Sports • January 25 2004

Blatter is not a pervert

Football’s most senior administrator Josep Blatter, 68 next March, attracted the wrath of the women’s game by suggesting players wear tighter shorts to promote "a more female aesthetic." Blatter’s remarks, printed by the Swiss paper Sontagsblick recently actually dwelt on different matters connected with women’s football with the aim of increasing its popularity, but he was quoted on more than how women’s soccer needs to attract fashion and cosmetic companies as sponsors.
Skimpier kit was one of the suggestions made. "Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball. They could, for example, have tighter shorts. Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men-such as playing with a lighter ball. That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?" One never expected the president of the world governing body FIFA to state such trash, when he referred to the weight of the ball, for according to Pauline Cope, the England and Charlton goalkeeper "we do not use a lighter ball !" adding that the "comments were typical of a bloke, and to say that we should play football in hot-pants is plain ridiculous. It is completely irresponsible for a man in a powerful position to make such remarks." Football’s No.1 should know what type of ball women use for competitive matches! That was a silly gaffe.

Giraffe-legged women footballers
There are 30 million women football players registered world-wide and there is no doubt that, as in every other sector, there are many shapely good-lookers, though there are others who are blessed with lesser qualities.
There are a few giraffe-legged stunners who wouldn’t look too bad on catwalks, but as the Norwegian brilliant player, Lisa Klaveness said "if the crowd only wants to come and watch models then they should go and buy a copy of Playboy. Besides hot-pants do not suit serious sport." Those women who practise beach volley, athletics and indoor volleyball certainly beg to differ.
Soccer is sport not sex. What performers wear is dictated by the respective international bodies. Should women playing football wear more revealing uniforms?
A few critics referred to Blatter as probably a fan of the famous singer Kylie Minogue whose 50pence golden coloured pants became famous for re-launching her career as she wore them in the ‘Spinning Around’ video. Her creative director Will Baker spotted the gold shorts in an Oxfam shop and after the media’s madness, they were auctioned for children’s charity.
To be fair, the translations of Blatter’s remarks were hardly perfect, for according to FIFA spokesman Andreas Herren, FIFA’s supreme never mentioned the word ‘hot-pants.’
He said that "the remarks were not meant to be offensive—not at all." He added "whatever he said, it was more a generic remark because, after all, football has established itself and it has a future."
Herren added that Blatter had talked about the need for women’s football to have different sponsors, rather than depend on those from the men’s game.
Brand Chastain, the girl who to become famous removed her shirt to reveal a sports bra, when celebrating her winning kick in the 1999 World Cup final victory over China, said that Blatter should devote his energy to develop the game. "Anyone who thinks that a uniform will draw people to the game is severely off base." It is the game itself that draw people to the stadium and not what the players are wearing."
Blatter who has a degree in Business Administration and who speaks five languages fluently is a highly experienced exponent of international sport diplomacy. He has served FIFA in various important departments for decades. In 1975, as Director of Technical Development he was instrumental in getting a few projects like women’s football and fusbal in motion.
One doubts whether his remarks given to a Swiss Sunday paper were meant to sexualise the game.
There are a few perverts around and these are also found in the echelons of power, anywhere in the world as we all know, but Blatter is certainly not one of them.
The suggestion by Blatter raises an issue that has confronted women’s sports. Do players need to draw on their sex appeal to make their game more appealing to a mostly male audience or should their athletic achievements stand on their own?
Surely it’s about skill and technical ability, but how players look is also important. One should look at the colours and styles of the men’s strips which cannot be compared with the styles of two decades ago!

Football for all, all for football
Blatter’s philosophy is ‘football for all, all for football.’ He made it clear more than once that he wants women players, coaches, referees and administrators to be integrated in the male-dominated football’s decision-making- process. The former Head of PR of the Valaisan Tourist Board in his native Switzerland, was instrumental in negotiations and marketing contracts and the modern commercialisation of FIFA World Cup. Six editions of this money-spinning competitions were successfully staged under his auspices.
That women’s football is developing fast is a known fact. Many highly respected international researchers are of the opinion that within ten years, there will be as many women playing football as men, on a global basis. The future is female, and Blatter knows it well. Surely he did not want to sex-up the game but certainly to get sponsors from different sources. From fashion and cosmetic establishments, two industries that generate billions. Helen Donohue, of the Women Sports Foundation told Reuters that Blatter’s comments "were belittling and an awful shame" but also said that "we do respect the fact that its a commercial game. Whether you are David Beckham or Marieanne Spacey, we’re not naïve enough to think that it is not a factor as the game develops."
I could not help laughing when I read a quote from the US football captain Julie Foudy who said "we’ll start wearing tighter shorts when he starts doing press conferences in his bathing suit." I thought that was funny !
But I think that what Blatter said once is more important. "Football bears a responsibility to society, but football is synonymous with theatre and entertainment and is hence an object of unequalled fascination for the media. It can even spark artistic creativity and of course, creates many jobs. But above all it is an endless source of passion and joy. It is physical movement that simultaneously moves the emotions."