Sepp Blatter offside: What an incentive for racists!!

In a conflict between the hammer and a nail, the fingers can never be good mediators for obvious reasons. And how the solution lies with the behaviour of the nail when hammered, I just don't know.

The recent racism incident of former Portsmouth and Tottenham player, Kevin Prince Boateng saw him lead his team-mates off the pitch during a match at Pro Patria. He was subjected to racist chanting from a section of the home fans and he insisted he would walk off again in any competitive match under similar circumstances. This is the aggrieved man speaking.

However, speaking at a conference in the Middle East, Fifa boss Joseph S. Blatter said Boateng's actions were wrong. Wow. He tried to explain how there must be a "zero tolerance" approach to racism but suggested that clubs should have to forfeit matches if their players force the abandonment of a match, whatever the reason.

"I don't think you can run away, because then the team should have to forfeit the match. This issue is a very touchy subject, but I repeat there is zero tolerance of racism in the stadium, we have to go against that.
"The only solution is to be very harsh with the sanctions (against racism) - and the sanctions must be a deduction of points or something similar."

Like all football players, Fifa is their home and Blatter their father. What Blatter is advising his children is to stand up tight and upright when the train approaches and never run away. What advise! I gave the football boss the benefit of the doubt with his 'handshake' story, but now, this is totally out of line.

Racial abuse is extremely traumatic and the reaction of the victims cannot be pre-programmed. It is one thing to deal with the racists and yet another to advise the victims on how to react. It is not the black players who are a problem and they are not the solution. They will never be part of the solution unless they banned to play.

Blatter misfired big time on this one. Leave the black players alone and deal with racists. This should be the focus of action by whoever runs the game anywhere. It does not matter how the victims behave. They must not be abused to start with. I agree that under all circumstances, the black players are responsible for their behaviour and actions in racial abuse cases, but they committed no wrong by being exposed to the elements.

How Fifa and Blatter could begin to say an abused player should have or should not have done is tantamount to condoning the racist acts while telling the world of the 'zero tolerance' to racism. It is bitterly disappointing that this is all that can be said and done.

Trying to elaborate on the moral of his argument, he said teams would lose points or forfeit the matches for causing abandonment. Who would be the cause of abandonment in such cases? The teams with black players would lose an abused players and be disjointed by the racist behaviour of other teams' supporters and fans, and then forfeit the match for that reason. What happens to the offending clubs? What an incentive for racists!!

The concern for Fifa should be the solution to the root cause, to ensure it does not happen. It sounds like calling white people to like black people. While they must, they do not have to. All they must do is to keep it to themselves, especially in stadia. Actually, some abusive team supporters have black players at their clubs. They cease to see these stars as black because they slave for the clubs.

Clubs that exhibit the hatred of blacks must be the ones to bear the brunt and wrath of the law and rules, not the victims, not the behaved and law abiding clubs and teams. No matter the excitement, I think the issue will be reported as having been taken out of context elsewhere soon, but either way, the position of the Fifa President is a careless one big time.