Advertisement

Sepp Blatter condemns "hate" campaign by European football officials

Newly re-elected FIFA chief Sepp Blatter has condemned a "hate" campaign by European football off...
Newstalk
Newstalk

07.19 30 May 2015


Share this article


Sepp Blatter condemns &#34...

Sepp Blatter condemns "hate" campaign by European football officials

Newstalk
Newstalk

07.19 30 May 2015


Share this article


Newly re-elected FIFA chief Sepp Blatter has condemned a "hate" campaign by European football officials as he hit out at a US corruption investigation.

He described the ongoing scandal as a 'storm' but says it is not a 'hurricane'.

Mr Blatter reminded the public that he has the backing of 132 footballing confederations - who re-elected him FIFA president for a fifth time last night.

Advertisement

And he promised he would "steady the ship" and recover FIFA's reputation.

Mr Blatter comfortably won his fifth term as president on Friday, two days after seven leading FIFA officials were arrested on bribery charges in a dawn raid in Zurich under a US warrant.

As he addressed FIFA's executive committee on Saturday morning, Mr Blatter again insisted he is the man to lead world football's governing body through the crisis and denied any personal involvement in the alleged acts of bribery.

Before the address, Mr Blatter criticised European football's governing body UEFA and its head, Michel Platini, who has called for him to stand down over the scandal.

"It is a hate that comes not just from a person at UEFA, it comes from the UEFA organisation that cannot understand that in 1998 I became president," Mr Blatter told Swiss broadcaster RTS.

Asked whether he would forgive Mr Platini for the resignation calls, Mr Blatter said: "I forgive everyone but I do not forget."
Mr Platini has raised the possibility - albeit slim - of Europe boycotting the World Cup.

Asked about that, Mr Blatter said: "We cannot live without UEFA and UEFA cannot live without us."

Mr Blatter also said he suspected the arrests this week were an attempt to "interfere with the congress" at which he was re-elected.

"No-one is going to tell me that it was a simple coincidence this American attack two days before the elections of FIFA," he said.

The 79-year-old added: "There is something that smells."

He said: "If they have a financial crime that regards American citizens then they must arrest these people there and not in Zurich when we have a congress."

He also noted that the US was the "number one sponsor" of Jordan, where his challenger for the FIFA presidency Prince Ali bin al Hussein comes from.

'Terribly damaging events'

Meanwhile, Football Association vice-chairman David Gill confirmed he will not take up his post on FIFA's elite executive board, refusing to serve under Mr Blatter.

"This action is not something I take lightly but the terribly damaging events of the last three days have convinced me it is not appropriate to be a member of the FIFA executive committee under the current leadership," Mr Gill said.

The US Department of Justice has so far charged a total of 14 people over alleged bribes totalling more than $150m in the scandal.

They include the seven current FIFA officials arrested this week, as well as two former officials and five business executives.

A top American investigator earlier said he was "fairly confident" there would be more arrests in the scandal.

Richard Weber, the head of the Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigations unit, told the New York Times: "We strongly believe there are other people and entities involved in criminal acts."

Mr Weber also dismissed the idea the US government was on a mission to topple the leadership of FIFA.

"I don't think there was ever a decision or a declaration that we would go after soccer. We were going after corruption," he said.

An IRS spokesman confirmed Mr Weber made the remarks and said the case is "open and ongoing".

Originally posted at 7.16am


Share this article


Read more about

Sport

Most Popular