Free Kick: Ineffable Blatter giving overkill a bad name

Eight months' suspension for Rio Ferdinand. Manchester United predictably but illogically outraged. Gordon Taylor of the Professional Footballers' Association continuing to shout the irrational odds like an old-fashioned trade unionist, who should know better.

Having backed the juvenile England players when they threatened to strike before the game in Turkey on behalf of Ferdinand, he's now driven away to the effect that Ferdinand has been punished though never found guilty of any drug taking offence.

Well, since he ducked out of the test - can anyone seriously believe that he "forgot"? - we shall never know whether on this occasion he was guilty or not.

One of the least endearing aspects of this sorry affair has been the shameless posturing of the ineffable Sepp Blatter, ever controversial President of FIFA; a role he acquired in deeply suspicious circumstances, in Marseille in 1998, when the Swede Lennart Johansson looked a certainty.

Blatter, of whom a German journalist once told me, "Sepp Blatter has 50 new ideas every day and 51 of them are bad" - suddenly emerges as a moralist. He even fulminates that in future any player found guilty of drug taking be banned for life! He's giving overkill a bad name.

Not only that; he is now castigating the European clubs for pillaging talent from South America and Africa. Yet as we all - but Blatter - know so well, such talent cannot wait to get to Europe to earn the decent living which would be impossible in its own countries.

Meanwhile, the American Nations Cup will soon be upon us, which means that Bolton Wanderers lose for five weeks the dazzling Nigerian, Jay Jay Okocha.

No wonder their manager Sam Allardyce moved heaven and earth to stop Okocha going, appealing to him to pull out of Nigeria's team.

Will Carlos Bianchi manage Argentina? Boca Juniors' recent victory, albeit only on penalties, against Milan in Yokohama in the Toyota Cup emphasises his remarkable gifts as a manager: even if he did fail when appointed by Roma.

With Marcelo Bielsa, actual manager of Argentina, under steady criticism, Bianchi would be a very popular choice. No star is sacrosanct. Not long ago the great revelation of the Boca team, who beat promising Santos in the finals of the Liberatedores, was the centre forward, Carlos Teves.

Where was he in Yokahama? On the bench, off which he came only after 73 minutes.

Two previously obscure players have been galvanised by Bianchi; centreback Rolando Schiavi and midfielder Raul Cascini. Since Bianchi's relations with the club's President, Mauricio Macri, have been pretty tense, we may well see him try his luck with the national side.