Blatter: "Football is not in crisis"

By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich

May 30 – It was a combative, almost fist-pumping performance from Sepp Blatter.

Gone was the charm and light-hearted jests, the banter and the colourful asides.

Instead, as the civil war amongst some of his longest-serving lieutentants deepened, Blatter came out fighting.

In a week in which he will be re-elected FIFA President unopposed – just as he had originally anticipated – Blatter rejecting talk of crisis today as internecine warfare raged all around him.

Some could have justifiably described his emergency yet eagerly awaited press conference as self-delusional.

For while all the talk outside FIFA House has been of a worsening spate of corruption allegations, Blatter said his organisation was merely experiencing local difficulties they could solve internally.

Blatter, who has run football’s world governing body since 1998, looked taciturn and ready for a fight, refusing to be railroaded by journalists who wanted to know if the time had come for him to go.

He said he regretted recent “damaging” allegations, highlighted by the bribery scandal over which Mohamed Bin Hammam and Jack Warner, Blatter’s one-time ally, have been suspended.

But, he said the problems could be solved in-house – even those concerning his general secretary Jerome Valcke after he, too, became embroiled in the ongoing scandal.

“Football is not in a crisis,” said Blatter.

“Football is in some difficulties and they will be solved inside our family.”

Blatter said he expected the election to go ahead even after Bin Hammam’s decision yesterday to stand down and the burgeoning crisis over inducements allegedly offered to a score of Caribbean FIFA nations.

Twice he chastised members of the media after being heckled for not answering questions.

“Listen gentlemen, I accepted to have a press conference with you alone here,” said Blatter who took the unusual step of speaking alone at the podium without Valcke and other cohorts at his side.

“We are not in a bazaar here, we are in FIFA House.”

As conspiracy theories continued to swirl around Zurich over who said what to whom amidst the maelstrom of mistrust, Blatter was adamant the 2022 Qatar World Cup was free of dirty tricks.

But if anyone disbelieved him – or even wanted the election stopped – that was the responsibility of Wednesday’s Congress.

“If somebody wants to change something in the election or in the congress…they can do it with a three-quarters majority.

They will decide if I am still a valid or non-valid candidate and a valid or non-valid President.”

Once again Blatter was heckled from floor.

Answer the questions properly came the cries.

Show me some respect came Blatter’s response.

As ugly media spats go, it was Blatter at his most defiant.

The biggest spat, of course, is with his own inner sanctum, or some of them.

Replacing them with more honest brokers remains FIFA’s most pressing task.

“We used to be a modest FIFA,” said Blatter.

“Now we are a comfortable FIFA and I think because we are too comfortable, all the little devils can enter the game.”

The problem is, most of them are on his very doorstep.

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