![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Members of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) stood to applaud the Swiss after his address to them, as Blatter’s bid for re-election remained on track despite FIFA’s problems. “We will all be behind you if you stand again,” David Chung, president of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), told Blatter, referring to his expected candidacy which could see him stay in charge until 2019, when he will be 83. “FIFA has an executive president and you are not making things easy for yourself and I do not think you are the man for the job any longer.” “Mr Blatter, this is nothing personal, but if you look at FIFA’s reputation over the last seven or eight years, it is being linked to all kinds of corruption and all kinds of old boys’ networks things,” Michael van Praag, head of the Dutch Football Association, told the FIFA president. Having won standing ovations from delegates from Asia and Africa on Monday, the embattled president was also informally endorsed by Oceania, North America and the Caribbean on Tuesday, handing him a solid platform for success.īut the words likely to ring loudest in his ears came from European soccer organization UEFA, where resistance to Blatter has grown in recent weeks since fresh allegations of corruption surfaced surrounding Qatar’s bid to host the World Cup in 2022. It was not all bad news for the 78-year-old Swiss, who earlier in the day all but confirmed his intention to lead soccer’s world governing body for a record fifth term in an election to be held next year. The 2014 World Cup will be held in 12 cities in Brazil from June 12 to July 13. He won the Ballon d'Or, considered the most prestigious individual award, three times - in 1983, 19.FIFA President Sepp Blatter arrives to attend a media conference in Sao Paulo June 5, 2014. Platini is regarded among world football's greatest-ever players. He was forced to stand down in 2015 and was banned by FIFA for eight years, later reduced to six, over ethics breaches for authorising the payment to Platini, allegedly made in his own interests rather than FIFA's. Joseph "Sepp" Blatter joined FIFA in 1975, became its general secretary in 1981 and the president of world football's governing body in 1998. The two allies became rivals as Platini grew impatient to take over, while Blatter's tenure was brought to a swift end by a separate 2015 FIFA corruption scandal investigated by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. Platini and retired Swiss football administrator Blatter were banned from the sport at the very moment when Platini seemed ideally-placed to succeed Blatter at the helm of world football's governing body. ![]() Blatter is accused of misappropriation and criminal mismanagement, while Platini is accused of participating in those offences. He and retired Swiss football administrator Blatter could face up to five years in jail.īoth have been accused of fraud and forgery of a document. The former French football great “submitted to Fifa in 2011 an allegedly fictitious invoice for a (alleged) debt still existing for his activity as an adviser for FIFA in the years 1998 to 2002,” according to the court. The pair are being tried over a $2.08 million payment in 2011 to Platini, who was then in charge of European football’s governing body UEFA. Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, once the chiefs of world and European football, went on trial in Switzerland over a suspected fraudulent payment.įormer FIFA president Blatter, 86, and Platini, 66, appeared in the Federal Criminal Court in the southern city of Bellinzona, following an investigation that began in 2015 and lasted six years. The trial will conclude on June 22, and the verdict is expected on July 8. The pair are being tried over a $2.08 million payment in 2011 to Michel Platini, who was then in charge of European football’s governing body UEFA. ![]()
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