By Andrew Warshaw in Budapest
May 25 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter opened the main business of the 62nd FIFA Congress today with a speech that called for unity after a year of unprecedented scandal and damaging splits.
Blatter (pictured above) in the main stayed clear of controversy here at the Hungexpo conference centre, opting to assure delegates his so-called two-year road map to reform was fully on track.
“One year ago I underlined together with you the need for FIFA not to change but to adapt our organisation to modern times,” he said.
“I compared our institution to a boat sailing in not always very calm waters.
“But by the end of this congress I am sure we have brought our ship back to tranquillity, stability and sustainability.”
Blatter’s speech was in the main high on predictability and low on controversy – in stark contrast with the events of this time last year when he was re-elected President for the fourth and last time right in the middle of FIFA’s biggest ever corruption probe.
Reiterating the comments at yesterday’s Opening Ceremony made by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán who called on European Governments not to boycott the 2012 European Championship, Blatter said football was designed “to connect people and not divide them”.
Rarely did he take his audience by surprise – except for a pointed reference to the continuing use of penalties to settle important fixtures.
Former German footballing icon Franz Beckenbauer (pictured above, right), who stepped down from the FIFA Executive Committee last year, still runs the so-called FIFA 2014 Task Force charged with finding ways of making the game more attractive.
Less than two weeks after Chelsea’s Champions League shootout victory over Bayern Munich, Blatter suggested the time had come to do away with spot kicks as a means of winning titles and trophies.
“Football can be a tragedy when you go to penalty kicks,” said Blatter.
“Football should not go to one-on-one; when it goes to penalty kicks football loses its essence.
“Perhaps Franz Beckenbauer with his football 2014 group can show us a solution – perhaps not today but in the future.”
Blatter, who also repeated his concern over match fixing and illegal betting, is due to hold his only press conference of the week later today and closed his address by stressing FIFA couldn’t move forward without a permanent cessation of backbiting and mistrust.
“Only together will unity permit us to exercise our solidarity,” he said.
“Only then can we work with FIFA’s slogans that have been there for years.”
Clearly embarrassed by the fact that his remarks over penalties were flashed around the world just as Beckenbauer himself was about to take the stand at the Congress, Blatter took the stage again to backtrack.
“I never said we should get rid of penalties, they are a part of the game,” he said.
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May 2012: Annual FIFA congress opens with pomp, schmaltz and a dash of controversy