Germans back Tokyo for Fifa president
BECKENBAUER: GERMAN FA WILL BACK SEXWALE ‘He has the smell of neutrality, that’s why I think he would be a good solution.’
Former executive committee member Franz Beckenbauer, who is still influential, says the German Football Association supports Sexwale’s candidacy.
Vienna
Franz Beckenbauer has backed Tokyo Sexwale as a possible candidate for the Fifa presidency to succeed Sepp Blatter and said the South African can expect support from the German FA.
Speaking at the annual Camp Beckenbauer sports conference in Kitzbuehel, Austria, “the Kaiser” said the German Football Association know “about the quality of the South Africans and the quality of Tokyo Sexwale”.
“I certainly believe the German Football Association would support his candidacy,” said Beckenbauer, a former Fifa executive committee member, who is still influential.
The 62-year-old Sexwale has yet to announce if he will oppose Blatter, 79, at next February’s re-election of the Fifa presidency and has until October 26 to decide. Sexwale, who was an inmate alongside former president Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, is a guest at the Camp Beckenbauer event and is considering opposing Blatter. “We are all affected by what happens at Fifa,” said Sexwale, who is working as an adviser to Fifa.
Beckenbauer, 70, worked with Sexwale at the 2006 World Cup in Germany and the 2010 event in South Africa.
Michel Platini, president of European football’s governing body Uefa, had been considered the favourite to replace Blatter, but his integrity has been questioned over a $2 million (R27 million) payment made to him by Fifa in 2011.
Beckenbauer said Sexwale would be a good option because of his background in politics and that it was time for change at Fifa.
The German said: “At some point there will be the opportunity to appoint a president from an external source – someone from economics, someone from politics.
“That is why I refer to Tokyo because he is someone different, who has a political past, but he also knows his way around sport.
“He has the smell of neutrality and that’s why I think he would be a good solution.” – AFP