27 Oct 2003(Mon)

It was a German journalist who once said that Sepp Blatter had 50 new ideas a day...and that 51 of them were bad!

While this is being unkind to the FIFA president, I do welcome the news that FIFA will not now hold its election for president just before the World Cup.

I have attended the last two elections for FIFA president: in Paris in 1998 and in Seoul in 2002.

I could not believe that FIFA held such an important vote in the days before kick off.

At that time, everyone should have been thinking about football and about footballers, but instead the newspapers were full of football politics and behind-the-scenes deals.

In France, Mr. Blatter beat Lennart Johansson for the vacant post after the retirement of Joao Havelange.

In Seoul, Blatter easily held off the challenge of Issa Hayatou to win a second term of office.

Originally, that term of office should have ended in 2006, just before the World Cup in Germany.

But FIFA decided recently that Blatter's term of office would be extended to 2007.

This is not a bad idea at all.

It means everyone will be thinking about football in the build-up to the 2006 World Cup, and politics and presidents will be put where they belong: in the background.

It will also mean that the FIFA president will have several months after the 2006 World Cup to tie up all the loose ends, close the books and sign all the business and financial documents before the election takes place.

Rumour has it that Franz Beckenbauer will run for president in 2007, after overseeing the running of the 2006 World Cup, which will be spectacular I am sure.

Maybe Korea's Chung Mong Joon may also push for president, as he is a very ambitious man from a very ambitious family.

Whatever, it's an excellent move by FIFA to move the year of the election.

ends