(CNN) -- The head of world football's global governing body has criticized Italian soccer for not cracking down hard enough on a team whose fans racially abused an opposition player.
Sunday's goalless draw between AC Milan and Roma at the San Siro stadium was brought to a halt for several minutes after visiting fans directed abuse at home striker Mario Balotelli.
The Italian Federation fined Roma $65,000, which prompted a forthright response from Blatter.
"What is surprising and is not understandable for me, is that the disciplinary committee of the Italian Football Federation has taken a decision, not even 24 hours after the event, by just imposing a fine," Blatter told FIFA's official website.
"They have not made any investigation of what happened. And just to give a pecuniary sanction is not valid, that is not acceptable. ...
See the whole story here, courtesy of CNN.
Kicking Back Comments: The more I read Sepp's reactions, the more I equate him to a male version of Dolores Umbridge. Here is a brief clip from YouTube to illustrate:
I think it's his feigned outrage about the Italian Federation taking swift (>24h) action that gets me. I do agree with him that a mere $65K is nothing even close to a necessary penalty, but kudos for the FIGC for taking such quick action at all.
As we have learned from FIFA, there is a committee, but no action from it at all, and something is still better than nothing, even if that something is woefully inadequate.
Where FIFA is going to get into trouble is that each federation is coming up with its own set of rules on how to deal with such situations. (Where is the US on this one?) It looks also like no one federation is like another, no one is talking, and FIFA has no control ...
All that aside, guess who had to make the decision to stop the match in this case?
You guessed it ... the referee.
No blue ribbon pannel, no FIFA representative at the stadium, no team official ... the referee.
Yes folks, we are going to be right on the front like of having to deal with this nonsense because no one else seems to have the courage to stop this vile behavior.
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