Recife: Brazil will benefit with more than just new soccer stadiums from hosting the 2014 World Cup, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said as unrest in the country continued to overshadow the Confederations Cup.
"In football, the whole country gets the legacy," Blatter said in an interview with Rio's O Globo newspaper. "Football involves the whole country. The country improves airports, hotels, highways, telecommunications, sustainability programs."
The eight-team Confederations Cup, the test event for the World Cup, is taking place against a backdrop of street protests that have swept across Brazil. Although demonstrators originally focused their demands on a reduction in bus fares, their gripes have grown and many are aiming their anger at what they see as too much investment in sport and not enough in essential services like health, transport and education.
"I can understand that people are unhappy," Blatter added. "But football is here to unite people. Football is here to build bridges, to generate excitement, to bring hope....
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10:34 PM, Jun 19, 2013
Rio de Janeiro: FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke wants Sepp Blatter to reverse a previous pledge and stand again for the presidency of world football's governing body. The 77-year-old Blatter, who has been in office since 1998, was handed a fourth, four-year term in 2011 after saying he would stand aside in 2015. But Blatter has been dropping hints that he wants to remain in the job, and his closest...
09:06 PM, Jun 18, 2013
FIFA president Sepp Blatter is confident that work on stadiums in Brazil - including the historic Maracana stadium - will be completed before the the start of the Confederations Cup on June 15. Construction is still underway across the country but Blatter told the BBC that everything would be ready for the opening match between Italy and Mexico. "I have seen worse situations," he said. "Yes there is still work...
04:22 PM, Jun 14, 2013
Port Louis (Mauritius): Soccer teams face much tougher penalties for serious racist abuse, including being relegated or having points deducted. FIFA approved sterner punishments at its annual congress Friday following recent problems in Italy and England. The new regulations say serious or repeat offenses by a club or its fans could also lead to a team being banned from a tournament, such as the Champions League. The measures, which were...
06:17 PM, May 31, 2013
Port Louis (Mauritius): FIFA has emerged from one of the most troubled periods in its history and is now setting the highest standards for governance in world sport, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Friday. Making his presidential address to delegates from 208 of the world governing body's 209 members at the 63rd FIFA Congress, Blatter said the wide-ranging reform process started two years had changed the organisation but the...
04:48 PM, May 31, 2013
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has criticised the 50,000 euro ($64,850) fine handed to AS Roma for racist behaviour by their fans, describing the sanction as too weak and unacceptable. Blatter said he would call the Italian football federation, who he said had not been thorough enough in investigating Sunday's incident in the match at AC Milan. "What is surprising and is not understandable for me, is that the disciplinary committee...
06:51 PM, May 14, 2013
Kuala Lumpur: FIFA president Sepp Blatter dropped a hint he plans to stand again for another four year term as the head of world soccer's governing body during a speech to AFC delegates in Malaysia on Friday. Blatter had said he planned to step down from office at the end of his latest four-year term in 2015 but opened up a loophole in March by adding that was providing he...
10:19 AM, May 03, 2013
Geneva: Despite recent skepticism from his own anti-corruption advisers, Sepp Blatter said FIFA can be a model of good sports leadership. On Monday, FIFA published the business agenda for next month's congress, where the football body hopes to finalise modernising changes promised by Blatter two years ago following damaging allegations of bribery and vote-buying. "I look forward to further important decisions being passed at the Congress in 2013 to complete...
11:10 PM, Apr 29, 2013
Geneva: A leading FIFA anti-corruption adviser resigned on Monday, claiming football's governing body failed to change its culture after bribery and vote-buying scandals. Alexandra Wrage, the president of international compliance expert TRACE, left an advisory panel chaired by Swiss law professor Mark Pieth which was asked to guide FIFA President Sepp Blatter's promised modernizing reforms. "(FIFA) remains the closed society that fueled its problems to begin with," the United States-based...
08:43 PM, Apr 22, 2013
Panama: Sepp Blatter gave his strongest hint yet that he may stay on for another four-year term as FIFA president beyond 2015, saying the scale of reform facing soccer's global governing body needed time. Blatter, 77, has indicated in the past he would not stand for a fifth consecutive term in two years' time but he told Reuters on Friday that he would not "abandon this boat" before he was...
08:02 AM, Apr 20, 2013
Zurich: FIFA president Sepp Blatter has expressed misgivings about the idea of relegation and points deductions as punishments for racism, suggesting it could encourage fans to deliberately try and get matches stopped. In January, the 77-year-old Swiss proposed the possible introduction of such sanctions for teams whose fans were guilty of racism but appeared to back away from that stance during a speech at an event in Zurich on Friday....
07:20 PM, Apr 05, 2013
Blatter reiterated that any request to change the timing of the event to cooler months would have to come from the organisers themselves. ...
12:41 AM, Mar 22, 2013
FIFA president Blatter says that he will not stand for a fifth term when his current mandate ends in 2015 as long as there is a suitable candidate to replace him. ...
05:22 PM, Mar 21, 2013
Sepp Blatter says FIFA totally trusts Brazil will have stadiums and infrastructure ready for the 2014 World Cup. ...
08:46 PM, Mar 19, 2013
FIFA presidential hopeful Jerome Champagne says referees should be allowed to consult video replays and that football needs to accept the inevitable use of technology. ...
03:34 PM, Mar 11, 2013
IFA president Sepp Blatter arrived here to take part in the 35th Confederation of African Football (CAF) Ordinary General Assembly. ...
04:35 PM, Mar 10, 2013
Michel Platini's idea that Qatar share the 2022 World Cup hosting rights with its Middle East neighbours was "crazy", UAE soccer chief Yousuf Al Serkal said. ...
05:58 PM, Mar 07, 2013
Webb wanted to meet players from England's Premier League to discuss their experiences of racism in an attempt to forge new strategies to deal with the problem. ...
07:37 PM, Mar 02, 2013
FIFA is willing to allow goal-line technology decisions to be shown to fans on big screens in stadiums and television viewers. ...
07:55 PM, Mar 01, 2013
FIFA has banned 74 more officials and players from world soccer for helping fix matches, this time in Italy and South Korea. ...
09:17 PM, Feb 27, 2013
