Sebastian Coe had a flirtation with FIFA eight years ago when he was drafted in to chair their Ethics Commission. Some will wish that brief encounter had blossomed into a full-blown romance and that he would now be in a position to depose Sepp Blatter as the deeply troubled world football body's overlord.

FIFA desperately needs a Coe-like figure to purify the turbulent murky waters now engulfing the once Beautiful Game.

Coe himself is ideally equipped for the task: respected worldwide as a sporting icon, consummate politician and diplomat, supreme organiser, genuine football lover and, above all, incorruptible.

Unfortunately, despite being informally "tapped up" by several prominent figures in the international game, he has decided he has other sporting fish to fry, principally his  desire to head the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) which, ultimately, might lead to a future Presidency of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Sebastian Coe might have been a contender to replace Sepp Blatter as FIFA President if things had worked out differently ©Getty Images

And now there is another complication for the sports world's most head-hunted statesman.

Having resisted pressure from the Tory high command to run for London Mayor in 2016 when the present incumbent Boris-bikes it to Westminster, Lord Coe finds himself strongly touted as the next chair of the BBC Trust.

It is reported that the Rt Hon Lord Coe, CH, KBE,  double Olympic 1,500 metres champion, former czar of London's 2012 Organising Committee and current chair of the British Olympic Association, has been approached by the Government about the role.

This he denies, but insiders say he is in pole position and has only to give the nod.

All very flattering, says Coe, who shrugs it off by saying: "Every job that comes up, whether it is Mayor of London, FIFA, the IOC and now the BBC, I seem to be slated for it."

Indeed he does. While refuting suggestions that he has been officially  approached Coe does admit that he has "some thinking to do".

But he admitted in a BBC radio interview: "It is a very meaty job and I'm passionate about public service broadcasting. I was brought up to it. I've been the subject of it in my athletics career, the BBC were our partners during the bid and then the delivery of the Games "

So shall we take that as a yes then? Actually, no, I don't think so. For becoming the Beeb boss inevitably would mean that Coe must be lost to sport, which he surely would hate.

It is technically a three-days-a-week job, but Coe is already committed to two days a week with the BOA and he has considerable business  commitments, which he would have to forgo, as chair of the sports marketing arm of global conglomerate Chime Communications.

And it would almost certainly mean him having to abandon any challenge for the IAAF Presidency next year.

Sebastian Coe gave up his role with FIFA when he became involved with England's ill-fated bid to host the 2018 World Cup ©Getty Images

All of which must make the apparently immovable Herr Blatter sigh with relief. For in different circumstances the globally popular Coe  would be his worst nightmare as a credible contender for the FIFA Presidency.

Ironically it was Blatter who appointed him as the first chairman of FIFA's independent watchdog in 2006, declaring: "We have found an outstanding personality in the world of sport, a great personality in the Olympic Movement."

But Coe later had to step down from this post when he joined England's failed bid to stage the 2018 World Cup, won by Russia.

So it  looks as if we are stuck with Blatter for a few more years yet, a situation which ought to cause some dismay within the IOC.

Corruption allegations surrounding Qatar's successful bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup have got alarming bells ringing at the IOC ©Getty Images

They are said to be viewing the crisis over Qatar with "serious concern" as Blatter is also a leading figure in the Olympic Movement.

Petrified at the prospect of being drawn into the current FIFA imbroglio after their own Games-changing votes-for-bungs corruption scandal over Salt Lake City in 2002, the Lausanne lakesiders are keeping an anxious eye on the machinations surrounding the wily FIFA President.

They must be embarrassed over his allegations that racism is behind criticism of the decision award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, especially as Blatter has an Olympic ally in this issue in Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad, influential President of the Association  of National Olympic Committees (ANOC).

He, too, claims "racism" is behind the latest claims made in London's Sunday Times that the Qatari Mohamed Bin Hammam, the former FIFA vice-president, already banned for life after an earlier corruption scandal, dished out some £3 million in bribes to get  his nation the 2022 tournament.

As insidethegames has reported, some of those alleged to have trousered "bungs" have strong links with the Olympic Movement, notably Issa Hayatou, the Cameroonian who is both a FIFA vice-president and IOC member, and former Burundi Football Federation President Lydia Nsekera, who is alleged to have been one of the 25 African football officials to have received gifts worth $5,000 at a special meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

Former Burundi Football Federation President Lydia Nsekera, like Sepp Blatter an IOC member, is among those implicated in the Qatar 2022 corruption scandal ©Getty Images

Interestingly Blatter, who says he intends  to stand for re-election next year, when he will, be 79, is also behind a move to scrap the age limit of 80 for IOC membership, calling the current ruling - introduced after Salt Lake - "an act of discrimination."

Changes implemented in the wake of the Salt Lake City' bribery scandal, when ten members were either expelled or resigned and ten others reprimanded or sanctioned,  mandated that IOC members must resign at 70 if they joined from 1999 onwards.

Members who joined before 1999 have an age limit of 80. Blatter became ex-officio IOC member in 1999, before the new rules came into force that year, following his election to the FIFA Presidency the previous year. As things stand he must step down in two years, though a further decision on age limitation is to be taken in December.

Blatter and I go back a long way - to the early eighties in fact. I first  encountered him in a Singapore hotel room when he was "leg-man" to President Joao Havelange as FIFA's general secretary.

Actually the Swiss septuagenarian has always been a bit of a leg-man - famously a past President of the Society for the Preservation of the  Suspender!.

During my interview with Havelange - who later to resigned from the IOC shortly before he was due to face an Ethics Committee over accusations of receiving a $1 million in "commission" for broadcasting rights - we were constantly interrupted by waiters and couriers bearing gifts from local manufacturers, sponsors and businesses; boxes of shirts, crates of drinks, hi-fi equipment and toiletries were stacked high against the walls, from floor to ceiling.

"I think we'll need to hire another plane to get all these home, Mr President," Blatter smirked knowingly at Havelange.

We met again in 1998, this time in his opulent Zurich emporium soon after he became FIFA President.

I had accompanied the then Sports Minister Tony Banks who was there to discuss the potential England World Cup bid. For an hour or so Blatter provided a master-class in glib evasion and self-aggrandisement. "Slippery sod, ain't he." sniffed Banks, never one to mince words, as we left.

Plus ca change.

A shame we can't have surefooted Seb rather than slippery Sepp in charge of world football.

Alan  Hubbard is an award-winning  sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.