FIFA president Sepp Blatter has asked Spanish opera star Placido Domingo to join a new advisory committee set up to aid the decisions of FIFA itself. Domingo will join Dutch football legend Johann Cruyff and former American secretary of state Henry Kissinger to sit on the ‘council of wisdom’ at football’s main governing body.
Blatter told CNN on a visit to Eastern European country Azerbaijan: ‘These gentlemen are more or less advisers, they are not the experts but advisers. What they should be also is the kind of council of wisdom’.
Domingo’s most known involvement in football is appearing with Jose Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti, as part of the three Tenors, to sing before four consecutive World Cups leading up to 1990. The 70 year old singer is reported to be happy and proud to be a part of the committee, according to Blatter, but Domingo was not available for comment.
The committee will have the power to investigate and suggest solutions to problems as FIFA attempt to recover from the scandals that have rocked the organisation in the past month, scandals that saw vice-president Jack Warner and formal presidential candidate Mohammed Bin Hammam suspended from all football activities pending an investigation.
After Blatter’s election last week, the Swiss FIFA president has declared he will bring the credibility back to the organisation. He also defended the decision not to have a chairman on the solutions committee, claiming that he did not want to let everybody involved in the committee. Blatter said: ‘The football family has asked me to solve the solution inside the FIFA and not outside the FIFA‘.
Cruyff is known worldwide for his part in the Netherlands’ Total Football regime of the ’70′s and his successful stint as Barcelona manager in the early 1990′s. Kissinger is reputedly known for his role as American president Richard Nixon’s secretary of state back in the 70′s.
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