Obama does a little soccer diplomacy

Obama does a little soccer diplomacy

Recommend President Obama and a special guest conducted a little soccer diplomacy today.

Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, the president of world soccer's governing body, said he formally invited Obama to next year's World Cup tournament in South Africa, and that Obama directed his aides to look into the prospect.

"He said, 'look at the agenda,' " Blatter reported after the meeting.

The World Cup is the globe's biggest sporting event, and probably the biggest event of any kind to ever be held in Africa.

Obama, meanwhile, asked the head of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to consider the United States as host for the quadrennial event, either in 2018 or 2022. (The 2014 World Cup will be in Brazil.)

"I have to be neutral in all these matters," Blatter said when asked his reaction to Obama's lobbying.

Obama's hometown of Chicago was one of the U.S. cities that hosted games during the 1994 World Cup.


Blatter said he and the president also talked about the U.S. national team's near-upset of might Brazil last month, as well as yesterday's embarrassing 5-0 loss to Mexico. They also discussed the prospect of education programs in connection with the game that every other country in the world calls football. "Football is a game played everywhere," Blatter said.

FIFA officials also presented Obama with soccer balls for his daughters. The president proceeded to bounce one of them off his foot and off his head, according to Blatter.

Blatter did not discuss the U.S. chances to land a World Cup, but did point out that the last two tournaments were in Asia and Europe; the next two are in Africa and South America. "North America would be a normal going around," he said.

Blatter also said the 1994 World Cup organization in the United States left a "good legacy."

As for Blatter's invitation, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs joked that he personally is eager to go to South Africa for the World Cup, but "scheduling has warned me not to accept unilaterally."

Landing the World Cup isn't Obama's only shot at sports diplomacy; his administration is also pushing Chicago as host of the 2016 Summer Olympics, an effort also discussed by Obama and Blatter. The International Olympic Committee will make that decision later this year