By Andrew Warshaw at Sport Accord in London
April 4 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter rolled into London today but refused to give any details of his campaign to be re-elected for a fourth term of office at the head of football’s world governing body.
On the day when FIFA officially announced what everyone had known for 48 hours – that Blatter will go head to head with Mohamed Bin Hammam for the top job on June 1 – the 75-year-old Swiss tried to keep a low profile after attending the general assembly of summer Olympic federations at the SportAccord convention.
Speaking in the lobby of the Park Plaza hotel in the heart of Westminster, Blatter was asked to elaborate on a short FIFA statement that merely confirmed the two candidates and the date of the election in Zurich.
But he deflected questions about his manifesto for beating Bin Hammam, the head of the Asian Football Confederation, who believes 13 years – or 17 if Blatter is re-elected – is far too long for one man to run the organisation.
“I started my campaign at the end of March 1998,” said Blatter, couching his words in diplomacy as he referred to the date he took over as President and the work he has done since.
“I am confident that the consolidation of football will be done over the next four years,” he added.
“I will come out with my manifesto soon,” confirmed Blatter, who is understood to be in the process of appointing a public relations firm to conduct his campaign.
Blatter was moving on to FA headquarters at Wembley for a lunch meeting with FA chairman David Bernstein.
Relations are still strained following England’s failed 2018 World Cup bid and the FIFA President’s visit gave Bernstein the chance to speak in detail about England’s humiliating exit in the first round of the voting process with just two votes.
The FA are due to outline which candidate they will support at a May Board meeting, and today’s summit gave Blatter a chance to state his claim several weeks before his Qatari rival, who is due to meet the FA himself later this month.
“I have never been to the new Wembley and this is a courtesy visit,” said Blatter.
“I don’t know what they will ask me but I’ll give the answers I can give according to my conscience.”
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