Bosses should learn from Blatter   

Mikia Kalati

FIFA has suspended its former president, Sepp Blatter, for eight years following reports that he was involved in several corrupt activities which could have prejudiced the world football body of millions of dollars.

It all started in the run-up to last year’s poll, where Blatter was seeking reelection for a fifth term.

But although he the Swiss was voted back to office, FIFA was already facing a host of corruption scandals, which were being investigated by law-enforcement agencies from the United States of America as well as Switzerland.

The investigations and outcry from the football community left Blatter with no choice but to resign, and the world’s once powerful football leader has never been the same again.

I, for one, believe that Blatter brought all this trouble on himself by showing his greed in seeking re-election despite having been in FIFA since 1998.

He should have gone after at least three terms based on the fact that he had also served the same association in different positions before succeeding João Havelange of Brazil, who had headed the organization since 1974.

While I had also grown tired of Blatter and his leadership, I will always be grateful that our mother continent, Africa, managed to hosts its first soccer World Cup under his leadership.

It was in the 2010 World Cup, as well as in the 2009 Confederations Cup, that I managed to watch live, some of my favourite players such France’s Thierry Henry and Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leit, popularly known as Kaka, of Brazil.

But despite all this, I think we should just let justice take its course.

I think we are in a similar position here at home where you have people who have been serving different sports association for over 10 years but have little to show for it.

My main concern is that some of these fat cats don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, when they should have left a long time ago.

My message to them is go before it is too late because you might end up in the same situation as Blatter, Michel Platini as well as Jerome Valcke, who have all been made to eat humble pie by the same association they had served for years.

The truth always has its own way of coming out, and at times, in the most cruel fashion.

I don’t think even in his wildest dreams, Blatter ever thought he would be suspended from FIFA—an organization he had come to run as his own household.

That’s the nature of life, especially when a person starts to act as if he is God Almighty.