"Football has the power to build a better future,"- Sepp Blatter
"We are not the ones that can actually change it,(the situation in Qatar)"- Sepp Blatter
Blatter would like to have it both ways. When he wants to convince a government to make the inherent sacrifices involved in hosting a national tournament, he will happily talk up the supposed political benefits. When one of said tournaments happens to be held in a nation where slavery is utilised to create the required stadiums, FIFA and football loose their entire agency in the political world, forced to stand and stare at the unchangeable material conditions foisted upon us like mere peasants.
There is not a direct inconsistency in Blatter’s statements highlighted. Football can build a better future, and FIFA cannot prevent economic injustice in Qatar. The Blatter paradox (similar the Platini conjecture above) is in trying to hold the two propositions 1) Football has agency as a political economic force 2) Football exists in a separate sphere (or ball) to socioeconomic activity and has no relations (causal or otherwise) to it.
Blatter can’t end exploitation, nor should he be trying to. If he was the man charged with such a task we would have gotten to a sorry state of affairs. “Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to loose but an away tie in Donetsk.” This does not mean he is justified in choosing which side of the paradox he fancies. He does so for convenience, FIFA will use whatever rhetoric they can to gloss over the reality of the costs imposed on World Cup hosts, without acknowledging the reality that for most countries it is a white elephant project which they will happily let some citizens loose out to create. FIFA are happy to be politicians in this sense. When they are then charged with showing support for somewhat brutal regimes they draw up their very own veil of ignorance between the political world and the world of football. The mistake Blatter makes is a category one, he thinks that the two are not one in the same thing. If he genuinely believes this, and believes both statements, then he is a fool not suitable for his position. If he is being rhetorical as he probably is, then the truth of (2) is negated as he as the leader of the professional football world is actively engaging in political activity (unless he wishes to deny this form or rhetoric is political or that he is not part of the football world).
Beyond this philosophical analysis, there is a tragic darkness. Blatters obfuscation, deliberate or otherwise, between politics and football means that he ends up supporting regimes by proxy and creates a situation in 2022 when rich people will be sitting in purpose built stadia in the desert in a land lacking in a clear football culture supping the offerings of whichever multinational has won the lucrative and monopolistic contract at the cost of the lives of workers in Qatar. Football will have created this, and there is no reason why this should be the case. Football is (sometimes) a source of joy and aspiration for people all over the world, and FIFA’s direct political task is to make sure this is the case as much as possible and exclusively. If Blatter wants to separate politics from football, he should be supporting the magical property which he alludes to in the first quotation - the games ability to transcend the horrors of political and economic reality. Football can show what the best of what humans in unity can be. That is why it was created and why so many people are interested in it. It should be ahead of our normal material conditions, and this politician Blatter should not be allowed to get away with using our game to support those who do not share in its beauty.
These are academic articles about FIFA and world cups which support some of the above!
http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/2013.01.pdf
http://www.planetizen.com/node/47113
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