By Andrew Warshaw
October 5 – Sepp Blatter’s daughter has expressed her inner fears about her father’s recent interrogation at the hands of Swiss authorities, saying she was worried they would “take him away in handcuffs.”
Corinne Blatter-Andenmatten has also launched a scathing attack on the media for ruining the embattled FIFA president’s reputation.
Blatter is digging in his heels despite demands from four FIFA sponsors to quit immediately rather than stay until February’s emergency election after being placed under criminal investigation.
He is determined to hang on until being formally replaced but his daughter says he will “definitely not” stay on afterwards even if the election process is thrown into confusion by a lack of eligible candidates.
“I know he wants to quit, and he will do it,” she said in an interview published by Swiss newspaper Blick am Sonntag, adding that at some point he wanted to publish his memoirs.
In a highly revealing interview, Blatter-Andenmatten disclosed that that Blatter was questioned for eight hours by Swiss investigators and that on his return home later the same night “he looked shocked and disappointed”.
No-one had warned him in advance, she said. “Had he been asked to provide more documents then he would have done it immediately. He has always cooperated. This time he was completely taken by surprise. I was afraid that they would take him away in handcuffs. He only said: ‘I think it’s a dream.’
“The interrogation began before noon and was finished around 8pm. In between there were short breaks. His office was never sealed, as was reported in some places. The officers ransacked it but then they left it open again.”
“The conduct of the federal prosecutor is questionable. There was no warning. Then immediately [the prosecutor] published a press release. It’s like a prejudgment of my father. Is that part of the rule of law?”
As well as denouncing the methods used to get to Blatter, she also turned on the media.
“They have ruined his reputation. Why are they picking on him? What did he do to them? … It’s not just envy. It’s hatred. He suffers now because no-one wants to talk about what he has done in 40 years at FIFA. When he took over FIFA he found it deeply in the red. Then he built it into a billion-dollar empire. That people can now play football in 209 countries is largely down to him.”
“He does not run away when things get difficult . . . My father is not a criminal. He would give away the shirt on his back.”
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