Start of FIFA congress overshadowed by racism row

ZURICH, May 29 (Reuters) Scotland's John BcBeth looks unlikely to take up his post as FIFA's British representative after widespread publication of his highly critical views of Africans, the English and president Sepp Blatter.

McBeth, the successor to compatriot David Will on the FIFA executive, has been told he is not welcome at the Congress this week and his remarks will be investigated by FIFA's Ethics Committee under chairman Sebastian Coe.

A senior FIFA delegate said today: ''It is now virtually impossible for him to take his place on executive committee. He has insulted Africans, people from the Caribbean, the English and the FIFA president Sepp Blatter. I do not think that was a particularly clever thing to do in his position.'' Blatter will be voted in for a third term of office by acclamation on Thursday with no other opponent standing against him.

However it is almost certain the British associations, who under FIFA's statutes have a permanent seat on the executive committee, will have to elect a new vice-president. McBeth won his place in a poll of the four British associations earlier this year.

McBeth briefed Scottish journalists last week and his astonishingly candid comments were published on Sunday.

Scotland on Sunday quoted him as saying of Blatter: ''He's a tricky customer but I suppose anyone in that position has to be because you are dealing with people who, to put it mildly, have a totally different code of ethics.'' He also said that in his new post he would have to be kinder to the English, adding: ''The rest of the world hates their guts.'' ''By and large the four British countries know what fair play is and we know when we're stepping out of line...but as soon as you hit Africa it's a slightly different kettle of fish.

''They're poor nations and they want to grab what they can. I presume the Caribbean is much the same,'' Scotland on Sunday quoted McBeth as saying.

Blatter put the controversy to one side today when he opened FIFA's new 6 million headquarters -- a vast glass-fronted complex that would ''allow light to shine through the building and create the transparency we all stand for.'' High winds and driving rain causing the cancellation of an intended flag ceremony and forced the official plaque unveiling into the shelter of a marquee.

''The sky is touched with tears but we can live with that because football also has to live in all weather conditions and rain is a gift from heaven,'' Blatter told delegates.

During the Congress FIFA is expected to accept Montenegro as its 208th association after the country became a member of UEFA, the European soccer confederation, in January.

REUTERS SAM BD2255