By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
May 30 – A new twist emerged today over Sepp Blatter’s FIFA presidential victory when Michel Platini’s native France admitted it went against his wish for Europe to get behind vanquished challenger Prince Ali bin al-Hussein.
The move by French FA boss Noel le Graet represents something of an embarrassment not only for Platini, arguably France’s most gifted footballing hero, but also the European cartel that sought to remove Blatter after 17 years at the helm.
“I voted for Blatter,” Le Graet was quoted as saying by the French sports daily l’Equipe. “For me, between him and Prince Ali, he was our preferred choice. Since we were awarded the 2019 women’s World Cup, we have had excellent collaboration with the FIFA administration.”
Platini, who cut an exhausted and frustrated figure in the Baur au Lac hotel a few hours after Friday’s election, always anticipated that some European countries would go against the grain but will be hugely disappointed that his own nation refused to toe the party line.
The morning after the night before his 133-73 triumph, Blatter hosted the first meeting of his new-look executive committee – minus three of its members plus one who was thrown out before he even started.
CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb was the biggest fish arrested during the dramatic raid in the early hours of Wednesday morning by Swiss police working on behalf of the United States; Brazilian FA boss Marco Polo Del Del Nero fled the country following the detention of Jose Maria Marin, his veteran predecessor; and Britain’s new FIFA vice-president David Gill carried out his threat to boycott the exco rather than serve under Blatter. Costa Rican FA president Ricardo Li, arrested along with Webb on Wednesday, was never actually installed by FIFA at its congress.
In the press conference that followed, his first since the storm that crashed down on FIFA’s ‘calm’ Zurich shores in the buildup to the election, Blatter, inevitably looking distinctly more confident than in previous days, received the anticipated bombardment about FIFA’s image and reputation, fending them all off in his trademark way.
“Despite all the troubles 133 associations have put their trust in me … to resolve the problems we face,” said Blatter. “I said at Congress I will shoulder responsibility – and I will. But I will share it with the exco.”
As expected, Blatter went on the offensive when it came the police dawn raids that resulted in seven key arrests of FIFA personnel. Blatter remains convinced that the US-orchestrated incident two days before the election was a concerted attempt to destabilise him and his organisation. He again insisted it was all a US-western media conspiracy of sour grapes at missing out on the 2018 and 2022 World Cups respectively.
“Curiously there were three American journalists on location,” said Blatter. “The fallout has not obtained hurricane strength but it is still strong. These crimes …relate to the Americas both north and south. The activities have lasted for some time and I do not see how FIFA could be directly affected. Some of the individuals were office bearers at FIFA but they could have been indicted at any other time.”
Turning to slots for future World Cups, Blatter appeared to execute a significant u-turn. Immediately prior to the congress, FIFA’s ‘old’ exco apparently agreed that neither Europe nor Asia, hosts in 2018 and 2022, would be allowed to bid for 2026. But that was reversed, with only Asia now barred from submitting a bid for a tournament that is expected to go to CONCACAF under rotation. The immediate impression was that it was a tactical strategy designed by Blatter to prevent UEFA staging a mutiny when its top brass gather next Saturday in Berlin to decide on their next move.
Blatter also made it clear that there would be no change in the number of 32 World Cup finalists for the time being. “We agreed to have the same distribution. It was accepted by everyone though some were more grumpy than others,” said Blatter without elaborating.
He might have been referring to Oceania, FIFA’s smallest federation who Blatter had promised during Congress would be given a full slot instead of the half slot they have now. Not yet clearly.
In a separate interview with Swiss television, Blatter pulled no punches in addressing the the headline-making corruption storm .
“No-one is going to tell me that it was a simple co-incidence this American attack two days before the elections of FIFA. It doesn’t smell right,” Blatter told Swiss television.
“This has touched me and FIFA. Not only did they try to denigrate me but also they used the moment to say, ‘This is the time to go’. Then it was said, ‘We are going to boycott the congress’. But where is the sportsmanship? There are signs that cannot be ignored. The Americans were the candidates for the World Cup of 2022 and they lost.”
“The English were the candidates for 2018 and they lost, so it was really the British media and the American movement. With all respect to the judicial system of the US, with a new minister of justice, the Americans, if they have a financial crime that regards American citizens, then they must arrest these people there and not in Zurich when we have a congress in Zurich. This corruption affair is between North America and South America. It was taken to Zurich and they say it is FIFA.”
“They did not want to kill me politically, they wanted to disturb the congress. The United States, it is the main sponsors of Hashemite kingdom [Jordan].”
That appeared to be a reference to US support for Prince Ali, Blatter’s only challenger on Friday, and he continued in the same vein as he denounced the criticism of FIFA and its constituent members by US attorney general Loretta Lynch when she announced the 47-count indictment.
“I was shocked by what she said. As a president, I would never make a statement about another organisation without knowing. We cannot be responsible morally about the attitudes of the members of the executive committee. They are not chosen by me, the members. The only thing we can do is have a real control of the activities.”
Explaining again why he decided not to resign, Blatter added: “Why would I step down? That would mean I recognise that I did something wrong. I fought for the last three or four years against all the corruption, against everything that is forbidden. More than half of the people who made the decisions (about the World Cup) are not here any more.”
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