By Andrew Warshaw
August 24 – As he enters the final phase of what will be almost 18 years as FIFA president, Sepp Blatter insists he cannot be held morally responsible for the dishonest activities of his inner circle and that he himself has been “clean” throughout his long and often tempestuous tenure.
Blatter stands down on February 26 next year after some 40 years with world football’s governing body and rejects accusations, primarily in the west, that he will always be remembered for leading a corrupt organisation.
Unrelated US and Swiss criminal investigations into FIFA’s workings – the former exposing widespread confederation fraud following the arrest of a raft of footballing executives who had a major say in how the game was run – have shaken FIFA to its knees under Blatter’s watch.
But some three months after his decision to lay down his mandate, as he put it, following that infamous dawn raid in Zurich just before he was elected for a fifth term, Blatter says it’s unfair to accuse FIFA of deep-rooted, systematic corruption even though these were the words used by the US Justice department when announcing 47 counts including racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering.
“It’s not true,” Blatter declared. “The institution is not corrupt. There is corruption with individuals (but) there is no general organised corruption. That’s what I cannot understand when the world’s media says FIFA is corrupt. On the field of play, it’s easy to control footballers. Outside the field of play, who can control 300 million people directly and 1.6 billion indirectly? It’s impossible.”
Roughly half of the executive committee who voted five years ago for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts have since left, most of them as a result of bribery and corruption allegations. Throw in the seven high-profile footballing officials indicted by the US authorities and it is little surprise Blatter has been accused of incompetence.
But in an interview with the BBC, he challenged that view, saying he had no control over who joins FIFA’s top brass since none of them are elected by the full 209-nation membership.
“The problem with FIFA – and this is the ultimate reform we have to do now – is the composition of the executive committee,” said Blatter.
“It is not elected by the same entity as the president. I have a government that is elected through the confederations. So I have (had) to take people who are not my people. I cannot take moral responsibility for their behaviour.”
The serious allegations levelled at the likes of former FIFA powerbrokers Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer and the recent arrest of Warner’s successor as president of CONCACAF, Jeffrey Webb, have heaped disgrace on FIFA’s image and reputation. But Blatter argued his critics needed to understand how the organisation’s hierarchy actually works.
“We have no rights to go to any confederations and ask them what they are doing with their money. That’s their problem. All those who were arrested in Zurich were arrested over activities in their confederations.”
Blatter has not been cited in either of the two ongoing probes but leaves office with a cloud hanging over his presidency. His legacy may be seriously tarnished as far as western opinion is concerned but he told the BBC his own conscience was clear and that the work he has done is appreciated far more than many might imagine.
“I know I’m an honest man. I am clean,” he said. “Go to Asia, go to Africa and ask them what they think about FIFA and Blatter. It’s different. At least (I am) respected because I and FIFA have done a lot.”
Refusing to specifically discuss either of the two investigations, he nevertheless warmed to the theme of being unfairly treated.
“Tell me what I have done wrong. I made my decision (to stand down) to protect FIFA, not myself. I know what I have done and not done.
“I am not a worried man. You will see how this tsunami will come out for FIFA. People will realise that the job I have done is a good job. If there are people who don’t like me, they will realise they have been wrong.”
And who will he be supporting in the race to become his successor? “Don’t ask the president who is elected to make a comment. It’s the Congress who will decide, not me.”
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