FIFA Congress in Budapest

Soccer’s world governing body FIFA began its 62nd world congress in Budapest late Thursday afternoon. Issues on the Friday agenda of the Congress, FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, includes the possible reform of the organization.

The Congress kicked off with an opening ceremony, a festival of music and color. In particular, the traditional parade of the flags representing the organization’s 208 member associations will struck a unique note this year, as the FIFA anthem was played by local virtuoso Félix Lajkó and his band, with world-renowned pianist Balázs Havasi, rock singer Endi and opera singer Erika Miklósa also performing during the ceremony.

In his speech at the ceremony, FIFA President Joseph Baltter said "it's a pleasure to be here in majestic Budapest for the 62nd FIFA Congress. We have to go forward, you member associations asked us to do something at the last Congress. So we started some reforms and we will see what the first results are tomorrow.”

Hungarian Football Federation President Sándor Csányi told fifa.com that “the last FIFA Congress we hosted was in 1930, when FIFA had just 27 member nations. There are now 208 member associations in total, so as you can imagine it’s not the same format at all. Even the United Nations has fewer members, but we’re absolutely delighted that all the leaders of world football will be gathering here in Budapest. We want to show them our town, which it’s true we’re very proud of. We hope they’ll come back often!”