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Notes from a round table event with FIFA President
(FIFA.com)
Updated: 2006-05-22 10:46
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It is a fact that attendances are in decline in Italy and England. Public interest declines if there's too much football on TV. You always hear that FIFA should have a solution ready and create a regulation. We should reduce the number of teams in the professional leagues. The maximum should be 18 clubs. We'll discuss this at Congress. A further problem is that you've hardly got any players from the home country. Young players have no chance of making it in the professional leagues any more, because coaches usually buy players from overseas.
On the subject of club ownership in football:
This is a difficult topic, which we're examining on an ongoing basis in our "For the Good of the Game" task force. You notice the existence of an international group, based for example in the British Virgin Islands or on Gibraltar, listed as part-owner of a club, and that's difficult. FIFA has a regulation prohibiting multiple ownership of clubs. It's another subject we'll be talking about at Congress.
On the 2014 FIFA World Cup:
The Executive Committee will decide on the host nation for the 2014 World Cup in 2008. The Executive Committee adopted a resolution in favour of rotation, and established that the 2010 World Cup would be in Africa, and the 2014 tournament in South America. Every CONMEBOL member has said they would like Brazil to host the tournament. Brazil are candidates, but the country must fulfil the requirements in the mandatory regulations. We'll closely examine their candidacy with the help of this list. We are not in favour of joint hosting, provided we have a single candidate which fulfils the requirements.
On the book by Andrew Jennings:
He's just re-heated old stories. The book ought to be called "revenge foul". He'd get a red card for that on the field of play.
On the election for FIFA President in 2007:
We have a responsibility to society, and I want to fulfil that. At the end of the Congress in Munich, I will announce my willingness to serve from 2007 onwards, provided the associations want me. I'm healthy, I've just come through a check-up, and everything was fine.
On doping control agency WADA:
In terms of doping controls, we'll deal with cases individually, which is known as "Individual Case Management". That was always FIFA's goal. We'll need to change our constitution a little, so that after Congress, we'll be WADA compatible, and WADA will be FIFA compatible.
On the verdict from Charleroi:
The G14 was rejected in Charleroi. The 800 million is off the table. The judge threw out the case. In one specific case, the judge referred the decision over releasing the player to the Court of Justice in Luxembourg. That will take another two years.
But there is a solution to hand. The most important thing is insurance for the players. The players must be insured for international call-ups by the clubs. The associations need to supervise that. We've established an insurance fund for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, to cover the eventuality of players sustaining serious injuries at the tournament. Clubs will be compensated in such cases.
FIFA Communications Director Markus Siegler on individual player commitments to specific media during the FIFA World Cup:
A player is permitted to have contracts, but he must work together with all sectors of the media. If we observe that a player doesn't fulfil the requirements, we'll intervene. It's important that no exclusivity develops.