John Delaney wants to know if there will be 33 teams
The re-election of Sepp Blatter as president of Fifa has thrown up a host of questions for the organisation and world football, one is which is simply: what will his opponents do now?
The nuclear option would be for those countries to boycott the controverisal upcoming World Cups in Russia and Qatar that are the focus for much of the current discontent, and English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke has indicated that that option is very much under consideration.
Uefa, guided by Michel Platini’s request that European nations vote for Blatter rival Prince Ali of Jordan, made up the bulk of the 73 votes that went against the Swiss, although there were also many votes from North and South America.
And the Telegraph have revealed that Dyke has hinted that a ‘rebel World Cup’ would come under serious consideration if the current investigations led by the FBI and Swiss authorities continued to uncover evidence of impropriety within Fifa.
Dyke said that ‘one or two people’ are already discussing the prospect of European and South American nations breaking away.
‘I think that will depend on what happens in the months ahead,’ Dyke added. ‘I think everyone will wait and see what the FBI and the Swiss come up with.
‘The interesting one was the Swiss because the Swiss prosecuting authorities don’t do that kind of thing, I am told by the people in Switzerland, but they’re involved. There was clearly a great deal of co-operation between the Swiss and the Americans.
‘If the Swiss authorities come out with evidence that Qatar 2022 was awarded after bribery then I think a lot of us will be asking for it to be reopened.’
