Int’l Soccer: Blatter Only Candidate For May FIFA Election

Blatter Lone Candidate In FIFA’s Presidential Election

FIFA yesterday said that President Sepp Blatter is the only candidate for the May 31 presidential election. No other candidate entered the race by the March 31 deadline, “effectively confirming Blatter as FIFA president until 2011” (REUTERS, 4/2).

SECRET AGENTS: In Manchester, Matt Scott reported “secret talks have taken place between Europe’s leading football clubs and Brussels politicians that could lead to a breakaway super league.” Sources said that the idea “could be exercised if UEFA and FIFA ‘run wild’ in their governance of the game.” Politicians attending the meeting included Dutch MEP Toine Manders and Belgian MEP Ivo Belet. Belet in an interview with BBC Parliament channel’s Record Europe said, “We could have in five or 10 years a European Union super league; combined with collective selling of television rights that would be the perfect solution” (GUARDIAN, 4/2).

TOUGH TICKET: UEFA said that Euro 2008 tickets “were 30 times oversubscribed after seats went on sale in the first round of applications.” About 600,000 fans from 142 countries ordered 10.4 million tickets by the March 31 deadline. The applicants are vying for “350,000 tickets, a third of the total,” that will be distributed later this month using a lottery system (REUTERS, 4/2).