Organizers try to shed positive light on sport
Whether Blatter will dare to come to Canada is still a talking point
The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada will shine a positive light on a game devastated by scandal in the past week.
That was Canadian Soccer Association president Victor Montagliani’s hopeful message Thursday at a FIFA news conference that was supposed to focus on the tournament that kicks off Saturday.
But most reporters focused on the bribery and racketeering allegations against senior FIFA executives that have rocked the soccer world.
The U.S. Department of Justice has charged nine senior FIFA officials and five sports marketing figures with corruption offences that allegedly occurred over a period of more than 20 years.
At one point, FIFA representative Segolene Valentin asked reporters to focus on the World Cup.
“Any question on the tournament itself?” she asked. “Can we start on football, women’s football?”
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has not been charged, but he announced plans this week to step down after soccer’s governing body elects a new president at a future meeting.
Valentin said it’s not clear if Blatter will travel to Vancouver for the tournament final on July 5.
“We will confirm his plans in due (course),” she said. “We can’t confirm anything now. It will be unfair and inaccurate to tell you what is going on in 30 days.”
Montagliani said he thinks the scandal will have virtually no impact on the month-long World Cup tournament being hosted by six Canadian cities — Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal and Moncton.
“I actually think it’s a positive thing that the first tournament after what happened in the last week is the Women’s World Cup because women’s football is a very pure form of football,” he said. “I think women’s football can shine some light on the dark clouds that are hanging over the game.”
While questions linger over possible improprieties surrounding FIFA’s decision to award the 2018 men’s World Cup to Russia and the 2022 men’s World Cup to Qatar, Montagliani insisted everything was above board in the decision to give Canada the 2015 Women’s World Cup.
“Quite frankly, we were the only country that bid in the end,” he said. “Others were interested but we were the only country that was standing.”
Zimbabwe had been interested in hosting the 2015 tournament but withdrew its bid, citing a lack of finances needed to hold the event.
Montagliani bristled when reminded that, in an interview last year, he cited former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb as an inspiration in his life.
Webb, a banker by trade, was arrested in Switzerland last week on bribery and racketeering charges.
Montagliani said many soccer officials and media members respected Webb for his efforts to rid the game of racism and encourage more fair play.
“You need to maybe look in the mirror a little bit and maybe not put people on a pedestal so that you can whack the hell out of them after,” he said. “But if the allegations are true, there’s absolutely no room for that in the game. If we had all known that previously, our opinions would have been quite different.” bconstantineau@vancouversun.com Twitter.com/ bconstantineau MORE WORLD CUP AT MONTREALGAZETTE.COM/WOMENSWORLDCUP