Leading figures in soccer call on Blatter to step down

Leading figures in the world of soccer, including superstar David Beckham, on Thursday blasted FIFA President Sepp Blatter for controversial remarks he made on racism in an interview with CNN World Sport.

The head of world football told CNN's Pedro Pinto there is no on-field racism in football and that any player who has been abused should simply shake hands with his opponent at the end of the match and move on.

Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand, a former England captain, expressed his outrage on Twitter, blasting Blatter's comments as "so condescending it's almost laughable."

"I think the remarks were appalling, personally," Beckham said in an interview with CNN's Paul Vercammen. "All I care about is keeping racism out of soccer and out of sport. Because it's not just in sports it's in life in general. So it has to be stopped and we're part of that."

Beckham, who plays in the United States for LA Galaxy, said something should be done, but he stopped short of saying Blatter should step down.
The chief executive of England's Professional Footballers' Association, Gordon Taylor, told CNN that Blatter should quit.

"He should step down," he said. "This is the straw that broke the camel's back. We need football to set a good example, so this is inexcusable.

The Swiss was re-elected unopposed as the head of football's governing body in June after his main rival was suspended amid corruption allegations. The bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups was also dogged by bribery allegations.

Soon after Blatter gave his interview to CNN on Wednesday, his position appeared to be undermined when the English Football Association charged Liverpool's Luis Suarez with racism toward a fellow player.

Suarez allegedly taunted Manchester United's French defender Patrice Evra. Suarez, from Uruguay, denies the claims.

London's Metropolitan Police are also investigating allegations of racism against Chelsea and England captain John Terry. He denies claims he racially abused the brother of Rio Ferdinand, Anton, during a Premier League match.

Blatter: No on-field racism in football

The UK sports minister Hugh Robertson echoed calls for Blatter to quit. "Racism is a criminal offense in this country and anybody who is caught will face criminal sanctions," he told CNN.

"What Sepp Blatter has said, in this country, is just completely wrong as well as morally indefensible. This is the latest episode that calls into question whether this man should be the head of world football. For the sake of the game, he should go.

"We have been consistent in our calls for improved governance at FIFA and this underlines the need for that once more. We must never be complacent in our efforts to tackle racism. There is no place or excuse for it either on or off the pitch."

The "Kick It Out" group, who campaign against racism in football, said Blatter's comments were worryingly out of touch.

"Shaking hands to compensate for a racial slur is not what the game has signed up to, and trivializes the work of campaigns like Kick It Out."

Blatter clarified his comments in a statement on FIFA's website that carried a picture of him embracing Tokyo Sexwale, a prominent South African politician who has campaigned against racism.

Ferdinand responded to the picture on his Twitter account, saying: "Fifa clear up the Blatter comments with a pic of him posing with a black man..I need the hand covering eyes symbol!!"
Thursday, Blatter responded to Ferdinand directly on Twitter, writing: "The 'black man' as you call him has a name: Tokyo Sexwale. He has done tremendous work against racism and apartheid in Africa.

"We have done several joint activities to raise awareness on the struggle against racism in South Africa. FIFA has a long standing and proud record in the area of anti-discrimination which will continue."

Later Ferdinand replied: "To say what you said about racism in football spoke volumes of your ignorance to the subject. If we want to stamp out racism in society a football pitch is a good place to start -- loved by billions of people around the world (sic)."

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said racism was still prevalent in football, but the top tier in the English game was fighting hard to eradicate it.

He said: "Racism certainly still exists in football, albeit reduced, but there are still issues, of course there are, and we're not complacent about that.

"But I think it's a bit of a stretch to say it doesn't exist because it does."

"The English game had led and been at the forefront of reducing incidents of racist behavior -- it's totally unacceptable, everybody in the game in England understands it is totally unacceptable.

"We have that reputation, as far as I'm aware, that reputation is still intact but the game will deal with whatever is thrown against it. There is no place for it in football, let alone in England, and we will strive to eradicate it."

Sports journalist and London Evening Standard columnist Mihir Bose said Blatter's views demonstrated that he is out of touch with the modern game.

He told CNN, "This won't topple him. It will damage him further but you could argue he was damaged goods anyway.

"Blatter wants to be a showman, he wants to be in the public eye ... but these comments are incredibly insensitive and crass."

Bose said that although great strides have been made in the fight against racism in football, there is still much work to do.

"Much of the racist attitudes that saw bananas being thrown onto the field at black players has gone, but there is still a pervasive racism," he added.

"White players feel racism has been conquered but there remains a feeling of discrimination in the game which is why black players have reacted with outrage at Blatter's comments.

"They feel there is still not a level playing field -- they feel all they have fought for over the years has been devalued."

Can European soccer stamp out racism?

There have also been several instances of racism in European football this year.

Former Brazil player Roberto Carlos walked off the pitch during a game in Russia when a banana was thrown at him and Chelsea's Israeli midfielder Yossi Benayoun was taunted during a game in Malaysia.

Iceland's president: Social media turns the government into a 'sideshow'

Facebook updates and YouTube videos are becoming more important to global affairs than governments, Iceland's president said this week.

"This so-called social media has transformed our democratic institutions in such a way that what takes place in the more traditional institutions of power -- congress, ministries, even the White House or the presidency and the cabinet in my country -- has become almost a sideshow," Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, Iceland's president, said in an interview with CNN on Thursday at the PopTech conference here in coastal Maine.

"I know it's a strong statement, especially coming from someone who spent most of his life within those institutions. But the power of the social media is, in my opinion, transforming the political process in such a way that I can't see any chance for the traditional, formal institutions of our democratic systems to keep up."

The statement comes after years of hardship for Iceland, which suffered the collapse of its financial system in 2008 and a massive 2010 volcano eruption that shut down international travel in the region. The country saw widespread political protests during this period, leading Grimsson to say Iceland was the example that Egyptians and now the global Occupy Wall Street movements followed.

Grimsson, an even-spoken figure with Bill-Clinton hair and a charming Nordic accent, said protests organized by social media and technological developments are healthy for society, whether or not that offers him much in the way of job security.

He sees technological development as a way to move Iceland forward after tragedy.

"Reading was always important to people in Iceland and a literary creativity," he said. "Somehow, with the digital revolution, this interest was transported over to computers, websites, mobile phones and so on. So Iceland now ranks among the top countries in all of these areas, and it has brought forward a new generation of people who are creating companies in these fields."

The country has rebounded significantly since the 2008 meltdown, he said, and that's because Iceland bucked the advice of the international community and decided not to bail out the banks and financial institutions that helped create the foreclosure crisis.

"We are coming out of this crisis earlier and more effectively than I think anyone, including ourselves, could have expected. Iceland is now serving as an interesting example of how you can get out of a very deep financial and economic crisis."

Iceland's unemployment rate dropped to 5.9% in the third financial quarter of this year, down from 8.5% earlier this year. The United States' unemployment rate is higher, at 9.1%, but Iceland's unemployment rate is still up compared to pre-crisis levels, which hovered around 2% to 4 % in 2006 and 2007.

A creative spirit helped the country recover, as former bankers found new jobs in other industries that are, on the whole, more helpful for the country, he said.

"One of the lessons is that if you want to grow your economy towards the creative direction of the 21st century, a big banking sector, even if it is successful, is in fact bad news," he said.

Iceland is also trying to develop itself as a hub for Internet traffic.

Grimsson says new data centers -- the computer warehouses that essentially house the Internet -- are coming to Iceland because they can be powered by clean energy, and because the country is a smart linking point between North America and Europe.

Underwater broadband cables connect the island nation to both of those continents.

"The climate in Iceland is such that if you want to cool the storage center, to put it simply, you open a window," he said, "whereas 40% of the data center's running costs in other locations is spent on air conditioning. So the operation is much cheaper in Iceland."

He's also using the Internet to promote tourism in his country.

A video posted on the site Vimeo shows the president sitting behind a wooden desk and inviting anyone who will listen to come to his house for "delicious pancakes."

"It's a great idea because it also displays that the essence of Icelandic society is openness and friendliness," he said. "It's one of those countries that's still assuming that anyone who come comes as a friend until proven otherwise, whereas most of the world is moving in a different direction -- assuming everyone is a threat, until proven otherwise."

The offer for presidential pancakes, by the way, is still on the table for those who act fast; and he'll serve them just the way his grandmother did, "with cream and jam."

"I'm not going to open a pancake restaurant," he said, laughing. "I'm just going to do it on a smaller scale."