A senior FA official will begin calling international counterparts to test support for root-and-branch reform of world football’s governing body. The FA wants greater transparency at Fifa, including making the process for selecting World Cup hosts more democratic. FA general secretary Alex Horne will ring Fifa members he believes will support the calls for change. That will include football authorities in the US and Australia – who lost out to Qatar in the 2022 Cup bid – and alsoSpain and Portugal who were defeated in their 2018 bid. Other allies will also be sought. It is understood the FA – while wishing to stir up a protest – has no desire to lead the revolt and will hope to find other Fifa members who have lost faith in Blatter to run the campaign against him. Blatter is expected to stand for re-election next year and it is likely the FA and others will seek to find a suitable challenger who can unseat him in a vote. The FA’s move reflects growing anger over England’s failure to win more than one outside vote for its 2018 bid. They have accused Blatter of steering Fifa delegates away from England. It is claimed Blatter told delegates before the vote: “Remember what the English media did” – referring to exposés of alleged fraud. The FA acknowledges it may be difficult to unseat Blatter, who has created a strong power base since first being elected in 1998, but hopes it will find allies among other defeated bidding nations amid rumours about collusion and horse-trading of votes. Chuck Blazer, the American representative on Fifa’s executive committee, has already supported the call for reform. “In the beginning of this process, I thought the executive committee was the right body to make the host decision,” he said. “But, in the end, because of the combination of decisions which are taken sometimes on the basis of political and other considerations, I think we may have to look at a different way of doing things.” The hosting rights used to be decided by each country getting one vote but that changed to an executive committee vote in 1983. The Fifa ExCo meet on March 2 and if sufficient momentum is generated, voting reform will be pushed onto the agenda. Andy Anson, chief executive of England’s bid, has led the counterattack after England’s two-vote humiliation, arguing that Fifa was attracted to Russia and Qatar as host venues because they will allow the body to conduct its business without scrutiny and grant it tax exemption. “You do all the technical work and it seems to matter very little,” he said. “Weigh the factors that matter to Fifa out of 10 and you would give the technical process [only] one-quarter. “That’s what it feels like. And you would probably give democracies with a free press a minus score, and a 10 to countries where you are not going to get bothered. It is deeply frustrating.” Fifa has repeatedly shown itself uncomfortable with the scrutiny of the British press. Jack Warner, one of the Fifa ExCo members who went back on his commitment to vote for England, has blamed the press for the defeat. “Some of my colleagues are still angry with the English media. I hope the media are satisfied with what they achieved because it seems they had a death wish for the English bid,” Warner said. Joseph S. Blatter[1] (born 10 March 1936) is the 8th and current President of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association). He was elected on 8 June 1998, succeeding João Havelange. Blatter was born in Visp, Canton Valais, Switzerland. He studied in Sion, Switzerland before he received a degree in business andeconomics from the University of Lausanne in 1959. Blatter has a long and varied history including posts such as Head of Public Relations of the Valaisan Tourist Board in his native Switzerland, as well as General Secretary of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation. He was Director of Sports Timing and Relations of LonginesS.A. and was involved in the organization of the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games. In the early 1970s, Blatter was elected president of the World Society of Friends of Suspenders, an organisation which tried to stop women replacing suspender belts with pantyhose.[2][3][4] Since 1975 Blatter has been working at FIFA, first as Technical Director (1975–1981), then General Secretary (1981–1998) before his election as FIFA President in 1998. He was re-elected as head of FIFA in 2002 and was re-elected unopposed for another four years on 31 May 2007 even though only 66 of 207 FIFA members nominated him.[5] Sepp Blatter sought another term as FIFA president in December 2009 and was elected once more. Sepp Blatter's 1998 election to the presidency of FIFA over UEFA President Lennart Johansson occurred amidst much controversy.[6][7] His 2002 candidacy has been marked with rumours of financial irregularities and backroom dealings,[8] culminating with direct accusations of bribery, by a third party, made in the British press by Farra Ado, vice-president of the Confederation of African Football and president of theSomali Football Federation, who claimed to have been offered $100,000 to vote for Blatter in 1998.[9] Amidst internal divisions, FIFA's secretary-general Blatter's deputy and former protégé, Michel Zen-Ruffinen drew up a 30-page dossier outlining allegations of financial mismanagement within the organisation.[10][11] The dossier alleged that the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner ISL had led to losses of up to $100m under Blatter's management. The allegations were backed by Johansson,[12] and the dossier was handed to the Swiss authorities, but they cleared Blatter of any wrong doing and FIFA had to pay all the costs.[13] An internal investigation within FIFA was halted by Blatter because members of it broke confidentiality agreements.[14] This questionable behaviour led him to remove Zen-Ruffinen from office immediately before the FIFA World Cup 2002. After a controversial second-round match between Portugal and the Netherlands, which saw referee Valentin Ivanov issuing a record 16 yellow cards and four red cards, Blatter lambasted the officiating, and said that Ivanov should have given himself a yellow card for his poor performance as a referee.[15] However he later regretted his words and promised to officially apologise to Ivanov.[16] This apology was never given, and the referee was removed from further officiating.[17] During the 2006 FIFA World Cup final in Germany, Blatter's absence during the prize-podium event was noted and criticized in international media. It was claimed that the reason Blatter did not attend was because he was upset that Italy won instead of France.[18] Blatter later apologised and said the reason he had shunned the presentation ceremony was because he was afraid of being whistled.[19] Blatter publicly laughed at a request by the Football Association of Ireland that Ireland be the 33rd entrant following a controversial hand ball incident in their qualification.[20] Ireland had been drawn against France after a highly controversial seeding system was put into place. This seemed to favour higher ranked teams and Blatter's very late decision to implement it was seen by many as a last ditch attempt to ensure that the higher ranked teams went through. Ireland had lost the first leg 1-0. However, during the second leg, with Ireland leading 1-0 and minutes to go, Thierry Henry used his hand twice to control the ball in the penalty area and deliver a pass to William Gallas for an easy goal.[21] The criticism attracted by Blatter's refusal to allow goal-line technology or video replays intensified following the controversial Lampard disallowed goal in the match between England andGermany on 27 June 2010.[22] Two days later, Blatter stated that he deplored the "evident referee mistakes" in the England v Germany and Mexico v Argentina matches, and apologised to the English Football Association and the Mexican Football Federation (the two organizations directly concerned by the referees' mistakes), acknowledging that Lampard had indeed scored against Germany and that Tevez's goal against Mexico had been scored from an offside position. He added: "It is obvious that after the experiences so far at this World Cup it would be a nonsense not to re-open the file on goal-line technology. [...] We will come out with a new model in November on how to improve high level referees. [...] I cannot disclose more of what we are doing but something has to be changed."[23][24] It was reported that Blatter had "cut an unofficial deal with UEFA head Michel Platini" to ensure Europe would receive the 2018 World Cup, such that if the non-European bids did not withdraw from 2018 "they will find themselves frozen out and not given any backing by the FIFA High Command, damaging their chances of being serious contenders for the second tournament."[25] Eleven bids were submitted in March 2009 covering thirteen nations. Mexico and Indonesia withdrew. Five of the remaining nine bids, South Korea, Qatar, Japan,Australia and United States were only for the 2022 World Cup, while all the others were bidding for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.[26] However, since all of the bids for the 2018 World Cup are from European nations, and FIFA's rules dictate that countries belonging to confederations that hosted either of the two preceding tournaments are not eligible to host[27], bids of England, Russia,Netherlands/Belgium and Spain/Portugal are now forced to be for 2018 only. Blatter incurred the ire of female footballers in 2004 when he suggested that women should "wear tighter shorts and low cut shirts... to create a more female aesthetic" and attract more male fans, remarks that were ridiculed in the press. [28] Blatter incurred much criticism during 2007 and 2008 for his persistence in attempting to change EU employment law regarding the number of foreign players football clubs can field at any one time. His plans are to set a restriction to 5 foreign players and having 6 players from the said team's own nationality. Blatter believes this would help the countries' national sides by having more national players playing in their leagues. Blatter has often referred to the English Premier League as one of the major problems in football and uses it as an example, due to the influence of foreign players, coaches and owners in the top teams.[29][30][31][32][33] Sepp Blatter has received the following awards:[35]World Cup 2018: stung FA to start revolt against Sepp Blatter
The Football Association will launch a behind-the-scenes revolt this week aimed at unseating Fifa president Sepp Blatter and making the World Cup bidding process more democratic, following England’s 2018 bid humiliation in Zurich.
Sepp Blatter
Sepp Blatter .jpg)
Sepp Blatter in 2009Incumbent Assumed office
8 June 1998Preceded by João Havelange Born 10 March 1936
Visp, Valais, SwitzerlandBirth name Joseph S. Blatter Nationality Swiss Spouse(s) Graziella Bianca (2002 - 2004) Children Corinne Blatter Residence Zürich, Switzerland Alma mater University of Lausanne Contents
[hide]Life and career
Controversy
This article's Criticism or Controversy section(s) may mean the article does not present a neutral point of view of the subject. It may be better to integrate the material in those sections into the article as a whole. (April 2010) Allegations of corruption
2006 FIFA World Cup
2010 FIFA World Cup
2018/2022 FIFA World Cup
Women's football
Foreign quotas
Changes to the game made under Blatter
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Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2010)Honours
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External links
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Presidents of FIFA
Robert Guérin (1904–1906) · Daniel Burley Woolfall (1906–1918) · Jules Rimet (1921–1954) · Rodolphe Seeldrayers (1954–1955) · Arthur Drewry (1955–1961) · Sir Stanley Rous (1961–1974) · João Havelange (1974–1998) · Joseph S. Blatter (1998–)
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