In the midst of the Fifa scandal last week, it was good to hear prime minister David Cameron saying of Sepp Blatter:”He should go and the sooner that happens the better”. This is the sort of leadership we want, to see the PM telling it like it is. But was it always thus?
In 2010, the very same David Cameron attacked the BBC Panorama expose of Fifa’s practices as being “frustrating”. Not only that, he welcomed “Mr President” Blatter to Downing Street, adding: “You have done a huge amount for football all your life. The decisions you have made have been instrumental in taking the game to new heights.”
Well, nothing like consistency there, then, but it gets much, much worse. Cameron also met up with the hugely discredited Jack Warner, the former Fifa vice president who is currently on police bail. Hs said: “Mr Cameron is a knowledgable man. He knows about football, but not only that, he knows about the bidding process as well. I certainly trust his knowledge of football.” Warner was not to know that only recently the PM would fail to remember which team he supported, but don’t worry about that. He is, after all, a knowledgeable man.
Andy Anson, the England bid leader, attacked the BBC as “unpatriotic”, adding: “(The programme was) an embarrassment to the BBC, raking over historical allegations which have no relevance.” David Dein, the international bid chairman went further, saying: “It should have been broadcast on the History Channel”.
So you get the idea, then, don’t you? It was not the alleged corrupt practices of Fifa that were a problem, it was the BBC’s fault.
Not wanting to miss the opportunity to have a serious dig at the BBC, Rupert Murdoch’s Sun chimed in, publishing a column from the towering intellect of none other than former Arsenal star Ian Wright. In a column headed ‘BRAINLESS, BETRAYING, CRETINOUS’ the great man launched into a tirade, not against Fifa, but against the BBC, calling it “ridiculously unpatriotic…it’s just laughable.”
And then, best of all, The Sun itself penned an open letter to Fifa. It read: “Today the Sun makes this plea to Sepp Blatter and Fifa: don’t be put off by the BBC rehashing ancient history. Despite BBC muckraking, the Sun trusts Fifa to put football first.”
You may be thinking, “He’s made all that stuff up!” and I wouldn’t blame you. Here we had our prime public service broadcaster exposing the labyrinth of corruption which lies within Fifa and the most popular newspaper in the land, not to mention the most important politician in the land, attacking the BBC for what, it now transpires, was a fine piece of investigative journalism.
Now, Cameron and Murdoch are at the populist forefront in calling for Blatter to removed from Fifa, but it was not that long ago they were both at Blatter’s top table, setting aside their principles in order to secure a home world cup and in the latter’s case to score a few points at the expense of the BBC.
Now, of course, there is nothing to lose. We have no world cup to bid for, we can now say what we want and to no one’s surprise the not so great and not so good are saying it. Hardly courageous, is it? Courage would have involved daring to find and then tell the truth about Blatter and Fifa.
But just remember, when people praise the Sun for it’s campaigning against Blatter and Cameron for calling on him to quit, that it was not that long ago they were both on bended knee and their idea of patriotism was in sucking up to a tyrant.
