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US Women’s Soccer Win Doesn’t Impress FIFA Flack

Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/Getty Images

FIFA’s newly appointed reform chief, François Carrard, must not have gotten the message about what the word reform means. In an interview with Swiss paper Le Matin on Sunday, Carrard spouted off some wisdom on the state of FIFA’s corruption trials and why us dastardly Americans should not have stuck our noses where they don’t belong:

He said, in French, that soccer was not “a true American sport.”
“There, it’s just an ethnic sport for girls in schools,” he said.

No disrespect to esteemed reform chief François Carrard, or to the hallowed and proud institution that is FIFA, but has he forgotten that the U.S. Women’s National Team won the World Cup this year? That the “ethnic sport for girls in schools” is actually hugely beloved among Americans? That reforming FIFA means perhaps not being so salty that the U.S. Justice Department was the first governing body to willingly expose years of corruption? On that note, Carrard had this to add about Attorney General Loretta Lynch: He said, “I do not want to judge,” but already, he has judged Blatter and his associates and the entire game of soccer in the United States. He even judged the United States justice system, criticizing Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch for holding a news conference to announce the charges when “crimes like this happen in the U.S. every day.”

Meanwhile, Carrard said of disgraced FIFA president Sepp Blatter (who has been shaky on his commitment to actually resigning) that “This man is being treated unfairly.” With accusations of bribes and kickbacks to the tune of $150 million, we’re not sure Carrard has the correct characterization.

US Women’s Soccer Win Doesn’t Impress FIFA Flack