Soccer: Blatter faces leadership struggle
FIFA president Sepp Blatter faces a battle to keep his job this week with senior officials claiming they have been kept in the dark over the running of football’s world governing body.
UEFA president Lennart Johansson, also a FIFA vice-president and a long-time political rival, has written a letter to Blatter demanding answers to 25 detailed and probing questions.
They relate to the collapse of FIFA’s marketing partners ISL/ISMM, the cancellation of this year’s World Club Championship and the setting up of FIFA’s own marketing arm.
Blatter will be expected to provide point-by-point answers at Wednesday’s extraordinary meeting of FIFA’s executive committee in Zurich.
Each member of the committee has also been sent a copy of the letter.
In the letter Johansson claims he is ‘‘extremely concerned’’ at the situation.
He adds: ‘‘Sadly, as a member of the FIFA executive committee and a FIFA vice-president, I feel that I have to write as I believe that I, and other members, have for some time not been adequately informed about numerous strategic matters which have also been acted upon without proper discussion.’’
