By Andrew Warshaw
June 1 – Swiss officials have not ruled out questioning FIFA president Sepp Blatter as part of their inquiry into possible breaking of Swiss laws leading up to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup ballot five years ago.
Last week, in one of the two stunning corruption cases to rock FIFA on the eve of the presidential election, the Swiss prosecutors’ office said it had seized “electronic data and documents” at FIFA’s headquarters and were to question 10 FIFA executive committee members who took part in the World Cup ballot in December 2010.
The investigation was sparked by FIFA’s referral of its former chief investigator Michael Garcia’s report into the 2018 and 2018 World Cup bids last November. In March the Swiss authorities informed FIFA it was going to investigate, and last week swooped without warning on FIFA’s office, three hours after the arrests of seven FIFA officials at their hotels.
The ten to be interviewed would have been Michel D’Hooghe (Belgium), Jacques Anouma (Ivory Coast), Mario Lefkaritis (Cyprus), FIFA vice-president Angel Maria Villar-Llona (Spain), Senes Erzik (Turkey), Worawi Makudi (Thailand), African football chief Issa Hayatou (Cameroon), Hany Abo Rida (Egypt), Vitaly Mutko (Russia) and Rafael Salguero (Guatemala). Five of them – Anouma, Erzik, Makudi, Abo Rida and Salguero – stepped down on Friday when their terms ended.
UEFA president Michel Platini may also be interviewed but because he and Blatter are resident in Switzerland, they have not been made a priority at this stage.
The questioning was carried out while all 10 were in Zurich, a deliberate move to prioritise those officials living outside the country and so, for practical reasons, to approach them while they were all in one place attending the FIFA congress.
Swiss public prosecutor spokesman Andre Marty said that although Blatter was not involved, that could change as the probe progresses.
In a statement Marty said: “The OAG (Office of the Attorney General) is questioning those FIFA Executive Committee members who are not Swiss residents who voted back in 2010 (when the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were awarded to Russia and Qatar) and are still in office.”
“The president of FIFA will not be questioned at this point of time. If need be he will be questioned in the future.”
Meanwhile, Blatter’s daughter Corinne says her father is the victim of a conspiracy from “behind the scenes” amid the corruption crisis gripping world football.
Speaking for the first time since her father was elected for a fifth time, she echoed his view that the investigations and arrests into alleged corruption were all part of a conspiracy.
She told the BBC: “I wouldn’t say from the Americans and the British, but certainly people working behind the scenes, yes absolutely. I don’t know if you want to call them dark forces but I mean they really tried hard, they tried in September, October last year.
“All these things happened just to discredit him so that he would resign. But I can tell you in about two or three weeks no one will talk about it anymore.”
Asked whether her father was beyond fault, Ms Blatter said: “Nobody is without fault but all the things he has done so far, he’s not the person who is taking money. All the money he earned he earned it by working and he is a hard working president. All these people who say that he takes money I don’t know what kind of money he should take and he’s not the kind, his character is not like that, he’s not taking any money.”
Asked whether Blatter would cooperate with the investigating authorities if asked to, she would only say: “You will have to ask him that.”
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