FIFA will "disappear into a black hole" if rival wins warns Blatter

By Andrew Warshaw

May 14 – Sepp Blatter has launched his most passionate defence yet of why he should retain the FIFA Presidency by declaring the organisation’s very survival is at stake and risks “disappearing into a black hole”.

Blatter has fast-tracked an investigation into fresh allegations of corruption against six senior FIFA officials.

But in a column circulated to newspapers across Europe, he warned that defeat against his presidential challenger, Mohamed Bin Hammam, on June 1 would mean the end of FIFA as the world knows it.

Blatter, currently on a visit to the Middle East region including Israel and Palestine, described the vote as “all or nothing” for FIFA.

“This is about the survival of FIFA as such, whether the world organization of football which has grown successfully continues to exist or disappears into a black hole,” he wrote.

Bin Hammam recently accused Blatter of allowing FIFA’s image to be “sullied beyond repair”.

But as the war of words escalated, Blatter retorted: “Football works because it is based on one rule of play that is shared and valid on every continent.

“If it was not this way, everyone would do what they liked.

“To put it another way: who would decide which rules to impose if the decision-making powers were delegated to the six confederations?

“The principle that every carpenter goes by is valid for us too: the roof will do its job only as long as the foundations are doing theirs.

“If the ground slides, the whole building will fall down.

“And this is what 11 June is about: all or nothing.”

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