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Blatter says met US Justice officials, but is not a suspect

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ZURICH: Disgraced former Fifa president Sepp Blatter said on Friday he had met lawyers from the US Justice Department but was not a suspect in their corruption investigations.


The 81-year-old, banned for six years by Fifa’s own ethics committee at the height of a scandal engulfing world soccer’s governing body, told journalists he had otherwise had little contact with US lawyers and was not under the scrutiny of their legal system.


Several dozen soccer officials, including a number from Fifa, were indicted in the United States in 2015 on corruption-related chances.


Blatter was not among them, although he subsequently said his lawyer had advised him not to travel abroad.


“I have had very little contact from my American lawyers because I was never a person of interest under scrutiny by the American justice,” he told a round table of international reporters on Friday.


“I have been investigated in two or three matters... but there is no wrongdoing.”


He said Swiss prosecutors had not contacted him over a separate case initiated in September 2015 against him relating to accusations of criminal mismanagement and misappropriation. “I have never heard anything, my lawyer has heard nothing about that.


“I have been interviewed and I will be interviewed in future but not in these cases; I am interviewed in cases concerning the activities in Fifa, as a person of information,” he said.


Blatter said he was still generally liked by his Swiss compatriots.


“Here in the city of Zurich and Switzerland in general, I am not only accepted but they like me,” said Blatter, who has denied all charged against him.


“I don’t have the impression that I am a rejected man. Why should I be rejected? I have done a good (job at) Fifa.”


Blatter says Platini could come back


Blatter said that a comeback was possible for his former ally Michel Platini, declining to hit back after the Frenchman savaged him in an interview last month.


Blatter said that Platini’s name may be cleared by “new elements” concerning the infamous two million Swiss franc payment ($2 million, 1.9 million euros) that triggered both men’s ouster from football.


“I think he should be back and I think it is not all over,” Blatter said, suggesting that former UEFA boss Platini could again take charge of the European confederation, or even Fifa.


Blatter is currently serving a six-year ban from football over the payment he authorised to Platini in 2011. Platini’s suspension was cut to four years on appeal.


The pair are united in claiming the transaction was legitimate, but bitter words have been swapped since details of the payment emerged in September 2015.


In an interview with French newspaper Le Monde last month, Platini called Blatter “the biggest egoist I’ve ever seen in my life.


“He always said I would be his last scalp”, the former Juventus star said of Blatter.


Platini, 61, claimed there was a campaign to “destroy” him waged by Blatter loyalists inside Fifa. Blatter on Friday expressed confusion over Platini’s harsh tone.


“If he sees me as an egoist, I accept... but I helped him become president of UEFA in 2007 and we had good relations, so I don’t understand his attitude. Saying I wanted to harm him doesn’t hold up,” Blatter, 81, said.


Both claim the payment was compensation for consulting work Platini did for Fifa between 1998 and 2002.


There has been media speculation that Blatter approved the money a decade later to buy Platini’s support for his reelection as Fifa president.


There have also been suggestions that Marco Villiger, a close associate of Blatter and a Fifa legal director, leaked details of the controversial payment to Swiss prosecutors, who have ongoing criminal probe into the case. — Reuters/AFP


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