No its not an inflatable model of Sepp Blatter but a green haired leopard called " Zakumi".The organisers correctly figured that Blatter was inflated enough already and hence went for the leopard.
Zakumi - the ZA stands for South Africa while kumi means ten in assorted African languages.

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Leave it to FIFA to wait for the most opportune time to condemn a despot.

Today, South Africa 2010's organizing committee finally came out and said the 2010 tournament and the continent need peace in Zimbabwe. You think?

FIFA general-secretary Jerome Valcke and Danny Jordaan, the chief executive officer of the South African organizing committee discussed the economic and political crises in neighboring Zimbabwe.

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With today's news that the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth has been removed as a venue from the 2009 Confederations Cup schedule on the heels of FIFA president Sepp Blatter's comments last week, the South Africa 2010 project has lived through a bad week.

Regardless, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke seemed optimistic after the 2010 Local Organizing Committee's Board meeting held in Johannesburg on Tuesday. Click to continue reading...

"Victory for football as a whole," reads the title of UEFA's triumphalist press release today announcing the elite clubs' forum the G-14 had been disbanded. Meeting at the Home of FIFA in Zurich, the representatives of the organisations present (cf. list at the end of this media release) agreed on the intention to regulate their future [. Click to continue reading...

I wrote about the dirty dealings behind the glitz of Fifa's latest World Cup draw here the other day as well, but writing for print always makes me actually explain things properly. So anyone interested in the suspect dealings going on at FIFA might want to read my latest column at the Chicago Sports Weekly on [. Click to continue reading...

Today, the draw for the qualifying round of the 2010 World Cup will take place. It will be beamed to 173 countries, and FIFA's General Secretary Jérôme Valcke will be centre stage alongside Sepp Blatter. Yet less than twelve months ago, Valcke, then FIFA's marketing director, faced ruin following the finding of an American court that [. Click to continue reading...