ne year after the Extraordinary Congress in Los Angeles, FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter's message to the largest-ever assembled membership - only North Korea were absent and Afghanistan were back after a long period of absence - was almost totally one of good news.

The two basic ideas underlying the President's mission - "Make the game better and take it to the world" - are already beginning to have an effect. Improvements have been noted in the co-ordination of the playing calendar, the professionalisation of refereeing, and also in medical research as part of the project F-MARC, not to mention the more basic area of increased comfort in football stadiums. With the successful launch of the Club World Championship another addition has been made to FIFA's list of competitions. And also the first successes of the million-dollar project to support national associations and Goal are becoming apparent, as representatives from Liberia and Nepal were able to report to their colleagues.

The "House of FIFA" was thus able to show that its foundations provide a strong basis for the ambitions of the world's governing body. The principles of trust, democracy, solidarity, quality and universality have been the focal points of Blatter's programme during the past 12 months, and they will be linked with the dual strategies of making the game better and expanding it world-wide as corner stones of FIFA policy for the next two years.

25 years in the service of FIFA
The waves created by the selection of Germany as the host country for the World Cup 2006 have died down. The South African association decided against taking any further steps, after the FIFA Executive had come out in favour of a rotation principle for the world's biggest football competition, which was ratified by the Congress to great applause.

In addition there was more emphasis than ever before on activities not directly linked to what happens on a football pitch. This Congress was less concerned with goals and successes than with the image of football, which was given an academic aspect by the launching of the Master's Programme in the spring.

On the political side, however, the President and the General Secretary, Michel Zen-Ruffinen, had to veer away from their generally very positive reports for a short while to make a few critical comments and to bring the representatives of the national associations up to date on the situation regarding transfers. While the football authorities are finding more and more that heads of state are ready to listen with open ears, there are still some difficult negotiations to be held with the European Union, which by the end of the year should result in a set of conditions that can be applied to everyone on a world-wide basis.

The Congress in the Exhibition Hall in Zurich ended on the same note that it had started on - a festive and harmonious one. In accordance with tradition there were a number of awards of the FIFA Order of Merit to personalities from the football world for their services to the game.

The Congress came to an end with the longest-serving FIFA Vice-President Julio Grondona honouring the President with a speech celebrating Joseph S. Blatter's 25 years of service to FIFA (see box)..

Yet even a quarter of a century of working for the governing body of world football - first as Technical Director, then as Secretary and now as President - have not diminished Blatter's energy and enthusiasm for the sport. On the contrary, he is looking forward eagerly to the second half of his presidential mandate.