Acting FIFA general secretary appointed

FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter has appointed Urs Linsi as acting general secretary of the world governing body in succession to Michel Zen-Ruffinen.

Economics graduate
For the past three years, Dr Linsi has been finance director of world football’s governing body. An economics graduate from St. Gallen university in eastern Switzerland, he joined FIFA in 1999 after spending 23 years with Crédit Suisse.

Re-election
Zen-Ruffinen stepped down at the FIFA Congress in Seoul just prior to the FIFA World Cup following the re-election of Blatter as FIFA president for a second term of office.

Emergency situation
“Faced with an emergency situation, we had to have a solution that enabled us internally to carry on the day-to-day work,”  Blatter told a news conference following FIFA’s latest executive committee meeting in Tokyo today. “The FIFA general secretariat now has the personnel who are employed to apply order and discipline. Dr Linsi will do everything in his power to do this.”

Ticketing issue
Other matters discussed by FIFA today included the issue of ticketing, which has been a major cause for concern at the World Cup. The world body’s Executive Committee agreed to commission a comprehensive report into the matter, to be presented to its next meeting in early September.

Refereeing suggestions
Refereeing standards have been a topic of considerable debate in Korea and Japan, and it was announced that FIFA’s Referees Committee will provide detailed suggestions on how the officiating can be improved in the future.

Confederations’ Cup
Blatter also said that the FIFA Confederations’ Cup, open to the champions of each of FIFA’s six confederations and staged in odd years, would carry on. The eight-nation tournament will next take place in 2003 in one of four bidding countries, to be chosen by FIFA on 23 September.