Re-elected FIFA President Sepp Blatter gestures during news conference after an extraordinary Executive Committee meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, May 30, 2015. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
Embattled former president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, has said his work in football is “finished”.
The Swiss and suspended UEFA president, Michel Platini, were on Monday banned for eight years from all football-related activities, over a 2 million Swiss franc (£1.35 million) payment deal that is being investigated.
Platini has already indicated that he will appeal the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but Blatter in an interview with the Wall Street Journal seemed to have resigned to his fate.
“I’ve finished my work in football. I lost faith in our organization on May 27 with this intervention by American law enforcement,” Blatter said, referring to the pre-dawn raid of a Zurich hotel in May.
He added “and the same day, it presented FIFA as a mafia-type organization.”
Blatter also blasted high-profile sponsors of the World Cup like Adidas, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Visa, etc, who all threatened to withdraw their involvement.
“Companies, commercial partners are queuing up to get in,” Blatter said.
“If the Americans want to leave, others will come. But they don’t want to get out. They won’t leave.”
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