Paris, June 17: The Spanish football authorities received a rap over the knuckles from FIFA president Sepp Blatter today over the length of their domestic championship. The Swiss football supremo expressed his displeasure at the Spanish for not respecting the international football calendar which has seen the FIFA-organised Confederations Cup, getting underway tomorrow, robbed of players such as Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo. The final round of Spanish League matches are this weekend. However, Blatter said the Spanish schedule would be looked into on June 28 by the FIFA executive committee. "It is clear that countries not respecting the international calendar was not what we were expecting," he said. "I regret the lack of discipline shown by the Spanish federation," he added. Blatter, though, did accept that part of the blame lay with FIFA.

Bureau Report