By Duncan Mackay
March 10 – The Football Association have denied to FIFA that they are preparing to back any “credible rival” to Sepp Blatter in this year’s elections for the President of the world governing body.
insideworldfootball has seen a copy of an e-mail sent by FA general secretary Alex Horne to his counterpart at FIFA, Jerome Valcke, denying reports in several media outlets in Britain on Monday, including this one, that they did not want Blatter to continue in his role for a fourth term and that they were encouraging Mohamed Bin Hammam, the President of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), to stand against him.
The e-mail, which is copied to new FA chairman David Bernstein and the FA’s head of marketing and communications, Julian Eccles, said:
Dear Jerome,
I am writing to put straight the position of The FA following misleading reports in British newspapers today claiming that we would be seeking a candidate to rival Mr Blatter for the FIFA Presidency.
To be clear, the public position of The FA is that the Board has not discussed the matter and will not do so until nominations have closed and the Congress agenda has been published. Any suggestion that Board members are seeking to support an opponent to Mr Blatter is not an accurate reflection of the Board’s position, not least because we have not considered the matter.
I hope this clarification is helpful. I would be grateful if you could communicate this to FIFA colleagues.
Kind regards
Alex Horne
Alex Horne | General Secretary
The FA Group
Relations between the FA and FIFA are at an all-time low following England’s disastrous campaign to host the 2018 World Cup ended in embarrassment when they were eliminated in the first round with only two votes in a contest won by Russia.
Soon after England’s humiliation, the FA’s acting chairman at the time Roger Burden withdrew his candidacy because he “could not trust” FIFA.
England had originally controversially backed Blatter’s campaign in 1998 to replace João Havelange, who stood down after 24 years in charge.
The FA voted for Blatter because they thought it might help their ultimately doomed 2006 World Cup bid even though they had appeared to previously pledge allegiance to Lennart Johansson, the UEFA President at the time.
Blatter beat Johansson by 111 votes to 80 amid allegations of backroom deals.
In the next election four years later England voted for Cameroon’s Issa Hayatou but yet again Blatter triumphed, this time by a landslide.
The deadline for a challenge to a fourth Blatter term is March 31 and Bin Hammam claimed today that he would make a decision within 10 days about whether he will stand or not.
England’s apparent U-turn may now leaving him reconsidering his options too.
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