Blatter: 'Football is ill'

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has warned that "football is ill", adding that brawling Arsenal and Chelsea players tarnished the image of the game.

The most powerful man in football believes the mass brawl in Cardiff last month, and the even worse violence between Valencia and Inter Milan players in the Champions League, brought shame on the game.

Blatter is to raise the issue at the next Fifa Congress in May and told reporters: "We have come to a crossroads of football, our football is ill. I see more and more financial interests over-riding people in club football especially.

"Even rich countries they are not capable of providing safe and comfortable stadia and I see that violence is everywhere, including inside the stadia.

"When you see what happened recently in big stadia, in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, when highly-paid players got involved in fights, which was nothing compared to what we saw later in Valencia.

"There are many other examples I could mention. Where is football leading to if players are now at each others' throats. What will people think if they see on TV these pictures of major football matches. We must act."

© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

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