Hailed as "the father of football" and compared to Jesus Christ and Nelson Mandela, FIFA President Sepp Blatter "got backing from across Caribbean and Central American countries" at the CONCACAF congress on Thursday, according to Simon Evans of REUTERS. Blatter "received pledges of support from 10 federations as the congress quickly turned from a business meeting into a rally to support the incumbent president" of football's world governing body. Trinidad & Tobago FA President Raymond Tim Kee "praised Blatter as the 'father of football'" while Dominican Football Federation President Osiris Guzman "compared the 79-year-old Swiss to Moses, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King Jr as well as Jesus and Mandela." There were no speeches in favor of any of the opposing candidates -- former Portugal int'l Luis Figo, Dutch FA President Michael van Praag and Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, all of whom were "present as observers." CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb said, "I think CONCACAF membership is sending a clear message that we continue to support President Blatter." The speeches "came during a time put aside for the formal approval of minutes from the previous congress and appeared to be well choreographed" (REUTERS, 4/16). In a separate piece, Evans reported FIFA Presidential hopeful Figo has "hit out at what he called a lack of democracy" at CONCACAF's congress after Blatter was the only candidate given a chance to speak. Figo: "When some speak and others are silenced, democracy and football lose. Elections are, per definition, a democratic process. Otherwise they are not elections." CONCACAF General Secretary Enrique Sanz de Santamaría said that there was "not enough time to include speeches from all candidates and that the congress was not, in any case, primarily about the FIFA vote" (REUTERS, 4/16).
FLASHBACK: Evans wrote in a separate piece on the surface, CONCACAF's congress "looked very different" from the last time the regional confederation gathered. The formalities had "barely been dealt with before the first of 10 federation representatives began their eulogies" to Blatter, whose organization has faced numerous allegations of corruption in the past four years. But while the new CONCACAF, led by the "personable" Webb, looked "very different to the rather shabby organisation led by Warner, the politics of the organisation proved to be remarkably similar." It was a "familiar scene" to anyone who had "witnessed CONCACAF representatives at FIFA congresses under Warner" (REUTERS, 4/17).
