By Andrew Warshaw
March 20 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter has again issued a firm assurance that Brazil will be ready to host the 2014 World Cup. On the eve of one of FIFA’s most far-reaching executive committee meetings, Blatter met Brazil’s sports minister and FIFA’s World Cup organizing committee on Tuesday.
Brazil’s preparations have been dogged by delays but Blatter said: “Don’t be afraid. It’s all a question of trust and confidence. From the FIFA side it is totally there.”
Brazil has so far completed work on only two of six stadiums being used for the Confederations Cup, the World Cup warm-up tournament. FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke had expressed his growing concern that the iconic Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro – due to host both the Confederations Cup final on June 30 and the World Cup final – may not be ready on time. It has an extended April 27 deadline after missing the original December time scale.
Blatter said it wasn’t even worth thinking about the stadiums not being up and running – at least for the main event. “When there is one year or less to go before the World Cup, there is always the question of will they be ready. They will be ready because it is the World Cup and no one can afford not to be ready for the World Cup. I would never measure organising countries against the punctuality of Swiss trains.”
Blatter was speaking as FIFA prepared to host a hugely significant two-day exco meeting highlighted by the anti-corruption reform package which the FIFA Congress is due to rubber-stamp on May 31 in Mauritius.
The exco has a spate of statute-changing proposals in front of them in a bid to make FIFA more accountable following a string of corruption scandals.
These include an upper ceiling on the age limit for both the FIFA president and members of the executive committee; integrity checks for all senior appointments; and a revamp of the voting process for future World Cups.
FIFA will hold a press conference on Thursday to announce which of the proposals have been accepted by exco members to be taken forward to Congress.
Conspicuous by his absence is Vernon Manilal Fernando, the Sri Lankan exco member and the latest senior official to be suspended for alleged wrongdoing.
Fernando, currently banned for 90 days at the request of FIFA ethics prosecutor Michael J. Garcia, was a close ally of Mohammed bin Hammam, the Qatari official who was relentlessly pursued through FIFA’s legal mechanism and eventually banned for life for apparent conflicts of interest whilst he was president of the Asian Football Confederation. Ironically Garcia will be delivering his eagerly awaited report into corruption requested by Blatter – including the 12-year-old ISL case that involved senior FIFA officials receiving kickbacks from World Cup broadcasting rights.
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