Say no, Placido!

The tenor of our times (maybe yesterday’s) has been asked to help the football governing body FIFA clean up its game after ‘allegations’, hotly contested by one delegate, that dozens of FIFA members were handsomely bribed to send the 2022 World Cup to slave-state Qatar.

Domingo was invited to join the team by FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who is refusing to reopen the Qatar process, or to hold any investigation into the chunks of untraceable hot notes that passed among FIFA members before the decision was made. Sepp is splendidly sitting on the case.

photo: PD with Chelsea goalless star Fernando Torres

Blatter has also asked Henry Kissinger and Dutch football legend Johann Cruyff to join him on the whitewash panel. The former US Secretary of State, no amateur at whitewashing inconvenient histories (Cambodia, Tienanmen Square), is putting his soccer passion to one side and carefully considering whether to join this ludicrously dubious venture. Placido Domingo should do the same.

Placido, this is not an offer of free World Cup tickets for life. It is an association that could tarnish you forever. Take good advice. Don’t do it.

photo: Placido avoids scoring own goal (cbc canada, all rights reserved)