By Andrew Warshaw
March 14 – Sepp Blatter (pictured left) will meet Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (right) on Friday (March 16) for clear-the-air talks following the recent spat over 2014 World Cup preparations.
Last week, the FIFA boss wrote to Rousseff requesting a personal hearing to patch up differences after apologising for comments made by his number two, general secretary Jérôme Valcke who had publicly slammed Brazil’s slow progress.
In his letter Blatter apologised “to all those who had their honour and pride wounded, especially the Brazilian Government and President Dilma Rousseff”.
Valcke was forced to postpone his latest tour of construction sites in World Cup host cities within days of his highly publicised “kick up the backside” remarks.
He is expected to resume his role as FIFA’s main 2014 orchestrator once the Blatter-Rousseff summit is out of the way.
Brazil’s Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo, who had threatened to cut all ties with Valcke, will also attend Friday’s meeting in the capital, Brasilia.
While Valcke (pictured) rightly took the plaudits for the success of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the Frenchman has been unable to exert the same influence over the 2014 organisers and has become exasperated at a string of delays.
But his recent remarks caused uproar in Brazil and although Rebelo accepted Blatter’s apology he declined to say if the country would reconsider working with Valcke again.
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