FIFA President Sepp Blatter "will not be publishing a manifesto in his bid for re-election," and said that "he wanted to be judged on his 17 years in charge" of FIFA, according to Brian Homewood of REUTERS. Blatter said, "My manifesto is the work I have done in the last years in FIFA. I am 40 years in FIFA and I am 17 years as president, this is my manifesto." Blatter, 79, "is bidding for a fifth mandate at the FIFA presidential election on May 29." The Swiss "faces opposition" from Dutch FA President Michael van Praag, former Portugal forward Luis Figo and Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, who is a member of FIFA's exec committee (REUTERS, 3/20). Homewood also wrote Blatter "told politicians to leave football alone on Friday and said the 2018 World Cup could stabilise the situation in host nation Russia." Blatter: "There has been increasingly more interference (in football) with cases in Africa, in Europe, in South America ... and that is why I made the executive committee take a decision which means, in a nutshell, stop this political interference in sport." His comments came after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday called on his allies "to boycott the tournament if Russia did not pull its troops out of his country's territory." Blatter: "The World Cup will take place in Russia in 2018, it is sure." Blatter added that the United Nations "had passed a resolution last year recognising the independence of sport." Blatter said, "We don't talk about independence but autonomy when it comes to organizing our competitions, the UN resolution mentions that political authorities should not interfere and intervene in the sport, the message is leave sports alone" (REUTERS, 3/20). In a separate article, Homewood wrote FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke said that "the host nation for the 2026 World Cup will be chosen by the FIFA Congress in May 2017." Valcke said that FIFA's exec committee was "expected to approve the regulations for the bidding process at its next meeting in May and that the tournament should be played in the traditional slot of June and July" (REUTERS 3/20).
