By Andrew Warshaw at the Leaders in Football Conference in London
October 5 – Argentina’s senior FIFA vice President Julio Grondona has officially apologised for his scathing attack on the way England are perceived the corridors of world football, English FA chairman David Bernstein revealed today.
Bernstein made worldwide headlines at the FIFA Congress in June when he took the unilateral step of calling for the FIFA Presidential election to be postponed following a spate of corruption scandals.
England came under a sustained attack from critics within FIFA following Bernstein’s solo intervention which ended in a heavy defeat as Sepp Blatter was ultimately elected unopposed for a fourth term.
Grondona, one of those caught up in the corruption allegations, reacted particularly furiously by branding the English liars.
“We always have attacks from England which are mostly lies with the support of journalism which is more busy lying than telling the truth,” he told delegates.
“This upsets and disturbs the FIFA family.
“I see it at every Congress.
“They have specific privileges with four countries having one vice President.
“It looks like England is always complaining so please I say will you leave the FIFA family alone, and when you speak, speak with truth.”
But three months on, Grondona, who is also President of his federation, has apparently now apologised for these remarks.
Bernstein told the Leaders in Football conference here in London that the FA’s relationships with FIFA and UEFA were improving, and that Grondona had retracted his comments.
“I was pleased to receive a letter of apology from the Argentinean [Football Association] president Grondona following his unacceptable comments about England in Zurich,” he said.
Grondona has long had a prickly relationship with the English, most recently describing them as “pirates” in an interview with a German press agency when he even brought up the issue of the Falkland Islands when discussing his World Cup vote.
“With the English [2018 World Cup] bid I said: ‘Let us be brief.
“‘If you give back the Falkland Islands, which belong to us, you will get my vote’.”
But Bernstein said “much stronger partnerships” had now been fostered with UEFA, FIFA and a spate of national federations.
Being isolated, he said, “was no place for England to be.”
Yet he was by no means certain that Blatter’s much-needed reforms – to be announced later this month following a FIFA Executive Committee meeting – would change very much.
A recent strategic summit of UEFA’s 53 national associations in Cyprus, said Bernstein, “expressed great disappointment” about the lack of anti-corruption progress FIFA was making.
“We are hoping something will come out of it [the FIFA exco] but I wouldn’t hold your breath,” added Bernstein.
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