European
football officials have urged FIFA President Sepp Blatter to step down, hours
ahead of the World Cup in Brazil. Corruption allegations, most recently over
Qatar's nomination as 2022 hosts, are hounding FIFA.
Sepp
Blatter's encounter with the top football brass of Europe could have gone more
smoothly, not least with regards to the Netherlands' Michael van Praag.
"Mr.
Blatter, this is nothing personal but if you look at FIFA's reputation over the
last seven or eight years, it is being linked to all kinds of corruption and
all kinds of old boys' networks things," Van Praag told reporters,
relaying his comments to Blatter in Sao Paulo on Tuesday.
"I
told him: I like you very much … this is nothing personal. But you are now
saying that Qatar was the wrong choice [as venue for the 2022 World Cup], but
you are not blaming yourself you are blaming your executive committee,"
Van Praag said.
Blatter,
who had said when he won a fourth term as president of world football's
governing body that he would not seek a fifth, told European football bosses
that he had changed his mind. Blatter intends to run for another term in 2015.
English FA
vice-chairman David Gill said it was "disappointing" that Blatter had
changed his stance about staying on.
"I
think we need a full, frank and open debate about what FIFA needs going
forward," Gill said.
It's not
yet clear whether UEFA president Michel Platini will oppose Blatter next year;
Platini has said he will not decide before September.
Cool
reception amid Qatar allegations
The
president of Germany's DFB football association, Wolfgang Niersbach, told the
DPA news agency that the atmosphere on Tuesday was "very, very cool."
Van Praag
said that Blatter "received no standing ovation" at the 53-member
UEFA gathering - a reference to his warmer receptions from African and Asian
soccer officials earlier in the week.
Blatter on
Monday had lambasted the "storm against FIFA" over the 2022 World Cup
nomination for Qatar, saying "discrimination and racism" were at the
heart of such criticisms. England's FA chairman Greg Dyke hit back, countering
that "the allegations being made are nothing to do with racism, they are
allegations about corruption."
The most
recent, but by no means the only, corruption allegations surrounding Qatar's
successful World Cup bid emerged in a newspaper report in Britain's Sunday Times. The report claimed the African officials were among those accepting
money from Qatar in exchange for support.
Several major sponsors, including German sportswear giants Adidas, have urged FIFA to
rethink the 2022 World Cup if wrongdoing is proven.
Corruption
allegations are not the only issue hounding Qatar's nomination. Blatter himself
has said the equatorial climate will likely force the competition to be
rescheduled - to the northern hemisphere's winter and the middle of the
European club football season. Human rights issues in the Gulf kingdom have
also come under the spotlight, not least the treatment of foreign guest workers
brought into Qatar for World Cup-related projects. FIFA launched an
investigation into the issue after a damning report from Amnesty International
late last year.
msh/lw (AFP, dpa, Reuters)
FIFA ethics
prosecutor Michael Garcia delivers a speech
during the 64th FIFA congress on
June 11, 2014 in
Sao Paulo (AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)
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