Blather Blather Blather

That bloody Sepp Blatter eh? Or Sepp Blather, as he should probably now be known.

Somehow still in charge of FIFA despite a catalogue of gaffes that would inspire Dennis Norden out of retirement (is he still alive?) the Swiss plonker surpasses himself with his views on the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer saga.

Just when you thought the whole sorry affair was beyond tedium, up steps Bladder to suggest that Manchester United's refusal to let their man leave is an act of 'modern slavery'. I don't know how Sepp was at history at school, but it is clear that he has failed to grasp the seriousness of the effects of slavery before it was abolished. There will be people listening around the world who will have ancestors who were subjected to slavery, and for those people Blatter's comments are a sickening disgrace.

Let's have it right. Cristiano Ronaldo probably clears around £500,000 per month at Old Trafford once you add on his sponsorship deals and his bonuses. That equates to around £6million per year. This may not make him the highest paid sportsman, or even the highest paid footballer in the world, but it is a far cry from long hours of heavy manual labour topped with a liberal sprinkling of whipping and other forms of abuse.

Some have suggested that Blatter may have had a linguistic problem here, and that he had not intended to use a word that is bound to provoke such emotion and revulsion. I'm not convinced, and would argue that if he does have a problem with his English he should refrain from using it in public. Better still keep his mouth shut no matter what language he might use. Even better still, just resign. After all, any political figure making the same comparison would have been chased out of Westminster faster than you can say 'Has Gordon really put up car tax again?'

Less importantly, Yorkshire have been thrown out of the Twenty20 Cup for fielding an ineligible player against Nottinghamshire in an earlier round. This scandalous decision was conjured up by some kangaroo court at Old Trafford after the Tykes Azeem Rafiq bowled two overs and did not bat against the Outlaws without going through the proper registration paperwork. It also transpires that he does not have a British passport despite captaining England at under-15 level. Compare this with Hull FC's punishement of a £100,000 fine for fielding an ineligible Great Britain international in TWO Challenge Cup games this season and you start to wonder what's going on.

The truth is that both of these punishments are probably wrong, but it seems our sporting authorities lack the common sense to find the happy medium. Yorkshire should have been asked to replay their game with Nottinghamshire, and that they have not is a sop to Durham who argued for a bye to finals day on the grounds of fixture congestion.

On the field, Kevin Pietersen smashes 104 not out on the first day of the first test match against South Africa at Lords. I'm not really a fan of the Pietersen persona, but it was amusing to see the men from his birthplace snarling at him as he passed the landmark. Ian Bell is 75 not out in an England total of 309-3. Andrew Strauss was given out lbw for 44 despite the ball pitching several miles outside his leg stump, while the other men out were Michael Vaughan (clean bowled for only 2 by Dale Steyn) and Alistair Cook (caught by AB De Villiers off Morne Morkel for 60).

David Millar drops to fifth in the overall Tour de France standings after Riccardo Ricco wins stage six. Leader Stefan Schumacher is involved in a crash not far from the finish, allowing Kim Kirchen to take the yellow jersey by six seconds from Australian Cadel Evans.