Taken at face value, it was just a harmless – and rather imaginative – public relations stunt. But I wonder whether FIFA President Joseph Blatter’s present on Friday to the head of the Roman Catholic church of a Latin edition of the FIFA Weekly, the governing body’s new publishing venture, doesn’t offer us a deeper glimpse into the mind of the man who has run world football these last 15 years, even though it was an idea of the FIFA communications division.
For quite a long time now, I have felt that the Swiss master sports politician has been preoccupied with convincing people of the power of the game of football, and by extension of the man who runs it, to be a social, and even political force for good.