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UEFA chief says Havelange also promised 2006 Cup to Germany
Calling Havelange a "dictator," UEFA president Lennart Johansson made a stinging attack on the Brazilian whose job Johansson hopes to get.
"I personally was a witness when the FIFA president in 1993 promised the 2006 World Cup to the German soccer federation," Johansson said in an interview with the German sports news agency SID.
Havelange, who is retiring this year, said in London on Wednesday that it was his "personal wish" that the World Cup in 2006 is staged in England.
Although he won't have a say when the decision is made in June of the year 2000, his views came as a major boost to England, which made its bid two years after Germany.
Germany and England are involved in an increasingly bruising battle to get the right to stage soccer's biggest and most lucrative event.
The Germans were the first to declare their bid and were promised by other European countries that they would have the support of UEFA, the continent's umbrella organization.
The Germans thought they had the support of the English and were furious when the English Football Association, delighted with the successful organization of the European championship in 1996, decided to make a rival bid.
"If the English suddenly cannot remember their word of honor, then as UEFA president I am powerless," Johansson said in the interview, conducted in Paris.
Johansson said FIFA, soccer's world ruling body, could decide in June that only continental confederations have the right to declare candidates to stage World Cup finals, not individual nations. This would favor Germany, Johansson indicated.
"I was a witness when this word of honor was given. Spain, Italy, Portugal and France were also there. Don't think that I would break a word of honor," Johansson told SID.
A long and bitter battle between Germany and England could benefit a non-European country, such as South Africa and Brazil, which have also expressed interest in putting in bids for 2006.
FIFA wants to avoid another bidding war such as the one that opposed Japan and South Korea. It ended in a compromise that will allow the two countries to share the 2002 World Cup, an arrangement FIFA is not eager to see again.
Johansson attacked Havelange over the decision.
"Many decisions were made too hastily and without the necessary expert knowledge," Johansson said. "It cannot happen that the vice presidents and the executive committee -- the democratically elected decision-making organs of the world body -- are constantly surprised by the decisions of the president."
"For example, Japan and South Korea. The president promised the World Cup to Japan, the executive committee decided something else," Johansson said.
"He commands like a dictator," Johansson said of Havelange's leadership style.
In addition to Havelange, Johansson blasted Sepp Blatter, FIFA's general secretary who is also thinking of running for Havelange's job.
Johansson spoke one day before FIFA's executive committee meets Friday in Zurich to discuss Blatter's role and the upcoming presidential election.
NEXT ROUNDS: Round of 16 || Quarter-finals || Semi-finals
GROUP A: Brazil, Morocco, Norway, Scotland
GROUP B: Austria, Cameroon, Chile, Italy
GROUP C: Denmark, France, Saudi Arabia, South Africa
GROUP D: Bulgaria, Nigeria, Paraguay, Spain
GROUP E: Belgium, Holland, Mexico, South Korea
GROUP F: Germany, Iran, United States, Yugoslavia
GROUP G: Colombia, England, Romania, Tunisia
GROUP H: Argentina, Croatia, Jamaica, Japan