Former Italy captain Paolo Maldini criticized FIFA president Joseph Blatter's absence at the World Cup final ceremony, and accused the organization of being against the Italian national team. Maldini's outrage centers on Blatter's shirking of his presentation duties during the final ceremony of the World Cup. Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro was presented with the trophy by UEFA president Lennart Johansson after their win over France in a penalty shootout. The 38-year-old AC Milan defender felt the snub was evidence that FIFA's higher-ups have an agenda against the Italian team. "A thing that really bothered me, has been the way FIFA treated us in Berlin," Maldini told Panorama. "Blatter refused to hand over the trophy to us and this is a scandal that our Federation did not react to," he added.
Blatter The Milan skipper went on to decry Blatter's comments about Italian football and claimed FIFA's agenda was the reason that Italy players have not received the awards they deserved. "I had never seen anything like this and what is worse, Blatter keeps expressing very harsh comments about Italian football." "Now I understand why we never won as much as we deserved in the past." "I think I know why everyone shows so little consideration for Italy, it's mainly a political issue, but I think the FIGC must now behave like a Federation of world champions and make themselves heard." Maldini, who is already a legend in Italy, said he is considering becoming a football ambassador when he retires, but is clear he does not want to follow UEFA presidential candidate Michel Platini's example. "I have thought about this, but I don't know what I will do," he admitted, continuing on to say the French legend caters to outside forces too much. "Let's take Michel Platini's example, he was always considered a very outspoken person, but now his statements always depend on what people think about him. I don't really like what he says."
