FIFA President Sepp Blatter came out fighting on Saturday as he began his fifth term in charge of soccer’s governing body, implying that the United States timed the announcement of a major corruption probe to try to scupper his re-election bid.
The 79-year-old Swiss comfortably won Friday’s vote at a FIFA congress in Zurich, having secured the support of blocks of votes from Asia and Africa, which outweighed dissenters including Europe’s powerful soccer body UEFA.
He now faces the daunting task of restoring public faith in an organisation tainted by allegations of rampant graft and deeply divided over his leadership. Swiss police arrested seven leading soccer officials, including FIFA vice-president Jeffrey Webb, in a dawn swoop on a Zurich hotel on Wednesday.
One of Blatter’s strongest critics, English Football Association Chairman Greg Dyke, predicted further scandals before the end of his new four-year term.
“I think he (Blatter) will be then forced to resign,” he told reporters.
But Blatter, who has run FIFA for nearly 20 years during which it has regularly been subject to suspicions of sleaze and corruption, went on the offensive, criticising U.S. authorities for how they had handled their investigation.
“No one is going to take it off me that it was a simple coincidence (that) this American attack (happened) two days before the elections of FIFA,” Blatter told the Swiss RTS television channel late on Friday.
“Why didn’t they (the police) do this in March when we had the same meeting? At that time, we had less journalists.”
Asked about Blatter’s remarks, a U.S. Department of Justice official said “the 47-count indictment speaks for itself, beyond which we will have no further comment at this time.” The federal indictment unsealed on Wednesday charged a total of nine soccer officials and five sports marketing executives with corruption.
The indictment, and Wednesday’s arrests, were connected to a bribery scandal being investigated by U.S., Swiss and other law enforcement agencies that has plunged FIFA into the worst crisis in its 111-year history.
The Justice Department official, who asked not to be named, noted US Attorney General Loretta Lynch was asked at a news conference this week about the timing of the arrests and said, “we basically resolve cases when the evidence comes together, when they’re ready for a resolution.”
Blatter also criticised UEFA, whose president, Michel Platini, had called for his resignation, saying it was not setting a good example to other soccer federations.
He told reporters on Saturday that UEFA had opposed a proposal to set up an independent committee to carry out integrity checks on executive committee members before they could take office.
“This was rejected by UEFA so it couldn’t go through,” he said. “Even now, the big UEFA doesn’t have an independent ethics committee, (but) they should be an example for the other confederations… It’s not acceptable.”
He did, however, call for the two groups to work together, particularly to protect the World Cup.
“They need FIFA and FIFA needs UEFA,” Blatter said.
Royal reprimand
Britain’s Prince William, who is president of the English FA, called on FIFA to reform and show “it can represent the interests of fair play” in a speech at the FA Cup final in London on Saturday.
The prince also backed the decision by former Manchester United chief executive and newly elected FIFA vice-president David Gill to quit the position almost immediately in protest at Blatter’s re-appointment.
Prince William pictured with FA chairman, Greg Dyke at the FA Cup Final on Saturday. Images: GettyImages
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