Blatter praises British for replacing vice president
ZURICH, May 31 (Reuters) - FIFA president Sepp Blatter congratulated the four British associations at the FIFA Congress on Thursday for swiftly replacing a vice-president who made disparaging remarks about African and Caribbean federations.
Blatter's remarks in front of hundreds of delegates from more than 200 countries came a day after Geoff Thompson of England became Britain's vice-president on the executive committee in place of Scotland's John McBeth.
McBeth, who had been nominated for the position in early February was forced to stand down because of remarks he made to Scottish journalists last week.
He criticised the African and Caribbean federations as well as the English and Blatter himself.
Blatter told delegates that soccer faced four major evils: doping, corruption, cheating and racism -- as well as the growing number of cases being taken to civil courts.
"Even today we have racism in football and in this context I would like to congratulate the courageous decision taken by the four British associations not to highlight a member who has recently attacked Caribbean and African nations in declarations which are totally negative and don't correspond to our concept of football," he said.
The English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh FAs decided on Wednesday that McBeth's position was untenable and after a meeting in a Zurich hotel it was agreed that Thompson would take over.
Blatter's remarks in front of hundreds of delegates from more than 200 countries came a day after Geoff Thompson of England became Britain's vice-president on the executive committee in place of Scotland's John McBeth.
McBeth, who had been nominated for the position in early February was forced to stand down because of remarks he made to Scottish journalists last week.
He criticised the African and Caribbean federations as well as the English and Blatter himself.
Blatter told delegates that soccer faced four major evils: doping, corruption, cheating and racism -- as well as the growing number of cases being taken to civil courts.
"Even today we have racism in football and in this context I would like to congratulate the courageous decision taken by the four British associations not to highlight a member who has recently attacked Caribbean and African nations in declarations which are totally negative and don't correspond to our concept of football," he said.
The English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh FAs decided on Wednesday that McBeth's position was untenable and after a meeting in a Zurich hotel it was agreed that Thompson would take over.
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