Dear Blatter,
It is
with great resentment that I write you this letter, I have noticed for some
time now that the institution that you head is gradually nose diving into great disrepute, due to
different world scandals, including the alleged bribery of some of your
electoral delegates that eventually gave Qatar the hosting right of the 2022 world cup. Some of us are still wondering
today why FIFA decided to concede the hosting right of the next world cup 2018 to one of the most racist
country on planet-earth, Russia. With all its sad stories of human rights abuses
and what not. Yes, I know you always maintain that football is different from
Politics, an argument that holds no water because if it were true then we can
equally take the world cup to the Taliban territory in Afghanistan.
As a
Nigerian and a black man, I think your institution is not doing enough to
really kick out racism from football, like all other politically inclined world
institutions, your organization is always characterized with its double
standard every time there is an important decision to be taken. The punishments
given to footballers who insult their colleagues with racists’ connotations are
not stringent enough.
I do not like the fact that you are always in
favor of our corrupt football governing body in Nigeria the NFF and always
threatening to sanction us each time we try to put our house in order, if
really you are honest about the growth of the game and the none interference of
government in football issues, you should make it a primary requirement in all
countries that anyone aspiring the office of the chairman or the president of
any country´s F.A or football federation must be an ex footballer/coach or
football club owner.
Are you
not worried that in some countries, my great country Nigeria included, the
chairmanship of our football federation, the NFF, is left in the hands of
football ignorant persons who are not allowing the game to grow? Does it not
bother you that a nation that won the maiden edition of the Under-17 world cup 29
years ago has still not gone beyond the 2nd round stage of the world
cup proper? - Oh, I have forgotten that you are also not an Ex
footballer/coach/or football club owner.
Don’t you
demand a football league standard for all member countries? What are you really
doing to promote the game and the quality of the game especially in Africa? How
are you ensuring that the interests of the professionals are protected at all
times? And how do you deal with issues like the failure of a football governing
body like our own NFF to settle the allowances and bonuses of its footballers
and coaching crew on time? To avoid the international ignominy that most African
nations subject their countries to during big football events as the ones we
saw in Brazil involving Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria where they almost walked
out of the competition because of financial disagreements with their various
national football federation?
Sir, I don´t
want to begin to suspect that you do not care a hoot about football development
in Africa, if you must know, football in Africa is not what it is in your Europe,
in Europe, people play the game for the fun of it, in Africa football is much
more than that, it is the unifying factor for most of us, it is what helps a
lot of Africans to forget the hardship and crisis surrounding them at a
particular point in time, it is the hope for a better tomorrow for millions of African
families and i can go on and on.... so you see, football here is interlocked with politics, economy and
even religion, it is a way of life. So don´t sit over there in your office in
Switzerland telling us how to address football issues here in Africa. You don´t
know anything about us.
Thank you very much for your time
signed: an agrieved Nigerian football fan
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