Blatter's innocent tour

Blatter (l) is confident of taking votes from Hayatou (r)

By BBC Sport Online's Mark Gleeson

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has been quick to insist his whirlwind tour through the southern African region was planned long before Cameroonian Issa Hayatou challenged him.

However, there was no doubt his visit to nine countries in five days had all the makings of a politician on the campaign trail.

  Blatter's tour

Angola

Zambia

Botswana

Lesotho

South Africa

Swaziland

Mozambique

Malawi

Blatter has been seeking to strike again at what Hayatou would regard as the heartland of his support.

It is the second trip inside a month to Africa by the sitting Fifa president, who said he was confident that he would take many African votes away from the Caf president at the Fifa elections in South Korea next month.

Formal endorsement

Certainly the murmurings from around the continent indicate that there will be no solid African support for Hayatou.

During the tour he met with leaders, ministers and soccer officials.

He took Abedi Pele along to add a little glamour, and to drive home an endorsement from one of African football's most popular sons, to add to the expression of support already received from Roger Milla.

Blatter also invited South African Football Association president Molefi Oliphant along on his private jet as it sped through the region.

The South Africans would be a big fish to catch for his campaign, and there is no doubt that there is still some bitterness that the country received no formal endorsement from Caf during their 2006 World Cup bid.