President Barack Obama lobbied the head of soccer’s international governing body today to bring the World Cup to the U.S. during a meeting at the White House.
The president also received a personal invitation from Sepp Blatter, head of world governing body FIFA, to attend next year’s tournament in South Africa, a trip in which Obama has expressed interest, according to a White House statement.
“We’ll use the opportunity of the meeting to advocate for the United States to host the World Cup in either 2018, or 2022,” Josh Earnest, deputy White House press secretary, said before the discussion between Obama and Blatter.
The international tournament is held every four years. The host for the 2014 World Cup will be Brazil. Blatter said in an interview yesterday that he expects a “big fight” over the chance to host the next championship.
At last month’s G-8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy, Obama said it was his “goal” to travel to South Africa next June to attend the World Cup.
According to details today’s meeting released by the White House, Obama thanked Blatter for the invitation to the World Cup and for a gift of soccer balls for the president’s two daughters.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said no final decision has been made about Obama attending the World Cup, though he suggested that many of the president’s senior staff want him to make the trip.
“Scheduling has warned me against accepting unilaterally invitations to visit South Africa,” Gibbs said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=amSIiXAydsOM#
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment