'Corrupt old fool' - How media reacted to Sepp Blatter ban

FIFA president Sepp Blatter is surrounded by banknotes thrown by a British comedian during a press conference earlier this year. Photo / AP

The British press has portrayed banned Fifa boss Sepp Blatter as a corrupt old fool, unrepentant, and clinging to power even though his days are numbered.

The Mirror quoted the English FA's former chairman David Bernstein saying: "He's a drowning man really, there's no coming back from this. He'll fight, I'm sure of that. He's not a soft touch. He will fight but he is doomed. He is yesterday's man."

The Guardian's David Conn described him as a "flailing emperor unable to believe his power has drained away", believing that he was indispensable to Fifa.

His European football critics regarded him as "the Machiavellian master" who had learnt from the former head, Brazil's Joao Havelange, "who took millions in bribes and kickbacks from Fifa's marketing deals with a marketing company."

However, Conn concluded by quoting Jerome Champagne, a former French diplomate, a Blatter adviser, and candidate to succeed him, as saying "history will judge him better than the news."

Conn wrote: "That could turn out to be true but from the grinning executive who joined a fusty Fifa in 1975 to the shaky president expelled from the multibillion dollar world governing body 40 years later, no account of Sepp Blatter will ever be entirely straightforward."

The Independent described Blatter's press conference statement as "bizarre and confusing"

Glenn Ebrey of The Times wrote: "Although the outgoing Fifa president used the word sorry on several occasions...he did not appear to apologise for anything."

In the same paper, chief football writer Oliver Kay, under a headline "Forget the appeal, this is the end for Blatter" described the disgraced boss as looking "frail and a little dishevelled".

"...(he) has vowed to fight on but, finally, his days are numbered."

The Telegraph's Paul Hayward suggested banned Uefa president Michael Platini's "offence feels worse because he framed himself as the football man, the soul of the game, who sought high office only to serve the sport he loved."

Hayward continued: "...Platini: now, there was a man you could marvel at on YouTube, at once a musketeer from the 1970s and 80s and a statesman of the modern game who was behind 'Financial Fair Play' (how risible that high-blown concept sounds now.)

A state of denial is a virulent affliction for football's lake-dwellers - and Platini has a bad case of it. He cannot see how accepting $2 million from Blatter shortly before he (Platini) agreed not to challenge Blatter for the Fifa presidency might offend the sensibilities of those who think transparency and accountability are vital attributes of governing bodies.