Jerome Valcke is likely to be the busiest man in world football in 2013.

He was Sepp Blatter’s surprise appointment as general secretary in June 2007. Just seven months earlier he resigned from his previous role as Fifa’s marketing director after being damned by a New York court for ‘lying repeatedly’ over a contentious sponsorship deal.

Surviving such a scandal was a good apprenticeship for his role as Fifa’s effective CEO. As 2013 beckons, not only does Valcke have Brazil to worry about, but will also keep in view the controversy-ridden tournaments that lie ahead in Russia and Qatar.

On top of all this he has to maintain the daily running of Fifa as its effective CEO too. Some say that Valcke will succeed Blatter as Fifa president and with an election only two years in the future, the first politicking for that prize will already be underway.