7 Apr 2005(Thu)

TOKYO (April 6): As you all know by now, FIFA president Sepp Blatter was in town on Tuesday, giving a press conference at a plush new hotel in Roppongi Hills.

Officially, he was here to launch the emblem for the new FIFA Club World Championship Toyota Cup Japan 2005, which will involve the six champion clubs from FIFA's six confederations in December.

After a big build-up, the emblem was...well, just like most other FIFA emblems actually.

What the massed ranks of the media really wanted to hear was news on North Korea, and particularly Japan's scheduled World Cup qualifier in Pyongyang on June 8.

But, strangely for a FIFA president, Blatter did not want to get involved, and said a disciplinary committee was investigating the crowd trouble there against Iran recently.

All the signs are, though, is that the North Korea-Japan game will go ahead as scheduled on June 8. Behind the scenes, the Asian Football Confederation is preparing all the documents for the media, and this is at an advanced stage.

There is a slight chance it may be played behind closed doors, but you get the feeling FIFA and AFC do not want to upset North Korea, otherwise they may withdraw again from international football.

Everyone was disappointed that Blatter did not take the story any further. You could say, in fact, he was talking in "Blattertudes"--a play on the word "platitude," meaning a commonplace remark.

What was more interesting on the afternoon was the situation regarding Australia moving from the Oceania Football Confederation to the Asian Football Confederation.

It seems that this will go ahead, as no one is against it.

But Blatter warned that it must not become too easy for national associations to move from one confederation to another, like Kazakhstan did from Asia to Europe three years ago. Otherwise the confederations would be split into strong ones and weak ones, and this would not be good for the world game.

There was much discussion among the media after the official press conference about this, and the general opinion was that it was not satisfactory.

It would be better for FIFA to reorganise Asia and Oceania altogether, by splitting Asia into West and East, and the East incorporating all 12 Oceania national associations.

Oceania, of course, has been messed around by FIFA, who awarded them one automatic qualifying place for the 2006 World Cup, but then took it away under pressure from South America, and turned it into half a place, meaning a two-leg playoff against the fifth-placed South American team.

But the FIFA president told us nothing new really, which was a big disappointment for the big crowd!

It will be an even bigger one if either Jubilo or Marinos do not qualify for the FIFA Club World Championship in December.

ends