The Diary - part two: Sam Neill's Fifa film 'pure cinematic excrement'

Sam Neill's Fifa-funded movie United Passions has opened in the US to scathing reviews - but the Kiwi actor says he has no regrets.

The film flopped at the box office last year, was panned by critics and shunned by moviegoers. Only seven countries screened it.

Football's governing body, a so-called non-profit organisation with billions in the bank, backed a US$25 million ($29 million) vanity project in which Neill plays former president Joao Havelange, who led Fifa from 1974 until 1998, with Brit Tim Roth playing embattled president Sepp Blatter.

A one-star review posted on The Guardian's website today called United Passions "a disgrace".

"Two hours of wretched, self-congratulatury Fifa history is disastrous cinema, but valuable proof of corporate insanity," reviewer Jordan Hoffman wrote.

"It's less a movie than preposterous self-hagiography, more appropriate for Scientology or the Rev Sun Myung Moon. As cinema it is excrement. As proof of corporate insanity it is a valuable case study.

"It isn't unfair to say some of the [FIFA] dough must have ended up in the pockets of Tim Roth, Gérard Depardieu, Sam Neill and Fischer Stevens."

But Neill has no issues about his involvement, following the corruption scandal and indictments of Fifa leaders.

"Any regrets about this film?" Ed Shendell from Long Island tweeted Neill yesterday, attaching a link to a recent New York Times article describing the film as "an epic fantasy".

"None," Neill replied.

@edlewusa None.

— Sam Neill (@TwoPaddocks) June 3, 2015

Havelange, 96, ruled Fifa for more than 20 years but resigned his honorary position two years ago when implicated in taking millions in kickbacks from World Cup commercial contracts.

Neill's co-star Roth reportedly raised concerns with film-makers at the outset about the lack of corruption in the script.

Issues of lobbying and bribery, that have plagued Fifa for years, were in the film by implication or insinuation, and Fifa executives were painted as heroes.

The organisation paid 90 per cent of the movie's costs, and Blatter kept a close eye on the script, so impartiality was not a strong point.

The movie premieres in the US this week, "in the fresh wake of advance publicity conjured by last week's dramatic indictments", the New York Times reports. "That's the kind of buzz you can't buy."

Fingers crossed Blatter will stay home

Well, will he come or will he stay away? Fifa president Sepp Blatter is now unlikely to visit these shores for the Under-20 World Cup following his surprise resignation announcement this week.

Blatter was scheduled to visit New Zealand for the semifinal and final matches from June 17-20, as reported in The Diary on Wednesday.

The Diary's messages to Fifa headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, remain unanswered.

NZ Football chief executive Andy Martin has his fingers crossed the embattled Fifa boss does not board his private jet.

Martin, who voted against Blatter at last week's presidential election, hopes he gets the hint.

Martin told Radio Sport: "If he does come down, the danger is it becomes a sideshow to the main event, which is the competition."