CHRISTIAN RADNEDGE: FIFA has not been drawn on whether under-fire president Sepp Blatter or general secretary Jerome Valcke will make an appearance at the Women’s World Cup in Canada.

The crisis surrounding world football’s governing body, including respective investigations into corruption by United States and Swiss authorities, meant Valcke had to cancel his trip to the opening on June 6.

Four days before the kickoff between hosts Canada and China, Blatter announced he intended to stand down as FIFA president.

Until then he had been expected, at least, to attend the final in Vancouver on July 5 but a FIFA spokesperson would not confirm or deny whether the 79-year-old would step on Canadian soil at all, saying only: “The travel plans of the FIFA president and the FIFA secretary-general will be confirmed in due course.”

Representatives

FIFA pointed out that executive committee members in Canada include vice-presidents Issa Hayatou (Africa) and David Chung (Oceania) along with female members Lydia Nsekera, Moya Dodd and Sonia Bien-Aime.

Sunil Gulati, another exco member and head of US Soccer, was expected to arrive on Monday.

All exco members are across the six venues acting as match commissioners.

But the greatest interest concerns whether Blatter, long a champion of the women’s game despite some ill-advised attempted humour in the past, will attend.

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