Age is no bar for peoples who love their profession and enjoy being on the top of any international sport’s governing body, and if this sport is soccer, you can imagine how the fascination would have been. We are talking about FIFA’s 78-year-old President Sepp Blatter who is going to end his term as the top of soccer watchdog next year. He earlier hinted he would not contest for the next term, but now, he clues he may stand for another term next year no matter what his critics would say about his ambitious plans. Reportedly, UEFA president Michel Platini has until been the most likely contender for the supreme FIFA post, but after Blatter’s re-entry into the probables list, matter is again heated up into the sports media all over the world. Many call this aged ‘young’ as the perfect man to handle the growing problems in soccer fraternity today coz he doesn’t hesitate in speaking against anyone he doesn’t take as the right one to stand with while Platini is supposed to be the diplomatic mind who wants to concentrate on European soccer more than rest of the world.
Blatter was talking in 126th IOC Session in Sochi and hinted about his possible next term by lambasting International Olympic Committee (IOC) for retaining age limits of its members. He openly said he would love to stand in Presidential elections if his health permits and looking at his current fitness; he is fully fit to rule the soccer world again. Looking at his working in last couple of months, he made some striking improvements in relations between politically hated States which is being taken as his best on diplomatic front while as far Brazil is concerned, he has also been widely criticized for giving too much leverages to this South American State.
What he said to RTS is, “If I have the health – and currently I am in good health – I don’t see why I would stop the work. A work which continues. FIFA needs consolidation. Many people say it needs to be continued. I will not shout ‘I’m candidate’ but if the member associations ask it to me, then I will not say no.
“The age limit is a problem which we also considered during the reform at FIFA. We examined it for more than a year after having consulted all the football stakeholders, that is to say the clubs, the leagues, the federations, the confederations, and also by applying the Swiss civil code which governs us here as well at the International Olympic Committee. After all this work we concluded that imposing an age limit is an act of discrimination.”
So, stage is all set to witness another fight at the top among notables of contemporary soccer; you just wait and watch!