Sepp Blatter attacks critics as he vows to pull Fifa through corruption crisis
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Version 0 of 1. Fifa’s re-elected president, Sepp Blatter, has continued to attack his opponents, insisting he is still the right man to lead world football’s governing body through the corruption crisis engulfing it. The 79-year-old, who won a fifth term on Friday, slammed his critics for conducting a “hate” campaign to get him to step down. The English Football Association and the UK prime minister, David Cameron, have backed the calls for him to quit. He claimed the bid to unseat him was down to “English media and the American movement” because of their failed World Cup bids. Earlier, Blatter hit out at the Uefa president, Michel Platini, who had called for his resignation. “It is a hate that comes not just from a person at Uefa,” he said, “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.” Related: From the mire of corruption, a Fifa leader emerges, it’s … Blatter On Saturday, Blatter also played down the US corruption investigation of Fifa, which has seen nine officials and five sports media promotions executives charged over alleged bribes totalling $150m (£98m) over 24 years. Blatter told a press conference in Zurich on Saturday: “It’s no longer a storm, it’s less strong at the moment.” The Fifa president, who denies any knowledge of an alleged $10m bribe to Jack Warner, the former Concacaf president who was once one of Blatter’s closest allies, also insisted he had no fears of being arrested himself: “I have no concerns. I especially have no concerns about my person.” But Blatter, who also faced pressure from sponsors in the wake of the arrests on Wednesday in Zurich, questioned the timing of the investigation. In an interview with Swiss television, Blatter said he suspected the arrests were an attempt to “interfere with the congress” on Friday at which he retained his post. He told RTS: “No one is going to tell me that it was a simple coincidence, this American attack two days before the elections of Fifa. It doesn’t smell good.” He also said he was “shocked” at the way US authorities targeted football’s world body. Condemning comments made by US officials, including the attorney general, Loretta Lynch, who said corruption in football was “rampant, systemic and deep-rooted, both abroad and here in the United States”, he said: “Of course I am shocked. I would never as Fifa president make comments about another organisation without being certain of what has happened.” He also told the broadcaster: “Why would I step down? That would mean I recognise that I did wrong. I fought for the last three or four years against all the corruption.” Blatter, who beat his presidential rival Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan with a two-thirds majority, promised to continue with his work and to “struggle and fight for good things”. Fifa now had to rebuild its reputation and he could not do that alone, he said. The chairman of England’s Football Association, Greg Dyke, who had earlier backed the idea of a co-ordinated European boycott of the World Cup, said: “This is not over by any means. To quote the attorney general: ‘This is the beginning of the process, not the end.’ “The idea Blatter could reform Fifa is suspect. I’d be very surprised if he was still in this job in two years’ time.” The sports minister, Tracey Crouch, echoed the possibility of considering a boycott of the World Cup, writing on the Huffington Post: “A Uefa withdrawal from Fifa would certainly damage the World Cup and put real pressure on Sepp Blatter’s leadership.” Blatter also questioned why Fifa should be affected by misconduct involving a marketing company. On Friday, Interpol agents also raided the offices of three Argentinian businessmen accused by the US of paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes, local media reported. Argentinian citizens Alejandro Burzaco, the president of sports media and promotions firm Torneos y Competencias, and Hugo Jinkis and his son Mariano – who own the football broadcasting rights company Full Play – are among the 14 hit with US graft charges. |