FIFA president postpones visit to Cuba

Joseph Blatter, president of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), has postponed a scheduled visit to Cuba from October to early 2013, a Cuban sports official said.

FIFA said the trip was postponed due to “sports politics” related to the organisation of the 2014 World Cup games in Brazil, according to Luis Enrique Yero, secretary of the Cuban Football Association.

Blatter was expected to be in Havana Oct 25 as part of a Caribbean tour that also included Barbados, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, said Xinhua.

FIFA’s top official was going to preside over the laying of the cornerstone of Havana’s first synthetic-grass soccer field at La Polar Stadium, where construction is to begin in January.

Blatter earlier visited Cuba in November 2000.

—IANS