ZURICH, Switzerland — Pele will be Franz Beckenbauer’s deputy on a FIFA-appointed team that will recommend ways to improve football before the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
FIFA on Thursday announced the composition of the 22-member Task Force Football 2014, which also includes World Cup winners Bobby Charlton, Cafu and Christian Karembeu. The task force is a pet project of FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who said last year it would help create “a more attractive” World Cup than was seen in South Africa.
“This vastly experienced team will address every facet of the game, tackling any challenges related to the game and coming up with appropriate solutions,” Blatter said Thursday.
The lineup of former players includes former AC Milan teammates Demetrio Albertini and Dejan Savicevic, Fernando Hierro and Zambia’s Kalusha Bwalya.
FIFA also appointed officials from three countries who lost in bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups: United States federation president Sunil Gulati, and chief executives Alex Horne from England and Japan’s Kohzo Tashima.
Beckenbauer, who retires as a member of FIFA’s executive committee in June, said his team will examine goal-line technology and using additional assistant referees at each end of the field. Referees are represented by Swiss World Cup official Massimo Busacca, the retired Peter Mikkelsen of Denmark and Paraguay’s Carlos Alarcon, a member of FIFA’s referees committee.
Women’s football representatives include former Canada forward Charmaine Hooper and Italian journalist Marina Sbardella. FIFA’s chief medical officer Jiro Dvorak and Theo van Seggelen, general secretary of the FIFPro global group of players’ unions, are also included.
The panel will first meet May 10 in Zurich, and deliver a report to the congress of FIFA’s 208 members on June 1.
White Caps schedule Man City
VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Whitecaps will play an exhibition game against Premier League club Manchester City in July.
The international friendly will be held July 2 at Empire Field, Whitecaps CEO Paul Barber announced Thursday.
The Whitecaps usually play on field turf, but Barber said a temporary grass pitch will be installed.