FIFA Boss Hails Football Resilience
FIFA President Sepp Blatter has said football is bouncing back financially from the economic downturn.
“I think we are seeing sponsorship in football starting to rise up again from the bottom it hit during the economic crisis,” he noted.
He was speaking at the Soccerex Football Business seminar.
Mr Blatter also hailed footballers as modern-day gladiators and said he hoped next year's World Cup would leave South Africa a more secure country.
The FIFA head covered a number of topics from the realm of football business, including the challenges and legacies of the 2010 World Cup, the global downturn, and television money in the sport.
Addressing the broader global economic circumstances, Mr Blatter said that the money TV had pumped into football had helped it get through the recent downturn.
“Football was touched by the economic crisis; one can see that in the lower football professional leagues in France, Italy and Spain, where there is not the same amount of money available," he said.
“But with the World Cup, and higher professional leagues, the financial involvement from the general outside economy is still there, largely from TV money.
“The marriage of TV and football over the past 25 to 30 years has been wonderful, and football is one of the best products TV can have.”
Looking ahead to the next World Cup, to be held in Brazil in 2014, Mr Blatter said it had been a wise decision to award it to the South American nation, as its economy was now thriving.
“Brazil's economy is in a good shape,” he said.
“And for Brazil the World Cup will bring in more investment, as it did when we last changed continent and brought the World Cup here to South Africa.”