June 20 – He flew in on an Aeroflot flight, checked into a top-class downtown hotel, gave a brief television interview and that was it. Sepp Blatter was back at the World Cup today attending the showpiece event of the organisation he headed for 17 years.
The former FIFA president, currently still serving a FIFA ban, landed in Moscow – scene of his last foreign trip – to fulfil a two-year-old invitation from Russian president Vladimir Putin which did not constitute official duty and therefore did not violate his ban.
“I am the guest of the organising committee, but they will make an arrangement to see the president if it were possible,” Blatter told reporters at a five-star hotel in central Moscow, adding a meeting with Putin “has not yet been fixed.”
“But I am a guest. I take the programme they are offering to me, and I am happy to be here,” he said.
Blatter was watching Portugal play Morocco today at Luzhniki Stadium before moving on to St. Petersburg on Friday to see Brazil.
He is traveling with his partner Linda Barras on his first public appearance outside his native Switzerland since July 2015 when the World Cup qualifying draw was conducted in St. Petersburg.
Blatter, who shared the draw ceremony stage that day with Putin, voted for Russia to host the World Cup back in 2010. His presence in Moscow is an unwanted distraction for his successor Gianni Infantino with whom there is certainly no love lost. It will be intriguing to see how far away he sits from Infantino. That is, if the present incumbent attends the same games.
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