FIFA President Sepp Blatter accuses UEFA’s Michel Platini of a “personal attack” on him.
Both Blatter and Platini have been suspended for 90 days by FIFA’s executive committee over an alleged “disloyal payment” from the Swiss to the former midfielder.
“I became the primary target of the attack because since three years previously, and specifically after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, UEFA did not want me as the President,” Blatter told Russian news agency TASS.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter accuses UEFA’s Michel Platini of a “personal attack” on him.
Both Blatter and Platini have been suspended for 90 days by FIFA’s executive committee over an alleged “disloyal payment” from the Swiss to the former midfielder.
“I became the primary target of the attack because since three years previously, and specifically after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, UEFA did not want me as the President,” Blatter told Russian news agency TASS.
“They conducted an attack on the FIFA president. But the other confederations were with me.
“Only UEFA tried to bring me away. They did not succeed. Even with this tsunami I was reelected as president.
“This matter was then discussed in the European Union and if you look back, the European Union’s parliament has made resolutions twice – Blatter shall not be elected. But that is political interference in sport.
“UEFA has been affected by anti-FIFA virus for years before my presidency. They have an anti-FIFA virus.
“At the beginning it was only a personal attack. It was Platini against me. He started it, but then it became politics. And when it becomes politics, it’s no longer Platini against me.
“Then it’s those who have lost the World Cup. England against Russia. They lost the World Cup. And the USA lost the World Cup against Qatar.
“But you cannot destroy FIFA. FIFA is not the Swiss bank. FIFA is not a commercial company. So, what they have done together with the Swiss, they have created this attack towards FIFA and the president of FIFA.
“You are from TASS and you know what are the problems between your country and the US. The FIFA World Cup or the FIFA president is a ball in the big political power game.
“Why does Platini dislike me? You will have to ask him and we will know. Because he wanted to be FIFA President. But he didn’t have the courage to run for President.
“But FIFA is working well. FIFA is carrying out competitions and development programs. FIFA is so well-organised that even big opponents in Germany have to say that FIFA is better organised than German football.
“Since I became president of FIFA, we have made FIFA a big commercial company. And this naturally provokes envy and jealousy.”
Blatter also denied that world football’s governing body is corrupt, and criticised the decision to suspend him.
“FIFA is not in crisis. The government of FIFA is in crisis. It must be in crisis if you get rid of the President, the secretary general [Jerome Valcke] and the vice presidents of the biggest confederations in one day.
“The problem in the management and in direction of business in FIFA is that the president is the only one who is elected by the Congress.
“All other members are elected by their Confederations. So, therefore, I am the boss of a government that has not been elected by me. And therefore it is very difficult to govern FIFA.
“My suspension? I think this crisis – and this is also what my lawyers think – has nothing to do with any criminal activity.
“If you open the newspapers, if you watch the television, every day they said ‘Blatter must go’.
“It’s total nonsense. This is not justice. I put these people into the office, where they are now in the Ethics Committee, and they don’t even have the courage to listen to the secretary general, Platini or me.
“They made a summary investigation and three days later I was suspended.
“I think it was the pressure of the media. It was the pressure to get rid of the FIFA President. Unfortunately [for him], Platini was in the same boat.
“And they – the ethics committee – wanted to say ‘we are not at the service of the president, we are totally independent’. This is wrong. They can be independent but they don’t need to be against me.”