World Cup is dead without Euro markets

the money is. Take the European market away and the World Cup is dead commercially. And if the World Cup dies in 2018 it takes Blatter with it.

There is a long way to go yet. Platini is not in favour of UEFA’s secession. He knows the decision would be far from unanimous. Russia, for instance, will not walk away from a World Cup it is due to host, and the country still has power and allies in the east.

The fact that Platini is even entertaining a vote on the matter, however, shows the strength of feeling among many UEFA members. This is bigger than any one executive. There is a groundswell of revulsion over FIFA and all who stand with her as the allegations of corruption grow.

Asked whether European nations could boycott FIFA events, Platini said all options were possible. ‘There may be proposals,’ he admitted. ‘But I honestly don’t wish that.’

It would certainly be a dramatic measure, with the draw for the qualifying rounds of the 2018 tournament scheduled to take place in St Petersburg on July 25. yet the battle lines are becoming increasingly plain. A vote for Blatter is a vote for sleaze — so logic suggests anyone who sides with him must be a sleazeball.

Manuel Nascimento Lopes, president of the federation of Guinea-Bissau, described the attacks on Blatter as ‘ blasphemy’ and a ‘ state conspiracy’. The immediate presumption is that Lopes is behind Blatter for the darkest reasons. Unjust? Well, what other explanation could there be?

Viewed dispassionately, why would anyone support a man who is, at best, incompetent for letting so much fraud take place on his watch? It cannot be claimed that Blatter is a gifted administrator if events have spiralled out of his control. And incompetence is a resignation issue.

Of course, if Blatter is not incompetent, then he must have known criminal activity was taking place, and did not act efficiently against it. So that’s also a reason to stand down.

The third option is most serious of all: he didn’t act because he was party to it all along. And should quit, pending an inevitable knock on the door from the FBI.

FIFA claimed that the arrests of seven senior executives under suspicion of a £100million criminal conspiracy on Wednesday was good for the organisation. Selfserving rubbish, obviously. But yesterday was good for UEFA. Europe’s governing body, for once, came out fighting — with Platini telling Blatter to quit, and David Gill (left) then refusing to take up his newly elected position on FIFA’s executive board in protest. This was a considerable upgrade on the rhetoric and gesture politics that have been

UEFA’s usual stance. It was reported this week, for instance, that FIFA had been denied their traditional 50 tickets for the Champions League final in Berlin a week tomorrow.

So that was UEFA’s big idea. They were going to ticket FIFA into submission? No wonder Blatter felt flameproof. At least after Platini’s Press conference yesterday he will know he faces a tougher opponent