Interview by Jacques Vendroux, Cyrille de la Morinerie and Lionel Rosso, edited by Gauthier Delomez
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6:05 p.m., January 20, 2022
Sepp Blatter cuts to the chase. In an exclusive interview with Europe 1, the former Swiss leader of Fifa, the highest body in world football, spoke about Fifagate after months spent in hospital battling serious health problems. In this case, the former businessman is notably accused of having agreed to a financial arrangement with Michel Platini in 2011, when he was president of Fifa. “Neither Michel nor I have anything to reproach ourselves with,” he says on the show. Europe 1 Sports.
“Switzerland fired me”, asserts Sepp Blatter
Sepp Blatter gives his version of the facts: “With Michel Platini, we made an oral contract when I became president of Fifa. I told him that I needed him (at Fifa), he said ‘I’m worth a million’. ‘Well for a million, you come to work for me’ (…). This contract is valid like the others”. The ex-manager admits that he had “forgotten” to make an employment contract to the legendary number 10 of the France team, stressing that the payment which was promised to Michel Platini had indeed taken place.
“This payment was made according to the rules of the art, and I do not see how we could be summoned to court for that”, continues Sepp Blatter, who defends himself at the microphone of Europe 1: “The instruction was made in a very directed way, and we did not listen to the witnesses that Michel Platini made available”.
If the former French footballer estimated, at the beginning of January on our antenna, that Switzerland had fired him, the former Swiss businessman opines, and also claims to be a victim. “Basically, he’s right. Why did this payment suddenly come into the hands of the prosecutor?” Asks Sepp Blatter. “Switzerland fired me, even worse than him, they pilloried me,” he asserts, also saying that the international body did not want to see the former French player become its president.
Why Sepp Blatter curbs his successor Gianni Infantino
After the Fifagate affair, it was the Italian-Swiss Gianni Infantino who was elected head of Fifa in 2016. The former leader is not kind to his successor: “He is not a good president, and I must say it. He is not doing his job properly”, curries Sepp Blatter, who regrets not having had a conversation with Gianni Infantino. The ex-businessman wants to “wake him up” because he takes a very dim view of his move, mentioned in the Swiss press, from Zurich to Doha, the capital of Qatar, in the country which is organizing an edition at the end of 2022. of the already highly criticized World Cup.
For Sepp Blatter, this Qatari move is a serious mistake. “I would never have thought of going to live in the capital where we play the World Cup. The place of the president of Fifa is the place where Fifa has its headquarters, in Zurich” , insists the former Swiss boss of the world body. He also thinks he knows that the leaders plan to move the headquarters of Fifa, not to Qatar, but to France, to Paris.