You couldn’t exactly brand it a shock development.

 

As surprises go, the recent disclosure that FIFA President Joseph Blatter wants to run for re-election ranks right up there with Usain Bolt running a sub-10 second 100 metres or San Marino finishing bottom of their World Cup qualifying group.

 

Granted, if he won a fourth term, world football’s energetic boss would be within shouting distance of his 80^th birthday by the time it ended.

 

But I have always tended towards the view that, if given the choice - and assuming immortality is not an option - he would expire in harness.

 

It was the timing that got me wondering.

 

The 61^st FIFA Congress is not scheduled for another 19 or 20 months.

 

When he was last up for re-election in May 2007, he was returned with a standing ovation.

 

Why on earth declare so early?

 

Having done some research, I can see that such early notice of his plans – in this case his "hope" that "in 2011 the FIFA Congress once more has faith in me" - is not unprecedented.

 

The first reference I can find to his wishing to seek another term in 2007, “"providing I remain healthy", dates from April 2005, more than two years before the election date.

 

However, then the circumstances were rather different in that the length of his second term had been extended from four to five years and he had initially said, in 2002, that he would stand down at the end of that second term.

 

You can understand why he might have felt that a clear and early statement of his intentions was expedient.

 

This time, the Presidential term has reverted to the normal four years and Blatter had no need, so far as I am aware, to row back from any previously stated intention.

 

So what else might have prompted him to make plain his desire to go on?

 

A simple wish to keep us all informed?

 

Or could it be he feels that his position in the post he has held for more than a decade since 1998 is in some way under threat?

 

I have taken soundings and detected whispers that some sort of challenge could indeed be in the offing.

 

At different times, I have heard various names cited as possible successors to the man from Visp, "near the famous Matterhorn".

 

One is Michel Platini, among the most gifted footballers of recent times, who is now President of UEFA, the European football confederation.

 

Another is Jérôme Valcke, FIFA’s Secretary General.

 

I think the circumstances would have to be quite far-fetched, though, for either of these Frenchmen to run against Blatter.

 

A third name who might, I suspect, have fewer scruples about taking the incumbent on is Mohamed Bin Hammam, the 60-year-old Qatari who is President of the Asian Football Confederation.

 

But in May Bin Hammam only narrowly retained his seat on FIFA's ruling Executive Committee, defeating Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa by 23 votes to 21.

 

It seems to me he would need a great deal of help from other power brokers if any challenge to Blatter is to stand the slightest prospect of success.

 

Might Issa Hayatou, the 63-year-old President of the African Football Confederation (CAF), who ran against Blatter in 2002, going down by 139 votes to 56, be tempted to add his support?

 

We shall have to wait and see; Bin Hammam would probably need him.

 

I have also heard musings to the effect that a candidate from outside the present FIFA Executive Committee could conceivably emerge.

 

This too must be seen as a long shot, although it is not impossible, I suppose, that a Latin American media mogul or somesuch with the means and desire to mount a campaign might come out of left field.

 

At any rate, the source of the musings commands enough respect for the notion not to be automatically rejected.

 

All of this might be of limited interest to those not directly involved were it not for the highly competitive race for the right to stage the 2018 and 2022 World Cups that is currently picking up speed and which will culminate in December 2010, around six months before the 2011 FIFA Congress.

 

Clearly, bargains struck and alliances forged in the context of any tilt at the FIFA Presidency could have ramifications for these high-stakes, high-profile bids.

 

I may be making too much out of this.

 

It could still very well be that Blatter, far from going back to his village, strolls on into a fourth term with as little fuss as he strolled into his third.

 

But as someone who has watched this strange organisation throughout Blatter's decade in the top seat, I would advise bid strategists to make sure their political antennae are in sound working order in the weeks and months ahead.

 

I’ll certainly be keeping my ear to the ground.