Sepp Blatter’s daughter issued a staunch defence of her father, claiming he was the victim of a conspiracy to unseat him.
|||Within hours of his tempestuous appointment to serve a fifth term as Fifa president, Sepp Blatter was to be found on a sofa with a World Cup trophy in the background posing for photographs with his family.
The importance of the close-knit Team Blatter to bolstering the 79-year-old's 17-year reign at the Zurich headquarters of football's world governing body was underlined yesterday when his daughter issued a staunch defence of her father, claiming he was the victim of a conspiracy to unseat him.
Corinne Blatter, his only child, insisted that it was not in her father's character to accept or offer bribes and suggested that the storm over alleged corruption would blow over in “two or three weeks”.
Mr Blatter has not been directly implicated in the corruption scandal but is facing demands to stand down after the unveiling by the FBI of allegations of industrial-scale bribery in the organisation during his tenure. Mrs Blatter, 54, who runs an English school in Mr Blatter's hometown of Visp, softened her father's insistence this weekend that his troubles were down to grudges borne by the American authorities and the English press.
Asked about who she thought was behind the crisis at Fifa, she told the BBC: “I wouldn't say from the Americans and the British, but certainly people working behind the scenes… I don't know if you want to call them dark forces but I mean they really tried hard.” The mother-of-one said he had been “deeply affected” by the criticism of recent days.
Mr Blatter claimed yesterday that Uefa president Michel Platini had sought to persuade him to resign on Thursday, suggesting they discuss matters over a whisky. Mr Platini, who called for Mr Blatter to be voted out of office, is claimed to have told the Fifa president: “You can have a giant party and you can keep your office here at Fifa.”
In a separate interview with Swiss newspaper Blick, Mrs Blatter said: “If he is attacked personally, then that hurts him very much. The angry words of Mr Platini have particularly hit him.”
It was reported in South Africa yesterday that the country had paid $10m (£6.5m) to the football body led by Jack Warner, a key figure in the corruption allegations, though he denies any wrongdoing. Mr Blatter denied this weekend that he had any links with a $10m payment apparently authorised in Zurich. – The Independent
from Soccer Soccer Extended RSS http://ift.tt/1JdcEnV
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire