KUWAIT CITY, Dec 14, (Agencies): FIFA’s President Joseph S. Blatter will be visiting Kuwait Wednesday to open Al-Ha’daf (goal) project at the headquarters of Kuwait Football Association (KFA), said a statement Tuesday. KFA said in a press release that Blatter’s visit would also include a meeting with His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah before opening the project. Blatter is expected to focus on the Qatari hosting of the 2022 World Cup and how GCC states could contribute to this event, said the KFA which welcomed the upcoming visit of the FIFA President. In Berlin, Franz Beckenbauer, a member of FIFA’s executive committee, said Tuesday he has lost some confidence in football’s governing body after Russia and Qatar were awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups respectively.

At the start of this month, Russia beat England, Spain-Portugal and Netherlands-Belgium to win a ballot of FIFA’s 22-strong executive members in Zurich for the rights to host the 2018 World Cup. Qatar then saw off bids from South Korea, Japan, Australia and the United States for the 2022 tournament, but Beckenbauer says he was disturbed after details of the voting were later leaked. “I have less confidence in FIFA,” the German legend told daily Bild. “I’m disappointed how FIFA handled things after the voting.
“The seven losers were all left in disgrace. Especially England and Australia.” England won only two votes out of a possible 22, while Australia picked up just a single vote, prompting a huge media backlash by the British media over the failure of the English bid.

Beckenbauer is set to stand down from the executive committee next March, but he says FIFA’s conduct in the wake of the decisions has left a bad taste in his mouth. “The executive members were told that neither us nor the public know the exact number of votes,” he said. “We were only told after each round of voting, which countries were left. “And then I hear a couple of hours later on the radio, which countries received which share of the votes.” In Moscow, police were on high alert Tuesday as a major ultranationalist movement issued a call to arms for its followers in a potential face-off with gangs from Russia’s predominantly-Muslim Caucasus. The Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) called on Moscow women and children to stay at home and all ethnic-Russian men to arm themselves and come to the site of Wednesday’s potential mass brawl.

“Russian men should not be out on the streets without legal means of self-defence,” the DPNI statement said. The Russian Internet has been awash with rumours that a showdown between the ultranationalists and armed gangs from Russia’s North Caucasus has been set up outside the Kievsky train station for 6:00 pm (1500 GMT).

One message on the popular LiveJournal social network urged all men from Russia’s south as well the three ex-Soviet Caucasus republics to come to the train station armed. The message said women and children should stay home “for obvious reasons” and was signed by the code names for people who headed the nine Muslim “sectors” on Russia’s southern periphery. The ethnic tensions were sparked this month by a deadly attack on a Spartak Moscow supporter by a group of young men from Russia’s south. Four of the suspects were initially released in a move that outraged far-right football fan clubs. The Spartak supporter was a member of one of the largest such “firms” called The Union. These hostilities spilled over into a massive riot under the Kremlin’s wall Saturday involving some 5,000 football supporters and members of the far right.

The hours-long standoff with Moscow police included racist chants and beatings of several young men from the Caucasus who happened to be on the square at the time. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev responded to the violence Monday by vowing to crack down on all those responsible and warning that such ethnic incidents threatened the “stability of the state.” The Moscow police — who closed off Red Square and nearby areas as a precaution Monday evening — said they knew about the reports of the potential showdown and were placing additional officers on call. “The security services are perfectly well aware of the reports and looking into them,” an unnamed Moscow police source told the Interfax news agency.