Blatter 'rude and offensive'

2005-10-12 17:44

London - The English Professional Football Association has hit back at Fifa president Sepp Blatter, accusing him of being rude and offensive after his outspoken attack on players.

Blatter has vowed to stop "greed ruling the world of football" and launched a blistering attack on avaricious players and hugely wealthy club owners he claims are threatening the future of football.

PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor has hit back though, saying the Fifa president is biting the hand that feeds him.

In a column in the Financial Times, the Fifa president said: "Equally unacceptable are the sort of wage negotiations that can produce the spectacle of semi-educated, sometimes foul-mouthed, players on 100 000 pounds a week holding clubs to ransom until they get, say, 120 000 pounds.

"It is simply insane for any player to 'earn' six to eight million pounds a year when the annual budget of even a club competing in the Champions League may be less than half that.

"What logic, right or economic necessity would qualify a man in his mid 20's to demand to earn in a month a sum that his own father - and the majority of fans - could not hope to earn in a decade?"

Taylor, who is also head of the international players' union FifPro, reacted with anger to Blatter's comments.

He told PA Sport: "It strikes me as rude and extremely offensive for someone in his position to brand players as semi-educated when they have devoted all their lives to reaching the very top of their profession.

"I find it bizarre that the head of Fifa, which is a organisation which has built its huge wealth on the back of players, is having a go at those same players. He is biting the hand that feeds him.

"Fifa will be making as much money as they can from the World Cups and yet he is criticising players for trying to maximise their income from a very short career."

- AFP