PORT LOUIS: FIFA’s executive committee led by 77-year-old president Sepp Blatter has dropped a proposal to impose age limits and restricted terms of office from a reform package due to be discussed at its Congress tomorrow.
The decision to defer for a year the debate on limiting mandates for senior officials was agreed by the committee after its meeting on the Indian Ocean island on Tuesday.
It comes a day after Blatter, who could stand for re-election in two years’ time aged 79 under present rules, said the proposed age limits could be considered a form of discrimination.
Blatter was opposed to the idea put forward by FIFA’s Independent Governance Committee (IGC) which has prepared the reforms to be decided this week. A FIFA statement read: “As no consensus has been reached among the member associations and their confederations on the agenda items “term of office” and “age limit”, a more thorough analysis is required. “Therefore, both items will be examined further and the Congress will be asked to put them back on the agenda of the 2014 FIFA Congress with concrete proposals.”
On Monday, Blatter told FIFA’s website (www.fifa.com): “It’s not up to me, we are in a democratic process with the member associations voting.
“However, personally, I’ve already said I was against the age limit as I believe it is not a relevant criteria, not everyone is the same at 60, 70, 80, etc. It could even be seen as discriminatory. Passion makes the difference.” REUTERS
