Blatter here on November 19

Hafiz Marikar

Joseph Sepp Blatter, FIFA President since 1988, Technical Director 1975 to 1981, General Secretary 1981 to 1998, will be in Sri Lanka for the third time, on November 19 on an invitation extended by Manilal Fernando.

He is expected first to land in Jaffna to open the football ground which is donated by the German Government, that will be in the morning and in the afternoon he will be felicitated at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo

Joseph Sepp Blatter was born on 10 March 1936 in the Swiss town of Visp, near the famous Matterhorn. He graduated from the Sion and St. Maurice colleges in Switzerland with a school-leaving certificate and then gained a degree as Bachelor of Business Administration and Economics from the Faculty of Law at Lausanne University.

Sports activities - Active footballer from 1948 to 1971 (played for the Swiss amateur league in the top division), Member of the Board of Xamax Neuchâtel FC from 1970 to 1975, Member of the Panathlon Club (society of sports managers), Since 1956 member of the Swiss Association of Sportswriters, Since 1999 member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)

On 8 June 1998 Joseph S. Blatter (Switzerland) was elected as the successor to Dr. João Havelange (Brazil) as the eighth FIFA President.

This victory at the 51st FIFA Ordinary Congress in Paris (France) elevated Joseph S. Blatter, who had already served FIFA in various positions for twenty-three years, onto the highest rang in international football.

Blatter began his professional career as Head of Public Relations of the Valaisan Tourist Board in his native Switzerland and then became General Secretary of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation (1964).

He then pursued journalistic and public relations activities in the fields of sport and private industry. As Director of Sports Timing and Public Relations of Longines S.A., he was involved in the organisation of the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games, acquiring his first taste of the international sports scene. In the summer of 1975, as Director of Technical Development Programmes at FIFA, Blatter began to set President João Havelange's projects into motion. It was the time when ideas for competition and educational programmes were germinating and the foundations being laid for competitions in the under-20 and under-17 categories as well as women's and indoor (futsal) football, all of which are pillars of FIFA's worldwide activity.

In 1981 the Executive Committee of the world governing body designated the multilingual Blatter as the new General Secretary and in 1990 promoted him to Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

A total of eight World Cups were staged under his auspices (Spain in 1982, Mexico in 1986, Italy in 1990, USA in 1994 and France in 1998, Korea/Japan 2002, Germany 2006 and South Africa, 2010).

Joseph S. Blatter is one of the most versatile and experienced exponents of international sports diplomacy and is totally committed to serving football, FIFA and the youth of the world. his motto is "FOOTBALL FOR ALL, ALL FOR FOOTBALL.