FIFA PRESIDENT Sepp Blatter yesterday provoked calls for his resignation after joking that gay football fans should “refrain” from sex during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal.
Asked about concerns over the possible treatment of gay fans at the 2022 tournament, Blatter appeared to laugh the question off, saying: “I would say they should refrain from any sexual activities.”
Blatter and South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, sitting alongside him at a press conference to discuss the legacy of the 2010 World Cup, both laughed awkwardly, as did several journalists.
But the Fifa president’s response and that of the assembled audience provoked anger from John Amaechi, the former NBA basketball player who revealed he was gay in 2007. He accused Blatter of “epic ignorance”.
Meanwhile, campaign groups said he risked undermining work to combat homophobia in football and called on him to apologise immediately or stand down.
Amaechi has built up a career as a psychologist, campaigner and broadcaster since retiring in 2003. He said Blatter’s reaction was indicative of the wider attitude in football.
“It’s not just his reaction but the fact that an entire room of sports reporters thought this something worth laughing about,” Amaechi said. “He is football. This is football’s attitude. This man, who giggles like a six-year-old when asked a perfectly reasonable question.
“This is yet another case where the epic, archaic, neanderthal ignorance of someone who wields the power to summon kings, princes, presidents and prime ministers uses that power not to foster positive change but to further entrench bigotry.”
Blatter went on to say there would be “no discrimination against any human beings on this side or that side or left or right or whatever. So you can be assured that if people want to watch a match somewhere in Qatar in 2022 I am sure they will be admitted to such matches.”
Qatar’s stance on homosexuality and women’s rights has been widely questioned since it won the right to host the 2022 tournament. According to Amnesty International, last year in Qatar at least 18 people, mostly foreigners, were sentenced to floggings of between 40 and 100 lashes for offences related to “illicit sexual relations” or alcohol consumption.
It is far from the first time the 74-year-old Fifa president, who intends to stand for another four-year term in 2011 despite the recent corruption allegations levelled at his organisation, has caused outrage. In 2004 he suggested that, to raise the profile of their sport, female footballers should wear tighter shorts.
When asked about the reaction to his latest comments, Fifa simply pointed to his subsequent remarks.
Blatter added: “I think there is too much concern for a competition that will be done only in 12 years. But it gives me the opportunity to say that in Fifa, and this is in the statutes of Fifa, we don’t want racism, we don’t want any discrimination. What we want to do is open this game to everybody, and to open it to all cultures, and this is what we are doing in 2022.”
Guardian Service
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