FIFA President Sepp Blatter on Monday declared the Confederations Cup football tournament a success, despite clashes between police and protesters near some matches.
Joseph S. Blatter, FIFA President “I’m sure that we will have a wonderful World Cup next year. But you can never avoid, you can never avoid, when you have such a big event, like now the Confederations Cup, which is more than just a competition, it’s really the cup of the champions. Or if you have, next year, the World Cup, or if you have the Olympic games here, you can never make everybody happy. And we try to make happy, the maximum number of people in a country by saying that football means to you not only the entertainment, but especially, emotions and hope.”
Jerome Valcke, FIFA Secretary General “What was important for us is that it went very well the Confederations Cup. And we had nothing that it put at risk the organisation of this Confederations Cup. So, again, some people have been talking about potential crush. There was no crush. And there was not a single time – and that I can talk to you because I have been behind the scenes working for these last months – there was not a single minute of the day we have been here where we have the feeling that something could affect the organisation of the Confed Cup. All went very well. So, it’s a good sign for the World Cup, we still have six World Cup stadiums to receive and that’s where we will start and next month we will already start looking all these new stadiums and to work on them.”
Howard Web, British referee “From my point of view, the reassurance that the system gives us is a big benefit. The system has been reliable in our tests, we have no concerns about the reliability of the system and, to know that the biggest decision in the game of all – whether or not a goal is scored – has, not that it’s been taken out of our hands, but has been given some certainty. For us, it’s a big positive. A really big positive.”
