Suspended FIFA President
Sepp Blatter said it was only the congress of soccer's governing body and not
its ethics committee that could bar him from office.
Embattled Mr. Blatter |
He said on Thursday in
Zurich during a media interview, that it was only the parliament that could
impeach an elected president.
"I'm not a FIFA
official. I'm the elected president of the congress.
"If one does not
agree with the way I do my job, one has to turn to the congress that elected
me," he said.
Blatter, who was standing
down in February after agreeing to lay down his mandate, criticised the ethics
committee, which he had previously trumpeted as a key weapon in the battle
against corruption after it was reformed and strengthened three years ago.
Blatter said the
definition in the FIFA statutes indicated that he was not a FIFA official.
"It is humiliating
for the FIFA president that the ethics committee comes and says, you are
suspended and you are not allowed to go to the office anymore.
"That’s like a
police order and that hurts but it doesn’t kill me, I will fight for me and for
FIFA,’’ he said.
Blatter also faces a criminal investigation in Switzerland over a two million dollars payment from FIFA to Platini.
Blatter also faces a criminal investigation in Switzerland over a two million dollars payment from FIFA to Platini.
The payment was made in
2011 for work Platini had completed nine years earlier, the Swiss
attorney-general's office has said.
It added that Platini was
considered "between a witness and an accused person.
Blatter, reiterating
comments he had made previously on the matter said contracts could be done in
writing or orally.
"I had an oral
contract with Michel Platini.
``In 1998, when he was
done with the World Cup, I needed him to work for me, at the time, he wanted
one million and I said there's no money to pay one million.
``He said you can pay me
later,’’ he said. (Reuters/NAN)
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