LENNART Johansson has accused FIFA president Joao Havelange of behaving like a dictator in promising the 2006 World Cup finals to Africa.
Johansson, UEFA president and a FIFA vice-president, said: ``It is dictatorial. It is not for the president to travel around the world deciding where the World Cup should be held.''
The Swede's statement heated up what is shaping up as a bitter battle for the presidency of football's world governing body in 1998.
The finals have alternated between Europe and the Americas until now, but Havelange told a Brazilian newspaper that he would tell South African President Nelson Mandela next week that the 2006 World Cup finals would go to Africa.
But Johansson, a candidate for the FIFA presidency at the next elections in two years, said the last word had not yet been spoken on the issue.
``This does not mean that I am against Africa,'' said Johansson. ``I am against one man making statements that seem binding to the rest of us. It is hard to be loyal to the president in a case like this.''
The Swede said he and Havelange would come face to face in South Africa next week - ahead of the African Nations' Cup. ``We will confront it there and I will take it up with him,'' he said.
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