September 30 – FIFA’s Russian powerbroker Vitaly Mutko has been forced to backtrack after an apparent gaffe about being afraid of becoming the latest high-profile football figure to be arrested.
The head of Russia’s 2018 World Cup organising committee gave the impression he was worried about being detained on corruption charges when he told journalists he was “afraid of travelling to Switzerland now”.
FIFA have switched their December executive committee meeting from Tokyo to their Zurich headquarters but Mutko, Russia’s sports minister and football federation boss, says his words were misconstrued. “My tone was misinterpreted. Speaking about being afraid to go to Switzerland, I was joking,” he told Tass.
Mutko defended FIFA’s reputation in the face of its mounting crisis.
“This organisation does not deserve such treatment,” he said. “Unfortunately, this is all to the detriment of the organisation’s reputation. I would like to point out that FIFA is holding the largest sports events at the highest levels possible, contributes about a billion of US dollars into the development of football worldwide. Try naming a similar organization.
“A total of 209 national federations are members of FIFA. The organisation in general cannot be responsible for something that was done wrong somewhere in Jamaica or Senegal.”
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