Blatter calls for more African nations at World Cup finals

Is Sepp Blatter angling for another term as head of world football? The 77-year-old vowed at the 2011 FIFA presidential elections, where he stood unopposed after a bribery controversy ruled out his only rival, that this would be his fourth and final four-year stint in office. However, this week he hinted that he has "a mission" to fulfill and said he feels "young enough to be in this office." And he fueled speculation that he may stand again with comments in Friday's release of the FIFA Weekly magazine, in which he said the African and Asian regions deserved more representation at World Cup finals. Blatter, who has stayed in power since 1998 by vowing to take FIFA's showpiece tournament to all parts of the world, criticized Europe's overwhelming presence in relation to its lesser number of member associations. Read: Russian racism furore is latest headache for FIFA Europe will have 13 of the 32 places on offer in Brazil next year, while South America has four plus the possibility of another via a playoff with fifth-best Asian side (Uruguay vs. Jordan). Africa has five berths, while CONCACAF has three plus a playoff with the top Oceania team (Mexico vs. New Zealand). "From a purely sporting perspective, I would like to see globalization finally taken seriously, and the African and Asian national associations accorded the status they deserve at the FIFA World Cup," Blatter wrote in an article looking at the future of the sport. "It cannot be that the European and South American confederations lay claim to the majority of the berths at the World Cup (18 or 19 teams), because taken together they account for significantly fewer member associations (63) than Africa and Asia (100)."