myopiclunacy.com

What a complete idiot. How did this guy get his job? Only a myopic idiot like Sepp Blatter could have the unmitigated gall to compare a footballer making millions to a slave:

“If the player wants to play somewhere else, then a solution should be found,” said Blatter.

“Because if he stays in a club where he does not feel comfortable to play then it’s no good for the player and for the club.

“I’m always in favour to protect the player and if the player wants to leave, let him leave.”

Manchester United insists Ronaldo must stay to see out his contract and are expecting him to return to their Carrington training complex next week.

Since the landmark Bosman ruling, players are free to leave clubs when their deals are concluded.

But, says Blatter, that has inspired owners to tie footballers to long contracts so that the only way for them to leave is to pay up the remainder or get the buying club to do so.

He said: “I think in football there is too much modern slavery, transferring players or buying players here and there, and putting them somewhere. And we are trying now to intervene in such cases.”

Asked if he felt sympathy for Ronaldo’s current position, Blatter said: “Absolutely, absolutely”.

He added: “Definitely as a footballer and the Fifa president, I’m very in sympathy with the player Ronaldo.”

Has he no grasp of history? Or no respect for personal responsibility? Ronaldo hardly lives the life of a slave. He’s gallivanting off to exclusive beaches with hot women and is living the life of a king. Not a slave.

As far as sympathy for Ronaldo or others in his situation, Bosman ruling or not, here’s a bit of advice: Don’t sign the contract! If you want to pick and choose where you will play - sign a short term contract. Sure - it won’t be as lucrative, but that’s the cost of flexibility. Sure you can take the chance and sign for 5 years and think you can weasel your way out of it - but that could backfire on you. You’ve hired an agent - some would believe a smart one - make sure he’s doing right by you.

Blatter has been here in Silly Town before - he tried pushing his 6+5 plan for limiting foreign players in club sides even though it runs afoul of EU labor law. So this begs the question - who let this slanted nutter in the front door to begin with.

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Arsenal, fresh from their 2-2 draw at the Emirates vs Manchester United, travel to the Czech Republic to play Slavia Prague today. The last time these two met in London, Slavia were on the wrong end of a 7-0 beatdown, a Champions League record (tied) until Liverpool’s 8-0 thrashing of Besiktas yesterday. And apparently some of those Besiktas players WILL be walking alone soon.

Meanwhile ol’ inaudible SAF is at it again, plugging down the tired old road about too many foreigners in the premiership and that causing the decline in quality of the English national team. Of course Wenger and the arseblog hits it right on the head:

I always felt that sport rewards quality and does not hide behind artificial rules. If you put the level of the class down, it does not necessarily make the bad students better. It makes them worse. The real question is how can England take the opportunity to produce world-class players?

And that’s spot on, in my opinion. It’s too easy for people to say that the lack of England’s quality players is down to foreigners. There’s no question that some local players don’t get the chances they should but that is almost entirely to do with the inflated transfer market for English players. Simple economics dictates that a manager who can buy a Frenchman or a Spaniard or a German for 1/4 of the price of an English player of the same quality is going to shop abroad.
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FIFA’s ideas about limiting the number of foreign players are not designed to improve the game. Not one bit. As I’ve always said they’re designed to lower the quality of the club game so the decline in quality of international football becomes less obvious. Septic Bladder won’t be happy with the EU’s comments that such a rule is unenforceable and would be a restriction of free movement of workers within the community. What did he expect though? Still, the charade will go on. The next time England fail to qualify for a tournament or get knocked out in the 1/4 finals the bleating about foreigners will start again and the real issues will be ignored again and again.

Perhaps SAF and the others who are upset at the quality of English football would do well to look at the quality of their current head coach. Instead of looking at some of the players coming off injuries or otherwise playing in England like Lampard, Wright Phillips and Hargraves, he decided to fly to LA to check out David Beckham practicing with the Galaxy and playing in a charity game against Hollywood United - a team made up of, among other wannabe athletes, Drew Carey and a guy from Def Leppard. Allegedly:

Since LA Galaxy coach Frank Yallop had just quit rather than continue with the Beckham circus, we might presume the real cause being helped here is McClaren’s job appeal. I hope the FA made him pay for his ticket.

To say the whole thing is Mickey Mouse would be an insult to cartoon characters everywhere.

As the boys on Fox Football Fone-In mention - if Russia manage to beat Israel next Saturday and knock England out of Euro 2008, England will be the last place Stevie will want to be. Even worse if Russia draws and England drop the ball against Croatia.

Finally Barcelona prepare for a rematch against Rangers at the Camp Nou. Despite the abundance of talent in Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi, Rangers were able to hold them at Ibrox to a draw, with American Damarcus Beasly even warning beforehand, “We Wont Stand Back To Admire.” And they didn’t, but this is a whole different ballgame. Rangers actually have a decent chance of making the Knockout round!

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