MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Blatter apologizes to Brazil; requests interview with President Rousseff

“We must work together” and not waste time over conflicts, said FIFA president

FIFA president Sepp Blatter sought on Tuesday to defuse a war of words between FIFA and Brazil by personally apologising for disparaging remarks made by a top official about the country's slow progress in preparing for the 2014 World Cup.

In an open letter to Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo, Blatter offered an “apology to all those who had their honour and pride wounded, especially the Brazilian government and President Dilma Rousseff.”

Blatter's gesture came one day after FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke sent a similar letter to Rebelo apologising for saying Brazil's World Cup preparations were “not working” and that organisers needed “a kick up the backside”.

Valcke's remarks caused uproar in Brazil, prompting the government to notify FIFA it would no longer accept the Frenchman as the world soccer governing body's point person for the 2014 World Cup.

In his letter, Blatter asked to meet with President Rousseff next week to personally discuss the standoff - and progress in Brazil's World Cup preparations - after he completes a tour to Asia.

“We waste time over conflicts,” Blatter wrote. “We must work together. We have a common goal: to organise an extraordinary World Cup in the country of football, the country of champions.”

In what appeared to be an attempt to stifle any talk that FIFA had a Plan B in place to take the World Cup away from Brazil, Blatter wrote: “Brazil deserves to host the World Cup and the whole world is anxiously waiting for that to happen.”

It was not immediately clear if Rousseff would meet with Blatter next week, when Valcke is also scheduled to visit Brazil to tour construction sites in some World Cup host cities.

Valcke, who has irked Brazilian officials in the past, claimed in his letter to Rebelo that translators misinterpreted his words in his native French. But reporters who heard his comments said he spoke in English.