By Andrew Warshaw
April 18 – Sepp Blatter may still be banned from football for alleged ethics breaches but that doesn’t prevent the former FIFA president from speaking his mind in an unofficial capacity when invited to do so.
Blatter’s latest intervention came last Friday at a symposium at Basel University when the veteran Swiss, who expects to have his Court of Arbitration for Sport appeal hearing around the beginning of May, boldly announced he would be willing to help US prosecutors in their crackdown on football corruption.
Blatter has made a point of remaining in Switzerland – except to visit Russia for the 2018 World Cup draw last year – ever since the United States Department of Justice shocked the world with their bribery and corruption indictments that included a number of Blatter’s former loyal lieutenants.
After the two-hour debate, in which he blamed officials in CONCACAF and CONMEBOL for the corruption scandal, Blatter said he would be willing to help the US with their inquiries. “If they need me to defend FIFA, I will be available,” he said.
“I regret I have not done enough to bring FIFA back on the right track. I take responsibility but inside FIFA with the national associations we have put a lot of barriers to stop corruption, bribery.
“Both the [FIFA] ethics committee and appeal committee say in the case where I am suspended there is no bribery or corruption with the president of FIFA.”
During the symposium, attended by around 400 people, mainly students, Blatter clashed with former International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo who claimed the former FIFA president had known about corruption within his organisation but had opted to stay silent.
“The real problem with Mr. Blatter is that he had nothing to do with CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, but he knew,” said Ocampo, once a candidate to be FIFA’s lead ethics investigator.
“Even [if] he was not involved, why was he silent?” the Argentine lawyer told the audience, claiming that “probably [Blatter] knew and he decided to stay in silence.”
Ocampo also said Blatter likely knew – and said nothing – about misconduct involving his former number two, Jerome Valcke, his right-hand man since 2007.
Valcke was fired by FIFA as secretary-general in January, banned for 12 years by the ethics committee and is also the subject of criminal proceedings opened last month by Switzerland’s attorney general.
Such accusations, Blatter told reporters later, was “not acceptable. I was very surprised at Mr Ocampo invited here for this seminar and then to make such an accusation. I am not responsible morally about what the others have done.
“Perhaps he is a little bit disappointed because he was the first candidate to be the chair of the ethics committee.”
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