Hopping between Durban, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and Johannesburg this week, Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed bin Hammam has been only too happy to talk about the encouraging Asian performances at the World Cup. But one thing off-limits is discussion about his possible interest in Fifa's top job.
Next year, Sepp Blatter's 12-year reign as president of soccer's governing body will come under scrutiny in elections at the 2011 Fifa Congress. And while Hammam has previously hinted at his interest in taking over the position, he's now gone mysteriously quiet about his intentions.
'No comment,' was the response when the 61-year-old Qatari was asked if he planned to run against 74-year-old Blatter, who announced his intention to continue for a fourth term last October because he hadn't finished his 'vision'.
In February, Hammam expressed his view that two terms should be set as the limit for any Fifa president because after eight years 'he's looking after everything else other than football'.
After once vowing never to go for the presidency while the Swiss official was in office, his attitude noticeably changed in the wake of elections at the 2009 AFC Congress in Kuala Lumpur, where Hammam only narrowly held onto his Fifa seat after Blatter and Uefa president Michael Platini reportedly conspired against him, supporting Bahraini rival Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa. Hammam would later lament that his best friends had let him down, an apparent reference to Blatter.
The once-warm friendship further deteriorated at last December's Fifa executive committee meeting in South Africa, where the pair clashed over the decision to cover huge losses from the Under-17 World Cup with a US$30 million grant to the cash-strapped Nigerian Football Association.
But the upcoming decision on which nation will host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups is seen as a stepping stone to a thawing of relations - and a possible behind-the-scenes truce.