September 3 – Sepp Blatter has pulled out of opening next week’s annual Soccerex football business conference in Manchester, a huge blow to organisers who have lined up a heavyweight programme of speakers for the three-day event.
The convention clashes with a series of high-level meetings at FIFA headquarters in Zurich including the first Task Force summit over the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
In a statement Soccerex said Blatter had to pull out “due to unforeseen meetings” and instead will present a 30-minute pre-recorded interview to be broadcast immediately after the opening ceremony on Monday.
Blatter had been due to make a formal address before the interview in what would have been his ninth Soccerex appearance in 19 years.
In addition to the taped broadcast, which will obviously now not include questions from the audience, Soccerex will feature one-on-one interviews with FIFA Vice Presidents Jeffrey Webb and Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein while Britain’s FIFA Vice President Jim Boyce will be speaking on a panel alongside Australia’s female FIFA exco member Moya Dodd and Belgium’s FIFA medical chief Michel d’Hooghe.
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