By Andrew Warshaw
April 24 – Sepp Blatter’s colourful and controversial career may be over as a result of his six-year ethics ban but despite speculation to the contrary, the 81-year-old insists he will not end up facing prosecution at the hands of either US or Swiss justice authorities.
The former FIFA president admits he has met with US Department of Justice investigators but says he is not a suspect in the biggest bribery and corruption case ever to hit world football’s governing body.
Blatter has rarely been out of Switzerland since the start of the US anti-corruption probe amid speculation that he feared arrest. But he remains utterly confident of his innocence saying his most recent contact “with lawyers from the United States Justice Department” was last October and November in Switzerland.
“I have had very little contact from my American lawyers because I was never a person of interest under scrutiny by the American justice,” said Blatter who met with selected reporters last Friday.
“I have been investigated in two or three matters … but there is no wrongdoing.”
Reacting to claims that his leadership regime was to blame for much of FIFA’s $369 million loss in 2016, Blatter rejects the notion that his FIFA presidency will always be defined by the US and Swiss federal corruption probes that brought FIFA to its knees and led to a raft of high-profile prosecutions.
Whilst he has not been named as a suspect in the US, Swiss federal prosecutors opened criminal proceedings against him in September 2015 for suspected mismanagement related to the infamous $2 million “disloyal payment” he authorised four years earlier to then-UEFA President Michel Platini and also related to a TV rights deal.
The so-called gentleman’s agreement between the pair led to both being banned but Blatter is confident the Swiss case will come up with little or no evidence against him.
“I have never heard anything, my lawyer has heard nothing about that. That does not surprise me, because there was no reasons to open a case against me.
“I have been interviewed concerning the activities of FIFA and I will be interviewed in the future. I cannot go into details. But I am only a person for information.”
“Here in the city of Zurich and Switzerland in general, I am not only accepted but they like me. I don’t have the impression that I am a rejected man. Why should I be rejected? I have done a good (job at) FIFA.
“I feel that wherever I go the people and young people recognise me and want to take a picture and say hello. There are still fans who write to me.”
Blatter also believes it is possible for his former ally Michel Platini to make a comeback though he refused to get involved in a war or words after the Frenchman attacked him in a recent interview.
Intriguingly Blatter said that Platini, whose ban was reduced to four years but who has already been to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, may still be able to clear his name as a result of “new elements” in the case that triggered both men’s ban from the game.
“I think he should be back and I think it is not all over.”
The pair are united in claiming their transaction was a legitimate deal for consulting work Platini did for FIFA between 1998 and 2002. But apart from that they have hardly been bosom buddies. In an interview with French newspaper Le Monde last month, Platini called Blatter “the biggest egoist I’ve ever seen in my life.
Responding to that, Blatter was somewhat less belligerent. “If he sees me as an egoist, I accept … but I helped him become president of UEFA in 2007 and we had good relations, so I don’t understand his attitude. Saying I wanted to harm him doesn’t hold up.”
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1714435357labto1714435357ofdlr1714435357owedi1714435357sni@w1714435357ahsra1714435357w.wer1714435357dna1714435357