Blatter as a moral crusader but has been branded
as "squirm-inducing propaganda", has bombed at
the box office
Fifa has scored an embarrassing own goal as
widely-derided vanity film United Passions
collected just €546 in its first two days released in
the US.
The film's release had coincided with an avalanche
of corruption claims and bribery allegations
following the indictment of 14 football figures by
the FBI ahead of the Fifa presidency election on
May 28.
Considering the plot paints Sepp Blatter - who
resigned as Fifa president in the aftermath of the
arrests in Zurich - as an upstanding moral leader
as it chronicles the history of the world football
governing body, Frederic Auburtin's directorial
effort has been ridiculed for the timing of its
release date in the US.
United Passions is reported to have had a budget
of €20 million and included renowned actors such
as Tim Roth (as Sepp Blatter), Sam Neill (as former
Fifa president Joao Havelange) and Gerard
Depardieu (as World Cup founder Jules Rimet).
However, its Hollywood stars have not helped its
approval ratings and the film has been branded
"proof of corporate insanity" by The Guardian, a
"squirm-inducing heap of propaganda" by Los
Angeles Times and "one of the most unwatchable
films in recent memory" by New York Times .
The appalling word-of-mouth that has followed the
movie since it debuted at Cannes Film Festival last
year led to it opening in only 10 theatres in the US
and it failed to even break the €1,000 mark in
tickets sold on Friday and Saturday.
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