Turkey's Fate Hangs In The Balance

Following the brawl between the Swiss and the Turks in the November 2005 play-off match, FIFA will be deciding Turkey's fate on Monday and Tuesday of this week (5-6 Feb). It is possible that they could be banned from international football or be forced to play behind closed doors.

It's interesting that it is Turkey's fate being decided and not Turkey and Switzerland's fates, isn't it ? My recollection was that the match reports indicated that the Swiss were by no means innocent, particularly midfielder Benjamin Huggel.

Regardless of innocence and 'guilt' in all this - isn't threatening to ban a football team from world football rather an over the top response to what was, after all, just a scrap. No one died, no one was seriously injured...it was frustration spilling over into aggression.

I think the comments of Sepp Blatter, FIFA supremo, have caused this to become such a major incident. He said this: "Something is going wrong in football. I've never seen anything like it..." Never seen anything like it ?!? You can't have watched much football, then, Sepp, me ol' mate.

Could it possibly have been because of the particular teams involved ? Sepp Blatter...hmm...now what nationality is he, again ?