Birmingham boss Gold outraged by Blatter outburst

Eduardo is facing up to 15 months out of the game after the challenge by Taylor in the Barclays Premier League game at St Andrews a fortnight ago.

Taylor has insisted there was no malice in the challenge and Eduardo has accepted it was an accident after the pair met in a Birmingham hospital where he underwent surgery.

But Blatter has gone on the offensive and wants longer bans for such offences.

He said: "It is shocking when you see how this player was attacked. It is not football. Football is a contact game but it is a game with rules.

"You have to have respect and what we witnessed there has nothing to do with football. This is to destroy another player, and that is not the aim of our game.

"Such players should not only be suspended for a certain time, they should be banned until they have realised they have done something absolutely wrong."

That outburst has angered Gold, who leapt to Taylor's defence.

He said: "Martin Taylor will carry the burden of this accident on his shoulders for the rest of his life. That is the sort of person he is.

"It is outrageous and disappointing that a man of Sepp Blatter's standing, the top man in world football, is coming out with inflammatory statements like this which cannot be good for the game.

"Don't tell me either that Martin should receive another ban and what are Sepp Blatter's comments saying to the Football Association, that they are incompetent at managing their own domestic game?

"Martin Taylor is trying to get on with his career and Eduardo with his rehabilitation and all this has done is brought the issue back up again.

"It was a terrible accident and Martin Taylor is being made to look like public enemy number one because of things like this being said by Sepp Blatter which are inappropriate and do not help the situation."