The voice came through crackly but clear on my phone as I trundled between two German cities.
“I backed [Sepp Blatter] in 1998 against [Lennart] Johansson and he won.
“I backed him in 2002 against [Issa] Hayatou and he won.
“At this point in time, I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t back him.”
We live in a world where perception has become the new reality.
Largely depending on our own ability to project what we know to be fact, we are perceived as good (corporate) citizens or an amalgam of “bad men”. The negative perception is a direct result of our inability to get our message across. It is of course also the result of improper conduct by a few who tarnish the image of many.
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It would have been hard for the candidates in FIFA’s Presidential election to avoid the subject of World Cup vote reform.
And in fairness to Joseph Blatter, his latest proposals came as a direct response to an interviewer’s question.
Nonetheless, several points need to be made about the FIFA President’s “positive solution” for preventing a repetition of the “uncomfortable experience I had here in Zurich on 2 December”.
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David Cameron may bold enough to bomb Colonel Gaddafi but has he got the bottle to take on his own country’s football lobby?
I raise the question because of growing concern that the same back-stabbing cabal which did for Kate Hoey as Labour’s sports minister ten years ago apparently has it in for present Tory incumbent Hugh Robertson.
There is no doubt that the long knives are out for the minister,
The race for the FIFA Presidency is turning out to be as dull as those for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were fascinating.
The incumbent, Joseph Blatter, is thus far adopting the wholly predictable strategy of emphasising the value of continuity in an unstable world while detailing the torrents of cash that have rained down on planet football over his 13-year tenure – and critically, he says, will continue to do so.
When I joined FIFA in 1975 as its development officer, our organisation employed 11 people who operated out of an old Zurich villa and generated a modest income. Football was a pastime for many but by far not the power it has become ever since.
No matter what some critics say, FIFA has substantially contributed to the improvement of lives around the world over the last three decades. Since I joined in the seventies,
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Soap operas dressed up as morality tales do not come any better than the American Stan Kroenke’s take-over of Arsenal. The official word from Arsenal made the latest arrival of a foreign owner sound like the welcome a 19th century father might have given a man seeking the hand of his daughter.
This is what Peter Hill-Wood, the long serving chairman of the club, said: “The board of directors and I consider it a key responsbility to protect the ethos and spirit of the club.
If at first you don’t succeed…try another tack. That seems to be the strategy of Tottenham Hotspur as they seek to overturn the decision to allow rivals West Ham United to move into the Olympic stadium after next year’s games.
Having lost a considerable amount of pride, as well as a fistful of dollars, in having their case booted firmly into touch by the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), Spurs have gone away,
The link might not be immediately apparent.
But this week’s move by US businessman Stan Kroenke to take his stake in Arsenal, the underachieving English Premier League football club, to 63 percent while agreeing a mandatory offer for the rest of the shares could turn out to be good news for Russia’s underachieving Olympic athletes.
Why? Because Arsenal minority shareholder Alisher Usmanov may sooner or later be in line to receive a very large cheque.
This autumn could see English football face its moment of truth
That moment being when the Government appoints a regulator to run the national game. Remember, this is a Tory-led collation wedded to free enterprise and firmly believing that sports bodies should run their own sports and the Government should be a facilitator not a regulator.
Now, talk of a regulator running the game is not new. Almost exactly a year ago,
If ever there was a lie to the old adage that sport and politics don’t mix, the festering row over a united British football team at next year’s London Olympics must rank as the ultimate example.
Ever since London won the right to stage the Games, the three non-English Home Associations have steadfastly insisted they do not want to know anything about a united team because of a perceived threat to their independence.
The FIFA Presidential election will turn on two words: Goal Project.
This was Sepp Blatter’s great idea, energetically pushed by him ever since he got elected as President. But, and this is crucial, it was run by Mohammed Bin Hammam. The Qatari can win if, through his stewardship of the project, he has built such support in FIFA that he can undercut Blatter, particularly in the small organisations round. It is a big if.
So now we know. After seemingly interminable prevarication, Mohamed Bin Hammam has finally shown his hand and announced that he really does intend to try and end Sepp Blatter’s 13-year reign at the head of football’s world governing body.
For the last few months, at conferences and congresses the world over, rather like handing a sweet to a child and then withdrawing it at the last moment, bin Hammam has teased us with all manner of hints and innuendos.
“Let me tell you something: a few months ago, about seven or eight months ago, we were about to buy shares in Manchester United.
“We kept it secret because I thought we were going to do it, but now it’s impossible, so let’s talk about it.”
It was, quite simply, one of the most surreal moments of my journalistic career.
Given how these organisations see themselves as accountable to nobody but themselves, and this in an era when the cry of democracy and transparency cannot even be resisted by Arab despots, this may seem a ridiculous question.
Yet I am inclined to raise it because of how different the Cricket World Cup in India is turning out compared to the Football World Cup in South Africa.
I have been struck by this comparison in the past week as I have travelled in India following the 50-over cricket tournament.