FIFA's Jérôme Valcke makes first trip to Brazil since "Bagshot blunder"

By Andrew Warshaw

May 28 – For the first time since his infamous “kick up the backside” comments, FIFA general secretary Jérôme Valcke is flying to Brazil today to resume his duties as the organisation’s main negotiator for the 2014 World Cup.

Valcke’s (pictured above, right) visit follows an emergency summit three weeks ago at FIFA headquarters in Zurich which was called to put an end to months of squabbling and bring all the parties together for badly needed better cooperation.

The meeting, the first face-to-face between Valcke and Brazil Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo (pictured above, left) since the former ignited a much-publicised feud earlier this year when he accused Brazil of lagging too far behind, agreed to hold similar sessions every six to eight weeks to make sure the country keeps pace with preparations.

Valcke, who is flying to Rio de Janeiro, said he was pleased it was now “business as usual” following the clear-the-air summit.

“I don’t think there can be a single person in the world who cannot be passionate when you are talking about the World Cup,” Valcke told insideworldfootball.

“It’s business as usual.

“In life you can have incidents between people.

“Something created a lot of noise but we need to work together.

“We are all professionals and need to forget about what was said and make sure the tournament is a success.”

From now on, a member of the Brazilian Government will be included in Brazil 2014 negotiations to make sure no important decisions are subsequently challenged by politicians.

Valcke said the Zurich brainstorming session was hugely important.

“It was really the key, having the three elements of the organisers round the table – the local Organising Committee, the Government and FIFA,” he said.

“Now hopefully there will be no third parties asking to tell ‘x’ about this or ‘y’ about that.

“We need to have the same level of information between the three sides from the very first minute.”

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