A Little Praise for Sepp Blatter. Very Little.
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Version 0 of 1. Now that Sepp Blatter has won his fifth term as president of FIFA, defying all common sense that the leader of a corrupt sport should be ousted instead of rewarded, he can move on to the next big event on his calendar: the Women’s World Cup. That tournament begins on Saturday in Canada, and Blatter will surely use it to try to shine through his most recent tarnish while the women do all the work. What else would you expect from a man who recently declared himself to be “the godfather” of FIFA women’s soccer? The thing is, painful as it is to admit, there is some truth to Blatter’s hyperbole. Like him or not, and most do not, he has shepherded the women’s game to a place it might never have reached without him. New investments. New tournaments. New opportunities. In his 17 years as FIFA president, Blatter has overseen an explosion of growth in the women’s game. On his watch, the Women’s World Cup has expanded from 12 teams to 16 teams to 24 this year. Though it took him decades, he did finally bring women onto FIFA’s governing executive committee for the first time, telling the men’s club he leads, again and again, that “the future of the sport lies with women.” Sure, the sport is still dominated by traditional powers like the United States, France, Germany and Brazil, and by early adopters like Sweden and Norway. But this year’s tournament will include eight debutante nations, including Spain, the Netherlands, Thailand and Ivory Coast. That’s a third of the field. It would be hard to argue to those squads that some portion of the much-maligned FIFA development money — funds that people routinely accuse Blatter of passing out as bribes — had not been used to develop women’s teams where they never existed before. Blatter is an imperfect and often reviled hero in this story. His list of cringeworthy sexist remarks is as long as the list of corruption scandals that have dotted and stained his presidency. In one of his creepier comments, he suggested that women’s players market themselves better by wearing tighter shorts because “female players are pretty.” And in recent years, he has twice been unable to identify a candidate for FIFA women’s player of the year — the Brazilian star Marta and United States striker Alex Morgan — at the very ceremony where the award was presented. Even on Friday, as Blatter basked in his re-election as FIFA president, he made a blundering case for more women in the organization’s leadership by clumsily shouting into a microphone, “We need ladies!” And once again, if you could just find a way to ignore the messenger and the fumbled delivery, you’d have to admit the sentiment was right. Blatter did not invent women’s soccer, of course. FIFA had crowned two champions before his first election as FIFA president in 1998, and it surely would have thrived in the United States and other countries without him. But there are many places where it needed — where it still needs — a helping hand, and for years Blatter has been the one providing it. So try to ignore his motives, or his ham-handed comments, and focus for a moment on his results, though the overall thought of him might make your stomach turn, with good cause. In 2007, when Germany walloped Argentina, 11-0, in the opening game of that year’s Women’s World Cup, Blatter didn’t say he regretted building the field. He said he wanted to make the event even bigger. Expand it to 24 teams, Blatter said. And so FIFA did. Blatter also oversaw the introduction of women’s youth World Cups, and women all over the world have enjoyed the benefits. A world championship for players under 20 began in 2002, and another for under-17s was inaugurated in 2008. Neither of those events existed when Shannon Boxx, 37 and a midfielder for the United States team, was coming up as a player, but she acknowledged that both had helped raise the top level of the women’s game. “You see how those U-17 and U-20 World Cups have helped these young girls who come to our team and are ready to play in big events, because they’ve already been there and they understand the pressure,” Boxx said. “So much has changed in the women’s game. So much has improved over the years.” Still, it’s understandably hard for top players to heap even grudging praise on a benefactor with such a checkered reputation. “You can’t look at it and say that he’s done nothing for women’s sports,” United States midfielder Megan Rapinoe said. “But I don’t think you should be congratulated or patted on the back for doing the right thing. He has said he is the godfather of the sport, but I think he just sort of allowed it to grow, and it was going to do its own thing anyway.” So, yes, Blatter has been good for women’s soccer. But he has not been afraid to keep the women’s game under his thumb, either. That’s the motive of a godfather, but not the type he thinks he is. No equal prize money for men and women at World Cups. No equal facilities, either. At the World Cup in Canada, the matches will be held on artificial turf instead of grass, the only surface provided — or deemed acceptable — when the championship involves top men’s teams. Many top women’s players sued FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association last year for gender discrimination, arguing (correctly) that fake grass was an inferior substitute for the real stuff. In response to the women’s complaints, the godfather of women’s soccer didn’t concede or offer the money or the will to fix the situation. He didn’t even do a thing to acknowledge the problem, and the players — sensing imminent defeat and eager to just get on with the games — dropped their lawsuit. But they did not forget the slight. “He could have stepped in at any time and said, ‘No, it’s going to be on grass,’ and for very little amount of money, made it happen on grass,” Rapinoe said. “It probably could have happened for less than his private jet bill is every year. It was very doable, and that’s disappointing.” Just as Blatter’s fifth term as president is disappointing. For another four years, he will be in charge — the self-proclaimed “president of everybody” — and continue to take credit for the good things and to deflect blame for the bad things. All while the women he says he has championed roll their eyes. |