Zurich - The president of football's controlling body FIFA Joseph Blatter said on Tuesday that Germany was the first choice to take over the hosting of the 2010 World Cup if it could not be held in South Africa. Blatter, who earlier had already said that FIFA had a contingency plan, however reiterated that there were no plans to take away the World Cup from South Africa. "Only a natural catastrophe would force us to do that," the 71-year-old said.
Blatter, who is expected to be re-elected as FIFA president in two weeks, said he was optimistic that the World Cup would be well organized in South Africa.
"The idea came to me in 1998. Now we are nearly there and we have confidence in South Africa," he said.
Blatter did not directly say anything about problems pertaining to the infrastructure, security and around the building of stadiums, but said that Germany could jump in, should a natural catastrophe make it impossible for the World Cup to be hosted in South Africa.
"There are also other countries who could help out. In Asia and in North America," he said at a round table press talk.
Nine years after first being elected as FIFA president Blatter said he could not even count out standing for a fourth term of office in 2011.
He has already moved away from his initial promise to only stand twice. "The fact that I am the only candidate this time around is a vote of confidence. It is a sign of the unity of the football family," he said.
In 1998 and 2002 the Swiss was opposed as president.
Blatter promised to make football and national and international structures more professional during his third period as president. "Football has to be aware of its social role," he said.
Blatter, who calls himself the centre forward of football officials, welcomed the election of German icon Franz Beckenbauer into the FIFA executive. "Now we can speak more about football and less about politics."
He said that he would be spending some time looking at referees and suggested that it was not impossible that there would be some changes, possibly even introducing four assistants.
Blatter said that he would not count out the idea put forward by UEFA president Michel Platini to have more than one referee.
40 million euros were available for the development of refrees, he added.
He also announced that he would continue his fight against racism, which he described as one of "society's ills."
