Van Praag bid blunder
FIFA presidential candidate Michael van Praag says, if elected, he intends to cut costs — something he’s never heard mentioned during six years of dealings with Zurich, where figures are just plucked out of the air, he claimed. Van Praag will also declare what his FIFA salary would be and wants to know what sepp Blatter has been paid.
The Dutch football leader, who has a budget of €400,000 from his national association for his campaign, is also concerned at the way Fox TV were given the rights to the World Cup in 2026 without a tender to end their resistance to a World Cup in Qatar. yet all Van Praag’s good intentions are undone by his open offer to Blatter, who he says could carry on as a working honorary president concentrating on the Goal Project funding.
Meanwhile, Portuguese contender luis Figo is rich enough to fund his own campaign but this most charismatic of footballers couldn’t be more dull when he talks FIFA politics.
BLATTER is said to be so confident of winning a fifth term that he feels no need to mount any form of campaign and is addressing the UEFA Congress today in his FIFA president’s slot rather than as a candidate. However, the 79-year-old is understood to have engaged well-known Swiss PR figure Klaus Stohlker to advise him on his election strategy. Stohlker, former TV journalist and political author, founded his own PR and consulting business in 1982 and is a long-time friend of Blatter’s. FOR all the shenanigans, scandals and infighting at the FA over the years, at least there’s never been such an unseemly episode as Germany’s FIFA executive member Theo Zwanziger reporting his successor as German federation president Wolfgang Niersbach to FIFA’s ethics committee over alleged pay and pension irregularities. It is a blatant attempt by Zwanziger to stop Niersbach taking his executive seat. FIFA have cleared Niersbach and UeFA general secretary Gianni Infantino said Zwanziger’s claims had been fully rejected, adding: ‘It’s all a bit embarrassing for him and sad for German football.’ Niersbach said: ‘I have not heard of a similar story anywhere in football.’