Blatter: Bayern boss Hoeness to blame for failed 2018 Olympics bid

Jan 23, 2012, 15:27 GMT

Berlin - Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness is partly to blame for Munich's failed bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, world football supremo Joseph Blatter alleged in an interview published on Monday.

Blatter, 75, told German sports magazine Kicker that critical remarks from Hoeness and others ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa had angered African sports officials and the issue was not forgotten when the host city was picked by the International Olympic Committee last year.

South Korea's Pyeongchang won the IOC ballot in Durban, South Africa, with 63 votes. Munich had 25 votes and Annecy of France seven.

'Uli Hoeness and company made hardly bearable derisive remarks ahead of the 2010 World Cup,' said Blatter.

'Issa Hayatou, president of the African football confederation, told Franz Beckenbauer ahead of the (IOC) vote in Durban: 'You can not count on an African vote for the Olympics in Munich. We have not forgotten how you tried to ruin the African World Cup.'

That's what happened. You don't get Olympic Games without the 12 African votes.'

Blatter also said he told Munich mayor Christian Ude that you don't win Olympics without African votes, citing the example of Paris which lost against London in the 2012 bid.

Hoeness criticised the choice of South Africa ahead of the tournament which was then deemed a success, naming it one of the worst mistakes Blatter made. Blatter was a driving force to get the World Cup to the African continent.

Hoeness and Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the latter also head of the European Club Association, have also been long-standing critics of Blatter over various issues from the football calendar to corruption allegations plaguing FIFA.

Blatter has presided over FIFA since 1998 and was relected for what he says is a final four-year term in 2011.

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