News: FIFA president Sepp Blatter has predicted a dismal future for English football if the "unacceptable trend" of questioning the FA's authority continues.

Blatter has added his backing to the FA chief executive Mark Palios, who has endured a testing start to his tenure. Having already had to deal with an England squad threatening to revolt, Palios has also come under fire from Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, who has alleged the FA had done a deal with Arsenal over the disciplining of the club's players following incidents in their recent league meeting with United.

But Blatter has urged support from "all quarters" for Palios as he tackles what the Swiss lawyer called "a difficult inheritance".

"The tasks on his plate - and that of FA chairman Geoff Thompson - are difficult to handle because it is never pleasant having to be unpopular from the outset," Blatter said.

"But if he doesn't show a determined hand, if he doesn't seek to streamline the FA's operations and to clarify some ambiguous rules, and, most of all, if he doesn't get the support he deserves from all quarters, then English football will be left facing an institutional problem. This will be on top of the rapid deterioration in discipline evident on and off the field."

Blatter described his response to the protests by the England squad before the biggest match of their Euro 2004 qualifying campaign as "incredulous".

The players rebelled after Rio Ferdinand, who had missed a random drugs test, was left out of the squad to face Turkey as a matter of FA policy. The United defender has since been charged with "the failure or refusal by a player to submit to drug testing", and Blatter warned of serious consequences for the player if the charge is proven.

FIFA has yet to sign up to the World Anti-Doping Agency code, under whose rules Ferdinand would be likely to be subject to a mandatory two-year ban. But Blatter said: "Ferdinand's case is a perfect illustration of our disagreement: he is an individual player who may or may not have made a mistake. He deserves to be treated as an individual with all the rights one associates with a system that must be determined by individual case management and not mandatory sentencing guidelines.

"There must be equality before the law. But there must also be consideration for the individual if we want to uphold fairness."