Scandal-tainted Sepp Blatter has blamed Michel Platini, England and the United States for igniting and escalating the corruption crisis that has engulfed football’s world governing body.
“At the start it was only a personal attack, it was Platini against me, then it was no longer only Platini against me,” the suspended head of football’s world governing body told Russian news agency Tass on Wednesday.
“It was also those who had lost (hosting) the World Cups.
“England against Russia (the 2018 hosts), and the United States who lost the (2022) World Cup to Qatar,” the 78-year-old Swiss claimed.
He said he as boss of FIFA and the World Cup had become pawns in a political game.
“The football World Cup and the president of FIFA were only a ball in the middle of a game between super powers.”
For Blatter, Platini, the suspended head of European football and one of seven candidates for the February 26 election to succeed him, was the root cause of the scandal.
“Platini wanted to be FIFA president, but he didn’t have the courage to put himself forward (in the May 29 election in which Blatter saw off Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein for his fifth term of office).
“And now look where we are! And the victim of all this at the end of the day is Platini himself!”
Both Blatter and Platini are serving suspensions from all football-related matters over a $2million (1.8 million euro) payment the UEFA boss received from Blatter on behalf of FIFA in 2011 for consultancy work carried out years before.
Blatter is facing criminal proceedings over the payment and the sale of cut-price television rights.
The ban means Platini, one-time favourite to succeed Blatter, can take no part in the election campaign until the suspension is lifted and he is cleared of any potential wrongdoing.
FIFA announced Wednesday that Platini was one of seven official candidates to succeed Blatter.
The others are Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, Musa Bility, Jerome Champagne, Gianni Infantino, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa and Tokyo Sexwale.
TheVolley
Guest
Why just the Qatar bid? Shouldn't Russia's get knocked too?
Anthony Ferguson
Guest
Blatter's FIFA have had it in for England ever since Britsh journos started lifting the lid on FIFA corruption. There was never any chance of England getting a sniff. Hopefully Qatar and its stupid December World Cup will still get knocked on the head. Oz would put on a great World Cup, but the Yanks would probably do even better.
Anthony Ferguson
Guest
Only a true psychopath would dare try and play the victim from a position of absolute power. Nice try leaky Blatter. Off you trot son. The only trouble is when it comes to massive amounts of money disappearing into pockets, who can you trust? Big money attracts criminals. Power corrupts.
Kaks
Roar Guru
If true (which it probably is), all nations that bid for the world cup should sue FIFA to get the money invested back.
Bondy
Guest
So what's the solution then football fans in Australia banking on a Aussie Rules team in Auckland ? ...
Mister Football
Roar Guru
How could anyone with any connection with FIFA believe that it was a legitimate, open contest? Even back then it was widely known that certain powerful individuals were rotten to the core. As soon as you see Qatar get past first base, you'd have to start suspecting that it was awfully fishy. Even the fact that they ran bids for two World cups at the one time should have raised suspicions on all fronts. The Australian bid team knew all of the above, but it's relevant, the spending of $50 million in taxpayer money had nothing to do with actually trying to win an unwinnable world cup bid.
Towser
Guest
If Sepp was a character in an old Norse saga he would have been known as Sepp the Deflector.
Perry Bridge
Guest
Yeah - gotta wonder about the 'bidding intelligence' applied. However - the Poms are complaining that they invested x amount in what was already a lost cause under the impression it was a contest. So - if the Brits are none the wiser then the Aussies (FFA) can't be expected to be any better off. Certainly the supposedly rigid and strict bidding criteria before hand that the FFA supporters where stating - and the AFL, NRL and ARU in particular were threatened with - well - those criteria went out the door with Qatar. FIFA can't be taken seriously anymore. Just what are the bid criteria moving forward? What can and can't be negotiated or simply avoided?
TheVolley
Guest
The whole bdding process was just a stupid PR exercise that cost nations money. This admission should now give us the justification for a refund.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
It's not mentioned in this article but it is being reported this morning on the ABC that Blatter has admitted that Russia had been chosen as the host for 2018 even before the whole bidding process had commenced. The US had been chosen for 2022, but Platini was able to drum up support for Qatar and have them selected. The story gels in that if you can remember the bidding rules at the start of the process, you were meant to offer 12 stadiums across a minimum of 8 or 10 cities (I can't remember the exact number), and here was Qatar in the middle of the bid process with barely one city to its name, never mind every other imaginable hindrance. People might also recall that the US bid featured 30+ modern stadiums ready to go, no other bid came close. At least we can take heart in the fact that the fix was in from the outset and that we didn't lose the bid entirely because of an incredibly embarrassing video. I have suspected for a while that this would have been widely known amongst the protaganists, and that the squandering of $50 mill in taxpayer funds never had the intention of trying to win the world cup bid (since it was unwinnable).
Mike from Tari
Guest
I wouldn't trust any of them.