Tuesday: Sepp: "There's no systematic corruption in Fifa: that is nonsense. We just need to improve our image. We are clean and clear."
Wednesday: Ghana's organised crime unit raid Ghana's FA offices over alleged malpractice by senior officials. Fifa's response: telling Ghana's government to call the police off and terminate the investigation or Ghana will be expelled from world football. "Fifa considers government interference in football unacceptable ... Ghana must reconsider."• Other Fifa anti-government interference highlights this week:
1) Manuel Burga running for a third term as Peru's FA president, having survived a 2006 government attempt to investigate him for alleged "gross corruption" when Fifa threatened Peru with expulsion. (Burga's best moment since then: April this year, denying he embezzled a £250k school sport fund. "I am wearied by this story - and all the others that came before it.")
2) Next on Fifa's radar: Colombia, pledging a government intervention to stop clubs engaging in alleged money laundering deals with drug cartels. "We are going to smash the relationship between criminals and football," said president Juan Manuel Santos. "For if we don't do it, who will?"
Meanwhile
Executive committee member of the week: Argentina's Julio Grondona – denying he backed Qatar's 2022 bid after they offered him $78.4m to ease his FA's debt crisis. "Enough with all this. The belittling of my good name must end." (Grondona's other common ground with Qatar: 2003, telling live TV: "I do not believe a Jew can ever be a referee. It's hard work – and Jews don't like hard work.")
And finally
Last week's top three verdicts on a textbook World Cup voting process:
1) Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke: "It was perfectly organised, perfectly transparent and perfectly under control."
2) ExCo member Chuck Blazer: "People yell about transparency – well there are problems with transparency too: it can have a negative effect on people who need to exercise judgment."
3) Zinedine Zidane – paid a reported $15m success fee for promoting the Qatar bid – on what pleased him most. "I'm just proud. It is nice to be able to show the world that football belongs to everyone."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/dec/12/said-and-done-sepp-fifa
