Introduction
Joseph S. Blatter, better known as Sepp Blatter, was elected as the successor to Dr. João Havelange (Brazil) as the eighth FIFA President on June 8, 1998. Mr Blatter was born on March 10, 1936 in the Swiss town of Visp and graduated from the Sion and St. Maurice colleges in Switzerland with a school-leaving certificate and then gained a degree as Bachelor of Business Administration and Economics from the Faculty of Law at Lausanne University. His long and succesfull career curriculum contains such positions like Head of Public Relations of the Valaisan Tourist Board, General Secretary of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation, Director of Sports Timing and Public Relations of Longines S.A., Director of Technical Development Programmes at FIFA, General Secretary of FIFA and more.
Thanks to FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter for this interview, who found time to answer the following questions regarding Indian football in a busy time for world football.
indianfootball.com was able to do the eMail interview with Joseph S. Blatter, with kind help from Andreas Herren (Head of FIFA Media Department, Communications Division)!
1. What are the short-, medium- and long-term plans of FIFA for Indian football?
FIFA does not have specific plans for the football or the activities of national associations but rather provides the associations with tools and resources to establish their own master plan and to implement it.
Fundamental to this approach are FIFA’s Financial Assistance Programme (FAP) whereby each national association receives USD 250,000 per year for football-related projects and under FIFA’s Goal Programme.
Through the Goal program FIFA will support the building of an all-Indian football headquarters and technical centre in New Delhi. The Goal contribution is USD 400,000m, while another USD 370,000 come from the FAP. The contract agreements for consulting and supervision services have been signed in June 2002. The bid for the construction has been finalised in the meantime. FIFA and the AIFF are waiting for the official approval for the land allocation. This land will have to be provided by the government.
Additionally FIFA and AFC conducted a study visit to India in 2002 from 28 August to 6 September). FIFA is currently studying the findings and recommendations. FIFA will support India in the development of a strategic long-term plan. Based on both the Study and the long-term plan further assistance may be given by FIFA to India, which will be mostly in the form of technical assistance for coaches, in the youth domain and in the area of marketing.
Incidentally, the AIFF has used part of the remainder of the FAP funds for expenses in these areas, especially youth coaching or to cover expenses for training and competition participation of the women’s team.
2. How do you rate the current performances of Indian national teams?
(India wins LG Cup 2002 in Vietnam, India draws a friendly match with Jamaica, India U17 reaches AFC U17 Championship quarterfinal, India U20 reaches AFC U20 Championship quarterfinal, India U23 misses Asian Games 2002 quarterfinal through goal difference.)
In many respects, India is a sleeping giant. I am optimistic that in the long run and under the leadership of AIFF President Dasmunshi the enormous potential can be unlocked and further progress be made. The results by the youth teams are very promising and usually a sign for coming progress at senior level.
I am also following the developments at the 2003 SAFF championship where India has made it to the semi-finals (as per 14 January).
3. Has your opinion about Indian football changed in the last months?
See 2.
4. What do you think needs to change in the coming month's/years for Indian football to develop into a top Asian side?
Further to my remarks under previous questions I can only add that a comprehensive and long-term approach which takes into account all aspects of the game – youth and senior level, coaching, sports medicine, administration and so on – and hard work will ultimately provide the basis for success.
I also understand that in terms of sports, cricket and lacrosse hockey play a major role in India. It will be important for football to make its imprint against these sports as well.
5. Some months ago a FIFA team visited India and inspected several facilities and infrastructure. What are the results of this visit and what will be the next steps?
This visit was done under the auspices of the Goal Project I have mentioned. The FIFA administration, the FIFA Development Officer responsible for India and the AIFF are now working on the implementation of the project as explained under your previous question.
6. How do you rate the chance, that Indian players make their way to the European football scene?
It is possible, by all means. Club scouts keep constantly searching countries all over the world for promising players and if they come across such players in India, they will not fail to invite them for trials.
If players are actually taken on by European clubs it will present the advantage that they will get exposure to top-flight football and thus earn precious experience. On the other hand, it must be made sure in the contracts for example that the players in accordance with the FIFA regulations are released for national team duties. Thus the national teams can benefit from such players.
7. The AFC obtained one more starting place in the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany. What is your point-of-view on this?
The confederations that demanded more slots were perfectly entitled to do so. All of our decisions at the meeting of the FIFA Executive Committee have been well thought-out. Asia reaped the rewards for a successful 2002 FIFA World Cup™ and now stand the chance to get as many as five slots for 2006 (if their representative wins the play-offs against the team from Concacaf).
8. Have you any plans to visit India in coming months?
The planning for 2003 is still in the making. With four competitions - U-20 World Youth Championship in the UAE, the Confederations Cup in France, the U-17 World Championship in Finland and the Women’s World Cup in China – the agenda is already pretty full. Add to that the Extraordinary Congress in Qatar and the 2006 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw in Frankfurt and you see that the FIFA President is more often on the road than not.
the interview was done by Chris P.Daniel per eMail (January 2003)
[ indianfootball.com interviews ]