Blatter offers Kissinger anti-corruption role
Reuters - Sunday 05 June 2011, 16:17
LONDON - Former U.S. Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger is considering an offer from FIFA president Sepp
Blatter to take up a role in his new anti-corruption committee,
he said on Sunday.
Blatter, re-elected unopposed earlier this week with FIFA
battered by corruption allegations, immediately created a
Solutions Committee and named 88-year-old Kissinger as someone
he would like to see involved in the anti-corruption watchdog.
"He's not been specific, except to say he wants to create a
group of wise men to deal with issues which may arise,"
Kissinger told BBC Radio 5 Live, referring to the approach from
Blatter.
"If it can help, I'd be willing to participate but we need
to know other participants and terms of reference."
Kissinger, who won the Nobel Peace prize in 1973 and was a
major figure in the Richard Nixon administration, is a keen
football fan who was involved in the United States' successful bid
to host the 1994 World Cup.
He was also a member of the reform panel set up by the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) after the scandal over
Salt Lake City's winning bid to host the 2002 winter Olympics.
Blatter secured another four years in charge of FIFA after a
vote in Zurich on Wednesday and immediately pushed through
changes intended to make the choice of World Cup hosts more
democratic and beef up the fight against corruption.
The crisis that hit FIFA over the last month centred on
Asian Football Confederation (AFC) chief Mohamed Bin Hammam's
ultimately aborted campaign to take on Blatter in the election
and it also re-ignited the debate over the awarding of the 2022
World Cup to Bin Hammam's home country Qatar.