Timing of the week
• 30 April: Sepp hails the Asian Football Confederation’s exemplary journey back to integrity, “sailing the boat from waters that were not so very clear, and not so very clean”. • 13 May: AFC general secretary Alex Soosay suspended over corruption allegations. He denies wrongdoing.
• The-afc.com’s biography of their “hands-on administrator”: “The mantra driving Dato’ Alex Soosay is immense faith in God, his family, colleagues and friends. Dato’ Alex Soosay’s work-philosophy revolves around dedication, attention to detail and discipline – and he lays much store by harmony, trust and patience.”
And the rest
Last week’s other football family news:
• Best comeback: Spain’s FA head Ángel María Villar Llona, still the subject of an inquiry into alleged ethics breaches, restored as chair of Fifa’s Referees Committee to oversee the “application and interpretation” of fair play.
• Toughest setback: Tahiti FA head Reynald Temarii, banned for eight years for ethics breaches having previously served a one-year ethics ban in 2010. Between the two bans Fifa appointed him head of the 2013 Beach Soccer World Cup.
• And the most upbeat message: Sepp, rallying Fifa’s 209 member nations behind his re-election vision with an open letter, calling on the football family to keep “sharing our resources for the greater good. Those who have more give to those who have less … We can, and we must, play a role on the global stage, so let us do so – together. For the Game! For the World! For Fifa!”
Read my letter sent to the members of FIFA today. http://t.co/3ODpYLiY0T
— Joseph S Blatter (@SeppBlatter) May 15, 2015
Elsewhere: kicking it out
Leading the war on racism last week:
• Peru’s Cienciano apologising after fans reacted to being confronted by a player’s mother over their racist abuse of her son by assaulting her. In March, Cienciano officials rejected claims they had a racism problem - accusing another opponent, Luis Tejada, of “incitement” and “playing the victim” after he walked off due to abuse. Cienciano were fined; Tejada was booked for kicking the ball away.
• Russia: Torpedo Moscow president Alexander Tukmanov clarifying his club’s multiple racism fines - blaming “misunderstandings … I do not think that racism is a massive occurrence in our football. I would call these isolated incidents.”
Meanwhile
Broadening football’s debate on prejudice:
a) Felice Belloli, president of Italy’s Lega Nazionale Dilettanti, recorded in the minutes of a board meeting discussing funding for women’s football: “Enough! We can’t keep talking about giving money to this bunch of lesbians.” Belloli denies using the phrase: “I never signed off those minutes.”
b) And The Gambia president, Yahya Jammeh: banning gambling on football - “Gambian society has been built on the foundations of promoting positive social values” - and pledging to execute “vermin” homosexuals. “If you do it [in The Gambia] I will slit your throat.”
Domestic news: Press conference of the week
Leeds owner Massimo Cellino, building on his day-one pledge - “Leeds fans have had enough of eating shit and shutting their mouths, I want to make them proud again” - with a new vision: ”The fans can tell me I’m a dick. I look after my club. The fans, they don’t understand. They will.”
Swings and roundabouts
April: Blackpool owner and Football League board member Karl Oyston wins £20,000 damages from a Blackpool fan for comments made on Facebook, sending a clear signal on “vile lies and abuse”. May: A Blackpool fan wins £20,000 from Oyston’s son Samuel for comments made on Twitter.
Manager news: most mutual
3 May: Leyton Orient’s Fabio Liverani: “No I will absolutely not resign. I think people who resign are ones who don’t think they’ve done their job with passion, enthusiasm and professionalism. Next week, I’ll meet the chairman and plan for the future.” 13 May: Leaves “by mutual consent”.
Broadcast of the week
Chile: Cobreloa coach Marco Antonio Figueroa facing a 25-game ban for grabbing a pitch-side TV microphone and “roaring allegations into it” – blaming his side’s relegation on match-fixing, corrupt officials and “the Jews”, and telling Nublense’s president “you’re a rat, dude”. Figueroa says the episode “provided more evidence of the FA’s fierce lack of professionalism and ethics”.
Most composed
Ecuador: Second tier Colón FC president William Zambrano weighing up his side’s 31-0 win over Deportivo del Valle, a result billed as “unusual” and “catastrophic” by national media: “For us it was a satisfactory day. We displayed a well-structured team.”
Most regretful
Argentina: Independiente fan Roberto Mosky, apologising after he was caught on camera stealing a club tablet. Media reported how Mosky “slipped the device into his jacket in what would have been the perfect crime, had he not done it at the press conference in front of multiple TV crews.” Mosky: “I apologise unreservedly. While not in my right mind, I took something that was not for me.”
Plus: most daring
Brazil: Model Tatiane Cravinho, admitting her decision to pose for Playboy in the Maracanã left her ex-partner, former FA head Ricardo Teixeira, 67, distressed. “He just considered the pose too daring. It’s because he’s such a gent.” Cravinho said Teixeira - in exile denying multiple fraud and bribery claims - “still sends me an allowance. It makes no odds to him ... he’s a very rich man.”
