Sepp Blatter faced a revolt from leading European football officials Tuesday over his intention to stand for re-election as FIFA president for a fifth four-year term from 2015.

According to UEFA sources, Blatter, 78, told a meeting of the European football confederation in Sao Paulo that he would be seeking a further mandate.

It reverses a pledge made in 2011 that he would not stand again and influential delegates at the meeting openly voiced their opposition to his U-turn.

“The atmosphere was quite tense during and after Blatter’s short speech,” the sources told CNN.

Blatter was directly challenged by Michael Van Praag, president of the Dutch FA, who told him that he should not continue after 2015 in his role.

Praag, a member of UEFA’s executive committee, later relayed to gathered reporters outside the meeting what he had told Blatter.

“I said to him, ‘I regard the comments you made yesterday about allegations in the British media in which you described them as racist as totally unacceptable,” Dyke told gathered reporters.

“The allegations being made are nothing to do with the racism, they are allegations about corruption.”
Dyke also voiced his disappointment over Blatter’s intention to stand for re-election.

-Punch

Posted by admin on Jun 11 2014. Filed under Headlines, Soccer, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry