Joseph Blatter is preparing a book “salted” in the FIFA and will go Global in Russia

Photo: Kirill Kudryavtsev Agence France-Presse
The ousted president of FIFA, Joseph Blatter, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

He promises a book that “salty” behind the scenes of the FIFA ” before the World in Russia “, which he will attend the” invitation ” of Vladimir Putin : at the age of 81, Joseph Blatter, the ousted president of FIFA, is far from being inactive, as he explains to the AFP.

“I’m waiting for a day retreat, but when we do advance, we retreat,” explains the Swiss. After an operation to his knee and back problems, he confides that ” the body has been repaired and the motor, remains a very good turn out “.

Enough in any case to make the next summer the World in Russia. “Yes, I will go, I received an invitation from president Putin, as Michel Platini, the rest. “

“You know that Putin and Blatter are long, it can be said, friends said Friday the spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov. The world Cup is a great celebration of soccer and […] the old friends will also be welcome. [Mr. Putin] knows [Michel] Platini and we will be happy to see in Moscow. “

But Platini ” has not received an invitation from Mr. Putin to go to the World in Russia, and not known what he will do next summer “, indicated to the AFP the entourage of the former president of UEFA.

“I don’t know how long I’ll go, if I’ll be there for the opening match or the final, adds for his part, Blatter. As I can’t work in football and that I don’t have a mission to accomplish, I may be just a passage. “

When questioned, the FIFA did not find anything wrong ” because Mr. Blatter has no official function “. Prior to this, the Valais is finalizing a book on his years at FIFA that he promises to “salt” : “I talk about things that happened in the past. “

Sepp Blatter has been suspended six years “of any activity related to football” by the internal justice of FIFA for payment of the controversial 2 million swiss francs ($2.8 million CDN) to his former friend and ally Michel Platini.

Forced to leave his seat in the full wave of corporate scandals in 2015 after 17 years of reign, the octogenarian said he ” was always ready to talk about the situation in the football world “.

Except for the criminal proceedings initiated against its former secretary-general Jerome Valcke and the president of the Paris SG and beIN Media, Nasser al-Khelaïfi, revealed last week by the swiss justice : the first would have been corrupted by the second for the broadcast rights for several world Cups.

“I can’t express myself, because I was heard as a person who is willing to give information [witness assisted] in the first procedure” against his former right-arm French.

Valcke, before the folder which binds them to Al-Khelaïfi, has been suspended for ten years from any activity related to soccer for other business.

Since its suspension, the Valais has had a long time to discover the inner workings of the justice, swiss or French. Charged for “suspicion of mismanagement” and ” abuse of social goods “, for a payment to be suspected of 1.8 million euros to Platini, Blatter confirmed that he had also been heard in April last in Zurich as a witness by the Prosecutor’s office of the national French financier.

“This was about the attribution of the World 2022 in Qatar. This was in response to my statements to the effect that there had been a recommendation in favor of Qatar and to the intention of Michel Platini on the part of the French presidency “, he explains.

Blatter has always ensured that the edition 2022 was promised in the United States, but that Platini, on the recommendation of Nicolas Sarkozy, then president of the Republic, had swung the vote in favour of Qatar. Platini has never made a secret that he voted for Qatar but has always said that ” neither Sarkozy nor anyone else [he] had been asked to vote for Qatar “.

And if you ever appeared to be evidence of any corruption in the award of the World 2022 in Qatar ? “The bodies of FIFA have already received the conclusions of Mr Eckert [ex-head of the internal justice of FIFA], following the report Garcia [ex-investigator internal FIFA] saying that there was nothing that could prevent the holding of the World 2022 in Qatar. It would take an earthquake to change this allocation. “

The Global 2026 — promised to the Confederation of north american for their support in the election of Gianni Infantino to the presidency of FIFA in 2015 — should he return to the joint application States-States–Canada–Mexico ?

“If I believe the news about the american federation, and the love there is not much between the three countries on the political and economic. The union of the three countries does not. There will be other candidates, surely Morocco, Africa must move. “