Gay rights groups condemn Blatter comment // FIFA
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FIFA President Sepp Blatter at a news conference in Johannesburg, Monday, Dec. 13, 2010. Blatter has used the official closing of the World Cup in South Africa to defend his organization's decision to award future tournaments to first-time hosts Russia and Qatar.
LONDON (AP)—A leading international gay rights group demanded an official apology from FIFA on Tuesday following Sepp Blatter’s comment about homosexual fans traveling to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup.
The president of the world soccer governing body said Monday that gay fans “should refrain from any sexual activities” during the World Cup in Qatar, where homosexual behavior is illegal.
Juris Lavrikovs, communications director for the European branch of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, said the comments were “very unfortunate and have left people deeply offended.”
“I think they should come out with a strong statement and not just wash it away,” Lavrikovs told The Associated Press. “We are talking about a very basic human right that is being violated.”
Blatter spoke in South Africa on Monday at the launch of a post-2010 World Cup legacy project. He was asked if he could foresee any cultural problems with the tournament being held in Qatar.
“I’d say they (gay fans) should refrain from any sexual activities,” he said, smiling.
“This is not a joke, this is a matter of life and death to people,” Lavrikovs said. “Qatar and more than 70 other countries in the world still criminalize individuals for homosexual relationships, and some countries even punish them by death sentence.
“It’s disappointing to see that an organization that is promoting the game, which in its statutes condemns discrimination of any kind, is coming out with comments like this.”
Qatar beat the United States, Australia, Japan and South Korea in the FIFA vote on Dec. 2 to host the 2022 World Cup.
Concerns have been raised that a country hosting a major tournament has stringent laws that are seen by many to violate basic human rights.
“Sepp Blatter jokes about the risk to gay visitors in 2022, but Qatar’s anti-gay policies are no laughing matter,” British human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said.
John Amaechi also condemned Blatter’s remarks. The former NBA player from Britain who revealed he was gay in 2007 said on his website that “FIFA has endorsed the marginalization of LGBT people around the world.”
Amaechi also demanded an apology from FIFA and urged other associations to distance themselves from Blatter’s comments.
“Anything less than a full reversal of his position is unacceptable,” he said.
Herman Ouseley, chairman of Kick It Out, a British campaign group for equality and inclusion in soccer, said he expected better from someone in Blatter’s position.
“It was all frivolity and laughter but it’s a serious business—people’s existence he has ridiculed,” Ouseley told the AP at the launch of his group’s annual review at the British Parliament.
“We can’t have that from the top of the world governing body—you’ve got to show leadership because you’ve got to influence the standards of behavior required and then you’ve got to enforce it when there’s a failure.”
AP Sports Writer Rob Harris contributed to this report.
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Small people… Small minds....
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A cess pit smells fresher than FIFA and their corrupt antics
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A cess pit smells fresher than FIFA and their corrupt antics
:rotfl: No sh*t sherlock! :rotfl:
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From NBCSports :-
Jonathan Alter: Qatar may have paid $10 mil for each FIFA vote
"The news just keeps getting better for Sepp Blatter and FIFA. Right on the heels of the FIFA chief’s unfortunately snide comment about gay sex at the World Cup, comes this series of tweets from Newsweek columnist and NBC News contributing correspondent Jonathan Alter, who writes that a “great source” says that some members of the World Cup Selection Committee were bribed $10 million each for their vote.
While it’s already been reported that Qatar threw around a lot of money to get the Cup, the depth of the shenanigans has not. As far as I know, it’s not illegal to bribe a FIFA official — unless it’s with endangered parrots smuggled in your pants. But if this source turns out to be accurate, it could be the blow that places Blatter in the penalty box for good. This whole Russia/Qatar selection process has been a total mess, and unless FIFA wants 12 years of open warfare, it had better get into damage control right quick. "
hxxp://offthebench.nbcsports.com/2010/12/14/jonathan-alter-qatar-may-have-paid-10-mil-for-each-fifa-vote/
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Dirty and filthy rich BASTARDS!!!!!
What should we have expected $$$$ always paves the way to bad decisions.
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To play Devil's Advocate for a moment, perhaps some good will come out of Qatar hosting the World Cup. As organisers of the 2nd largest sporting event on the planet, FIFA will have considerable clout on the way the host nation behaves. At present, alcohol is legal with a permit, but its illegal to drink it in public. Since beer drinking and football supporting go hand in hand, it's hard to imagine fans being thrilled at going to a country where there are few bars and public drinking, which is taken for granted in all football tournaments, is illegal. It's also hard to imagine that FIFA would want to lose out on huge amounts of cash by not having an official beer sponsor (Budweiser is the current sponsor and the likes of Coca-cola and McDonalds pay $1.2billion for the priviledge)
The eyes of the world will be on Qatar in 2022, with human rights being scruntised by the world's media. I mean, look what a success China being handed the Olympics was in improving their human rights record …. oh.. bad example, nothing has changed there.
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No Sex for Gays at Qatar World Cup? Was FIFA Chief Joking?
(Dec. 15) – Gay soccer fans unsure about attending the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal, should rest assured that they can attend the games ... as long as they refrain from sex, that is.
That's according to FIFA chief Sepp Blatter, who stuck his foot in his mouth at a press conference in Johannesburg when he suggested jokingly that gays would be welcome at the games but should "refrain from any sexual activities" while in Qatar.
Blatter did say that he wanted the World Cup to be inclusive. "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," he told reporters Monday. But his off-color attempt to make gay spectators feel welcome didn't win Blatter any fans, or laughs either.
On his blog, John Amaechi, the former NBA star who is openly gay, said he was "enraged" and planned to file a complaint with FIFA. "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 to bid at their pleasure uses that power not to foster positive change but to further entrench bigotry," he wrote.
Most found the remarks seriously unfunny. "Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar. It is not a joke. It is not tolerated in the Muslim state and carries a prison sentence of five years," CBC Sports' Nigel Reed wrote today.
Others, though, said it wasn't all that clear whether Blatter, who has a history of making awkward and insensitive remarks, was kidding at all. "Not exactly known for his discretion, Blatter brushed this off as a joke. That's always the line when someone of prominence makes a stupid or hateful remark -- as if jokes weren't often the most honest things we said," Alexander Nazaryan wrote at the New York Daily News.
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Blatter's remarks about, well, the African continent, didn't win him any fans, either.Monday, he praised the effect of the 2010 World Cup on Africa. "A new era of Afro-optimism has swept across the continent and the world," he said in Johannesburg. "Africans have always believed in themselves. Now the world believes in them, too. The World Cup contributed a great deal to this change of perception."
"Excuse me while I vomit in the nearest available bucket," Jonty Mark wrote at IoL Sport in South Africa.
FIFA could not be reached for comment today, because it is located in Switzerland, where it's offices are closed.
