December 23 – The last words of Sepp Blatter at that extraordinary press conference he gave on Monday after being banned for eight years by FIFA’s ethics committee was “I’ll be back.”
That may have been wishful thinking but Blatter is determined to clear his name in time to hand over to his successor at the February 26 presidential election.
Which makes item seven on the just-published agenda for the extraordinary congress, ‘President’s address’, all the more intriguing since at present there is only an acting president.
Cameroon’s Issa Hayatou has been in interim charge ever since Blatter was temporarily suspended – and will be still if the upcoming appeals process goes against the 79-year-old Swiss. FIFA have confirmed it will be Hayatou who gives the address if the current status quo doesn’t change.
The main business is of course the election ballot itself which will be last-but-one on a 12-item agenda, with proceedings rounded off by the new president’s inaugural speech.
FIFA’s 209 federations will also vote on whether to approve the recently published reform package and change any necessary FIFA statutes accordingly.
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