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Blatter tweets to dismiss rumors
Source: Agencies |
September 15, 2011, Thursday
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FIFA President Sepp Blatter used Twitter yesterday to dismiss suggestions he will stand aside early to let UEFA counterpart Michel Platini take over the governing body of world football.
After more than one year of using the social networking website to give mostly bland details of meetings and matches attended, Blatter took the unusual step of commenting on football politics.
"The existence of a reported 'deal' between me and Michel Platini for the FIFA Presidency is pure nonsense," he tweeted, adding "the suggestion that I intend to stop my four-year mandate before its end is simply ridiculous."
An unsourced report of a deal with Platini was published yesterday ahead of a strategy meeting involving UEFA members in Cyprus next week.
Europe's 53 football countries are scheduled to have a two-day brainstorming session including discussions about how FIFA runs football after a year of scandals involving World Cup vote-rigging and bribery.
Blatter began posting on Twitter on the eve of last year's World Cup in South Africa and his support for vuvuzelas became a global story.
The FIFA president said the blaring trumpet that the host fans loved and broadcasters hated showed that the "Africa has a different rhythm, a different sound."
"I don't see banning the music traditions of fans in their own country," Blatter wrote. "Would you want to see a ban on the fan traditions in your country?"
Chastened
Seeming chastened by the worldwide reaction to his comments, Blatter's messages for the rest of the tournament were less pointed or were linked to official FIFA photographs and statements.
The 100-plus tweets posted on his account to more than 165,000 followers since have also been cautious.
No messages were posted when a World Cup bidding scandal broke last October, nor when the 2018 and 2022 tournaments were awarded last December to Russia and Qatar, respectively.
Rumors of a Blatter-Platini deal, whereby the former France playing great would assume FIFA power in 2013, previously circulated in Zurich in May before Blatter was elected unopposed to a fourth and final four-year presidential term. The story was dismissed as untrue and unworkable under FIFA statutes.
After more than one year of using the social networking website to give mostly bland details of meetings and matches attended, Blatter took the unusual step of commenting on football politics.
"The existence of a reported 'deal' between me and Michel Platini for the FIFA Presidency is pure nonsense," he tweeted, adding "the suggestion that I intend to stop my four-year mandate before its end is simply ridiculous."
An unsourced report of a deal with Platini was published yesterday ahead of a strategy meeting involving UEFA members in Cyprus next week.
Europe's 53 football countries are scheduled to have a two-day brainstorming session including discussions about how FIFA runs football after a year of scandals involving World Cup vote-rigging and bribery.
Blatter began posting on Twitter on the eve of last year's World Cup in South Africa and his support for vuvuzelas became a global story.
The FIFA president said the blaring trumpet that the host fans loved and broadcasters hated showed that the "Africa has a different rhythm, a different sound."
"I don't see banning the music traditions of fans in their own country," Blatter wrote. "Would you want to see a ban on the fan traditions in your country?"
Chastened
Seeming chastened by the worldwide reaction to his comments, Blatter's messages for the rest of the tournament were less pointed or were linked to official FIFA photographs and statements.
The 100-plus tweets posted on his account to more than 165,000 followers since have also been cautious.
No messages were posted when a World Cup bidding scandal broke last October, nor when the 2018 and 2022 tournaments were awarded last December to Russia and Qatar, respectively.
Rumors of a Blatter-Platini deal, whereby the former France playing great would assume FIFA power in 2013, previously circulated in Zurich in May before Blatter was elected unopposed to a fourth and final four-year presidential term. The story was dismissed as untrue and unworkable under FIFA statutes.
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