Blatter’s bear hypocrisy has to stop

SEPP BLATTER will be in London tomorrow to make a grandstanding speech to the Football Association. Perhaps somebody could heckle and call him a Swiss Spiv? A fondue- slurping, chocolate- stuffed palmgreaser? An old git? A bald coot? Or even something much worse. Something outand- out racist. Then we could see how he reacts…

While the FIFA president is here, perhaps someone could also ask him how the 2018 World Cup ended up in Russia – land of the stadium monkey chant and the swastika flags in the stands – instead of in England, which fits his organisation’s muchtrumpeted anti- racism creed like no other football nation on earth.

Perhaps Yaya Toure could pop across to the FA’s 150th anniversary dinner and pose the question himself, fresh from being abused in Moscow. Manchester City will also be in town ahead of playing Chelsea. It’s an idea, isn’t it?

It is time for a proper stand. If the game’s global and regional authorities had any serious commitment to fighting prejudice they would haul the tournament after next out of the hateful hell- hole in the East.

Their slogans are fake and hollow. So why not switch it here, where it should have been all along? There is a more or less permanent World Cup taking place in London throughout the year anyway, because so many other nations choose to play friendlies against each other in a city that guarantees them crowds, local support and safety from Nazi- style persecution.

Let’s do the real thing in the same atmosphere and give football a tournament to match last year’s Olympics.

Here is a real racism scandal – not a fake one like the deceitful witchhunt of the England manager, Roy Hodgson, which was trumped up last week. The tirade of filth aimed at Toure during the Champions League tie against CSKA on Wednesday was loathsome. This kind of monkey- chanting and gesticulating never loses its power to shock.

The fact that it happens ceaselessly in that part of the world increases its repulsiveness. And just as repellent is the continuing limpness of the ruling bodies, who spout endless slogans but have barely stirred to put into action the latest anti- racism sanctions FIFA agreed with much fanfare only last May.

Remember that qualifying tie which Ukraine were supposed to play against Poland behind closed doors in Kharkiv earlier this month? Attendance: 39,136.

FIFA’s puffed- up announcement said that against San Marino in Lviv “several racist incidents were apparently perpetrated, in particular by displaying neo- Nazi banners and by making ‘ monkey noises and gestures’ as well as Nazi salutes”. Yet the punishment was relaxed. As usual.

UEFA did the same with the serial offenders Lazio when they reduced a full ground closure to a partial one for the Europa League visit of Apollon Limassol next month. Lazio’s nutters had racially abused fans of Legia Warsaw, who had part of their own ground closed for their abuse of the Welsh fans of The New Saints last August.

In contrast to all this feeble evasion, Toure’s response to his ordeal was dignified and powerful. It looked even more statesman- like when CSKA issued a risible statement claiming the noise from their supporters was nothing more than “disapproving hums and whistles designed to put pressure on rival players” – which served only to reveal the depth of the problem and the failure to grasp it there.

FIFA will not move the World Cup from Russia. The fix is in. All those infrastructure building contracts will be plundered in the land memorably described by the US government on the day of the World Cup bid decision in 2010 as “a kleptocracy”. In their familiar, slippery way, FIFA have handily been able to smother