Alex Ferguson Implies that Sepp Blatter Has Lost His Marbles

October 28th, 2008 | by: Daryl | View Comments

Rough week for Sepp Blatter. First we catch the old fella ogling a young Palestinian lady, and now Alex Ferguson has likened the FIFA boss to an African despot. And I’m not even paraphrasing.

Here’s Fergie’s actual quote, originally published in GQ magazine and reprinted in The Times:

“I think Sepp Blatter is in danger . . . or has reached a point now, where he is being mocked within the game … Whether he’s getting too old, I don’t know. But things can happen to people in power. Look at some of the despots in Africa.”

He stopped short of saying Blatter actually was Robert Mugabe.

“That would be ridiculous. All I’m saying is that, from a position of great power, he has uttered so many ridiculous statements that he is in danger of seriously damaging his credibility.”

So in fairness, the despot thing is just an analogy. Sort of. And in extra fairness, Fergie is clearly angry at Blatter because of the whole Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid “modern slavery” extravaganza. And in extra extra fairness, it’s worth pointing out the gigantic irony of pensionable aged people in positions of power acting like despots. Ahem.

But it’s still a pretty serious statement, claiming that power has gone to Blatter’s head and made him mental. And it might well be true, given the sheer volume of crazy talk that come from Blatter’s face-hole.

It’s one thing for Blatter to be mocked for his wacky words (and actions) here on World Cup Blog, because in the end it doesn’t really matter what we say. Much as we’d like to, we’re not going to topple the king of FIFA from his throne. But a manager of Fergie’s standing stating loud and clear that people within the game are laughing at Blatter? That should at least make Blatter sit up and take notice.