By Andrew Warshaw
June 6 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has sidestepped calls for a revote on the 2022 World Cup, insisting that no decision should be taken until FIFA’s ethics committee investigator, Michel Garcia, completes his probe of Qatar’s winning bid and the entire 2018 and 2022 process.
The Sunday Times revelations about alleged payments to African officials by Qatar’s former powerbroker Mohamed bin Hammam have dominated the build-up to the FIFA congress in Sao Paulo and at his first press conference since arriving in Brazil, Blatter was inevitably asked the mounting scrutiny.
“I am not a prophet. We must wait for the results of the investigation,” was his reply after emerging from a meeting of the World Cup organising committee.
Blatter reminded reporters that FIFA had already assured Qatar this year that the tournament would go ahead there. “All I would add, is that this year, in March, the executive committee of FIFA said that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was not in question.”
Garcia, a former Interpol vice-president, has said his report will be completed by mid-July.
Blatter is expected to confirm next week during Congress his aim to stand again for a fifth term as president. Intriguingly, he revealed that his executive committee, which meets Saturday and Sunday, might take a vote on whether the thorny issue of age limits and term lengths for FIFA officials – one of the few remaining reform proposals still to be implemented – should be discussed at Congress.
The meeting of the organising committee in Sao Paulo came just as the city was plunged into transport chaos as subway workers went on strike. But Blatter is backing Brazil to deliver a well-run event. “I’m an optimist. After the tournament kicks off, I think there will be a better mood.”
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has also guaranteed that the country would be ready for the finals. “We have everything ready for 12 June, we have the best base camps for the teams. There are no risks for the opening weeks of the competition, which are the most challenging because there are the most teams. We are in control, we have nothing to fear in the coming days.”
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