Orders from Colonel Blatter

The ex-Swiss army Colonel Sepp Blatter has a dream. Indeed, FIFA President Blatter has several dreams. They all concern the shape of things to come in the new millennium and they nearly all are sure to meet with resistance from the professional soccer community. That is not to say, however, that one day they will not all come to pass.

These days, those Blatter dreams envisage, among other things, a unified worldwide calendar that would see all league championships played from February to November; a World Cup every two years; clubs with a 40-strong squad; fully professional referees comprising ex-players.

There was a time when the indefatigable Blatter concentrated much of his energies on rewriting the soccer rule book. Even if he occasionally came up with unpopular ideas - such as the proposal to make the goalposts both higher and set wider apart - Blatter has by and large proved successful in the rule changes sponsored by FIFA, under his aegis and usually introduced to coincide with a World Cup finals tournament.

Take, for example, the "new" rulings regarding goalkeepers (no longer allowed to handle the ball when passed back to them by foot by a team-mate), regarding offside (active and passive), regarding compulsory expulsion for the professional or "last man" foul (when there is a clear goal-scoring chance), or regarding compulsory booking for the foul tackle from behind. It is difficult to argue that all these changes have not, by and large, been essentially positive for soccer.

Even Colonel Blatter, however, can see that there is a limit to rulebook tinkering. These days, he has changed the focus of his evangelical mission, re-directing it towards one of the most talked of problems currently afflicting European professional soccer, namely fixture congestion:

"If you play too much, and that is what is happening to all the clubs, then the overall quality automatically goes down. Players get tired, get injured more easily and there are more and more fouls during a game. For that reason, FIFA wants to reorganise the football calendar, worldwide . . .

"Who says you can't play soccer in the summer? The English? This is a problem of mentality, times have changed. We want the league championships to be played from February to November and to do so while at the same time finding space for the national sides . . .", Blatter told La Repubblica this week.

"Many clubs have already told us that it wouldn't be a problem to play in the summertime, at night in the cool. Anyway, just look at the quality of the pitches that clubs play on during the winter. I hope that the revolutionising of the league championships can begin by the year 2003 by which time we should have resolved the international team calendars, worldwide."

As always, Sepp Blatter is preparing to tilt his lance at a number of formidable windmills. He does so, in the belief that "soccer-biz" has embarked on a no-turning back road that involves an ever greater intrusion of television and television finances:

"Who says there's too much soccer on TV? . . . The law of supply and demand controls all and, at the moment, every TV station in the world wants a slice of soccer action because they all know only too well that without soccer, their commercial future is jeopardised."

It is in that context, that Blatter envisages two more elements in his brave new soccer world - namely, 40-strong squads at all big clubs and a fully professional refereeing task-force comprising former players. Blatter argues that ongoing negotiations with the European Commission (also involving UEFA) regarding the interpretation of the so-called "Bosman" legislation could yet arrive at a solution that would avoid the current situation (not much liked by many) where an English club like Chelsea or an Italian one like Inter Milan regularly field only two or three English and Italian players respectively.

The Blatter solution to the "Bosman" problem is to create the huge squad, allowing clubs to hire as many foreigners as they like in line with current European Union legislation but then limiting the number of "foreigners" on the pitch to five. In truth, this suggestion has been made before and it remains legally doubtful.

As for fully professional refereeing, Blatter envisages the creation of a "task-force" comprising maybe 15 referees who would be called on to referee the biggest matches in Europe.

"You could have a Spaniard refereeing the Milan derby while an Italian like Pierluigi Collina could be sent to handle a game like Manchester United v Arsenal."

For those of you less than enthusiastic about change in general and the above proposals in particular, there is some good news from Colonel Blatter. Namely, he is against the use of touchline TV, American football style, arguing that TV footage in soccer should be used only regarding punishment for violent incidents. Furthermore, Colonel Blatter says that he has abandoned his plan for a World Cup every two years, at least for the time being.

For this relief, much thanks.