Mr Teflon weathers pre-poll heat with a cool head

Blatter’s election — by 139 votes to 56 over Cameroonian aristocrat Issa Hayatou — caps an ugly, divisive election campaign in which he’s been accused of everything short of selling off his native Switzerland. But he’s Mr Teflon himself, making sure that at the end of the day the charges don’t translate into votes against.

At his post-win press conference today, where he faced an immensely hostile Press (most of the western media have been gunning for him), Blatter displayed his legendary, Mafia-like PR skills. Several of the questions related to Michel Zen-Ruffinen, his general secretary who blew the whistle on his alleged scams. When one journalist asked whether Ruffinen was now in trouble, adding that he had stated as much just after Blatter was declared elected, the FIFA boss said, with a totally deadpan face: “It is his statement that he will be in trouble, then he must be in trouble.”

Now to the team definitely in trouble. Zidane was the main reason why France are favourites to win. They still are, English bookies Ladbrokes offering 3/1 odds on Les Bleus. But that will change if the French squad can’t send out a clear message that life will go on without Zidane. So far, they haven’t. Youri Djorkaeff, the man most likely to take Zidane’s place in the side, said it clearly: He would be no replacement for Zizou.

The French, already weakened by the absence of Arsenal’s Robert Pires, could do without problems like these. Their two warm-up matches haven’t been very promising; they did beat South korea, but only thanks to a very late goal from Lebeouf. And a shaky defence conceded two goals, which Korean television shows every few minutes. Before that, they lost to Belgium.

But France are champions and they won the World Cup after a sluggish start four years ago. It would be interesting to see, though, how they cope with the Zidane problem. World Cup history is littered with examples of top stars getting themselves injured. In 1954, Hungary were far and away the favourites to beat Germany in the final, even though star player Ferenc Puskas was injured. The mistake they made was in playing a half-fit Puskas in the final, and eventually losing.

Pele left the 1966 World Cup battered and bruised by over attentive defenders. a more apt comparison for the Zidane situation, though, would be that which Brazil faced with Zico in 1986. He was injured before the tournament and came on only in the third match as a substitute. The next match was the pre-quarters against France. Zico came on again, just after the hour-mark, and eventually the match went to penalties. Guess who missed his and sent the Brazilians crashing out?

It is one of football’s delicious ironies that the team France are seeded to play in the quarter-finals are Brazil. As if this tournament didn’t have enough grudge matches anyway!