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THE re-elected Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, has said he was “shocked” at the way US authorities targeted football’s world body and slammed what he called a “hate” campaign by Europe’s football leaders.
In an interview with Swiss television, Blatter said he suspected the arrest of seven Fifa officials on Wednesday under a US anti-corruption warrant was an attempt to “interfere with the congress” on Friday at which he retained his post.
Commenting on the fact that the arrests came only two days before his election, he told RTS: “I am not certain but it doesn’t smell good.”
Blatter’s attack on corruption investigators came as authorities in the US warned of further charges in the Fifa bribery investigation and investigators in Argentina raided the offices of sports media companies.
The Fifa president condemned comments made by US officials including attorney-general Loretta Lynch, who said corruption in football was “rampant, systemic and deep-rooted, both abroad and here in the United States”.
Blatter said of the remarks: “Of course I am shocked.
I would never as Fifa president make comments about another organisation without being certain of what has happened.”
Richard Weber – the chief of the US Internal Revenue Service unit in charge of criminal investigations and the man who accused Fifa officials of running a “world cup of fraud” when the arrests were announced – said late on Friday that he was “fairly confident” of another round of indictments in the criminal investigation. In Britain the Serious Fraud Office has said it is “actively assessing material in its possession regarding the Fifa allegations.
“We strongly believe there are other people and entities involved in criminal acts,” Weber was quoted as saying in the New York Times, which added that Weber would not identify the remaining targets of the US investigation or say whether Blatter was among them.
Blatter, in the Swiss interview, noted that the United States had lost the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, and England, another major critic, lost the 2018 World Cup to Russia.
He said the United States was the “number one sponsor” of Jordan, home of his unsuccessful challenger for the Fifa presidency, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein.
Blatter also hit out at Uefa president Michel Platini, who had called for his resignation over the corruption scandals. “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.”
Asked whether he would forgive Platini for the resignation calls, Blatter said: “I forgive everyone but I do not forget.” – Guardian (UK)
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