hands in the mess that Nigeria Football has become for quite some years.  In spite of my vowing to stop writing on Nigeria’s FIFA-bred super-rich NFA’s Amos Adamu during his alleged corruption trial by FIFA, his name must come up since his mentor’s – or may be plain ‘principal’s’ – name is up.  Mr. Tunde Aremu, a.k.a. Dr. Amos Aremu from Kebbi via Ogbomoso – I wrote in an essay at the instance of one Segun Ayodele’s SOS – needed “not only be probed for past accusations but … to achieve new results, old ways that have proved to be failures must be removed” in Nigerian football.  One of the reasons I gave in that essay which followed another of July 18 last year that spurred Mr. Ayodele to write about why Adamu must be removed from Nigerian football administration concerned his nepotism: “Dayo Achor, Eagles secretary is son of Adamu’s sister and Adelowo, NFF cashier is younger brother of Adamu’s wife.”  Actually, that was not the second time I would write on this man with claims to an incorrect state of origin – very important in Nigeria.  I first wrote about him after I read about the Olukayode Thomas’ saga on Sahara Reporters in 2007.  Thomas was on the Guardian Sports’ desk and had done a widely-investigated story on the many lies of Adamu and his effects on Nigerian sports. Naturally, more than Thomas’ livelihood seemed in danger.

The NFA was Adamu’s stepping stone to CAF and FIFA where he finally overplayed his hands by asking for bribes to vote for the English Bid FOR A FEE – with hidden video camera running –  that was reportedly sold to Qatar, “the highest bidder” as it’s now popularly referred to.  Amos Adamu might have started his “corruption” tutelage in the very ripe corrupt environment of Nigerian governance but it seems FIFA would be the stage where strutting his stuff peaked and then came to a crashing end.

While Blatter’s FIFA frowns at government interference in football administration – wink, wink – it is the FIFA masquerade that Adamu and favored NFA officials used for years to scare others in Nigerian football, especially those who aspired to any position, often routes to great wealth.  Here are excerpts from “NFA elections mirror Nigeria’s politics” of October 22, ’06 after the NFA (s)elections:

“I was surprised that Segun Odegbami went ahead and contested … I will only go in if I am the candidate of the government. What made the former Eagles Captain change his mind?  Everything that Odegbami supposedly decried were apparent before the elections … not only was the hand that of Esau the voice also was Esau’s as a Mr. Sani Lulu, the Director of Sports …(FCT) won the election by a landslide…  There were other reasons known to everybody remotely interested in football that were enough to warn Odegbami to have stuck to his words … I believe that this NFA board cannot come to much good as long as the Federal Government continues to be the string puller…”

“… The Guardian had predicted the winners in its Monday edition.  Amos Adamu, a director in the Federal Ministry of Sports … was said to have favored all the officials elected …  For the benefit of those who may not know, the former election where Galadima was elected held in Kano and Abuja on the same day… Only NAFDAC could unravel which venue was genuine and which was fake … Just before the election, FIFA had warned that it would sanction Nigeria if …the situation does not allow the new board to function properly.  It may be indicative of allegation of a duplicitous FIFA, however, that its representative was at the election where a top civil servant got elected as NFA Chairman even though FIFA statues supposedly forbid government officials from serving on the board…”

After the World Cup in “World Cup 2010 Series 2/3: Charade in Nigerian sports administration”, I lay part of the blame for Nigeria’s failure at the doorstep of FIFA or Blatter:

“Unlike many commentators, I support President Jonathan’s earlier ban on the Eagles whose name should revert to the more appropriate Green Eagles of old.  Being an Eagles’ fan is a fading memory although I was one of millions who saw Aiyegbeni – no neophyte – use the side of his foot to produce a parallel shot when he was at a right angle, no defender nearby, in front of goal.  Merely tipping the ball, left or right of the rooted goalkeeper was common sense.  I’m no flag-waving Nigerian “patriot”, but the flippancy, lack of character and self pride displayed by Aiyegbeni are at the heart of the problems that plague this non-nation country.

“FIFA’s threat was pure blackmail as it had always known that Nigerian government always decides who becomes what with a keen eye on ensuring “juicy” posts remain the rights of an entrenched group.  On a news website after FIFA’s ultimatum, I blogged:  “Where were: 1. the duplicitous FIFA when government was involved in Nig. football Fed.  having election called for one city while those to be elected knew better – read LULU – headed for another city? …”

“FIFA’s Blatter –  more like Blatter’s FIFA – is joking.  The charade that resulted in the disgraceful performance was a long way in coming.” 

Now, it is 2011 and FIFA’s Secretary-General has raised another storm over acknowledgement of an email that tends to confirm what most people believe: that the Qatari Bid “won” the old fashioned-way – through backroom deals.  And Sepp Blatter may have “come clean” – AGAIN – but he must remember the many sordid blights on his presidency: the allegation of $100,000 by Somali FF president – a then vice president of CAF given him to vote for Blatter during the Middle Ages in 1998 (Blatter’s 1^st election); the 2002 re-election accusations of bribery; allegations by his former protégé, Zen-Ruffinen in a dossier which claim that the “collapse of FIFA’s marketing partner ISL had led to losses of up to $100m under Blatter’s management”, etcetera.

Go, Mr. Blatter, go.  FIFA needs to be cleansed.   You cannot be part of the solution as you are at the center of the problem.