By Andrew Warshaw
September 3 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter has no intention of standing down before his final term of office is completed – and still believes UEFA boss Michel Platini is his most likely successor despite the pair drifting apart in recent months.
The 76-year-old Swiss took charge of FIFA in 1998 but has had to endure a succession of scandals and investigations and continual concern over his autocratic leadership style.
However, Blatter (pictured top and below, right) rarely gives ground and insists he will not leave football’s world governing body until his current reform programme is put in place and he has seen out his final term, which ends in 2015.
“I want to be able to complete my work which has not been as bad as it is made out to be in some sectors of the media and in certain parts of the world,” said Blatter.
“If I do not succeed in putting the FIFA organisation back in good order, I will have failed.
“But I am certain I will succeed.”
In an interview with AFP, Blatter said he couldn’t understand why he was given such a bad name in some countries including England and Germany, saying he was too often “misunderstood”.
“Football incites great passions, football can be crazy,” he said.
“But I must say we now have this Anglo-Germano alliance which is not at all natural if you go by world history.
“Great Britain and Germany have never been allies.”
Turning to the question of his own successor, Blatter said that he still believed Platini (pictured above, left), once his key adviser, was the best option despite strong disagreements over a number of issues, not least goalline technology.
But the Frenchman, warned Blatter, would find himself having to deal with far more thorny issues if and when he does make the switch from UEFA to FIFA.
“He was my disciple,” Blatter said of Platini.
“But I think that when he makes the move from the [UEFA] confederation to the [FIFA] Presidency, he will have to view football from another dimension.
“It is very much easier to lead UEFA, which is a wealthy organisation, which has everything.
“He is in a comfy armchair there.
“In any case the last time we spoke about this he told me that he would not be the same kind of President than I have been.
“But each President has his own style.”
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