Sepp Blatter kind of apologizes for joking about gays in Qatar

Category: Football

Publish Date: 12-17-2010 05:16 PM -0500

FIFA president Sepp Blatter once again revealed this week just how little he cares about anything that doesn't serve his purposes by joking that gays shouldn't do anything gay if they choose to attend the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where homosexual activity is punished with harsh penalties. 

Gay rights groups spoke out against his frivolous dismissal of these concerns, demanding that he resign or at least apologize for what he said. Of course, he isn't going to resign over this, but he has decided to try and make it go away by "presenting apologies" like a carton of expired eggs. 

From Reuters:

"I will not enter into such a discussion but I will just say here if I hurt a group of people in the world by making those comments then I regret it," Blatter told a news conference.

"It was not my intention and it will never be my intention to go into any discrimination because this is exactly what we (FIFA) are against, so therefore if somebody feels they have been hurt, then I regret and I present apologies for that."

Well, that's something. But Sepp's statements show that he really doesn't see why people care so much about his attempts to be a comedian. For someone at the head of an organization that claims to be interested in crossing borders and snuffing out hate around the world through sport, saying "it will never be my intention to go into any discrimination because this is exactly what we are against" doesn't really work. If you're so against discrimination, you'd think that he would want to go into it in order to flush it out. Then again, this is Sepp Blatter, so trying to hold him to an honorable strain of logic is just a waste of time. 

And with that matter now dismissed, it's back to business as usual for Blatter as he continues to work on his comedy routine. 

Photo: AP

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