Indian-American Sunil Gulati could head world football

TNN

Washington, 04 June 2015: An Indian-American football mandarin is being mentioned as a potential successor to ousted Fifa honcho Sepp Blatter in a development - if it comes to fruition - that could boost the football fortunes of the US and Asia.

 

Sunil Gulati, an Allahabad-born Connecticut Indian who is also a Columbia University academic, is said to be among the candidates in the mix to succeed Blatter following the latter’s resignation after several Fifa officials were indicted for corruption by US law enforcement authorities.

 

Gulati had not responded to messages at the time of writing, although he said in a statement on Tuesday that Blatter’s resignation "represents an exceptional and immediate opportunity for positive change within Fifa" and commended him "for making a decision that puts Fifa and the sport we love above all other interests."

 

Gulati is said to have voted against Blatter in last week’s Fifa election and the US soccer dispensation has broadly been against the Swiss soccer supremo. Gulati himself has been re-elected a record three times as the US Soccer Federation president.

 

Various US media outlets were reporting that Gulati could be a potentially strong contender to replace Blatter, but New York Times, which mentioned his name in the mix that included French great Michel Platini and former Manchester United CEO David Gill, said he was an outsider and stood little chance.

 

 

"Fifa is more likely to give the top job to Loretta Lynch (the US Attorney General who brought down Blatter) than to Gulati, the head of US Soccer, right now, which is to say that no American will get anywhere near the Fifa presidency in the near future. Anti-Americanism runs high in world sports generally, and perhaps nowhere higher than inside Fifa," NYT said.

 

"Many member countries -not to mention leaders like Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin -viewed the Department of Justice investigation as an unwelcome intrusion by American officials into a sovereign body," the paper added. NBC Sports however said Gulati, 55, could be a serious candidate.

 

Gulati, who was born in Allahabad but grew up in the US, told this correspondent in an interview last June that most of his soccer journey is unrelated to his South Asian roots, although he follows the developments in the sub-continent.

 

He said he started playing as a youngster in Connecticut and then got involved in refereeing and coaching before finally switch to the administrative side of things. "South Asia faces many challenges in this area," Gulati said.