Sports Briefs
DESPITE being banned from all football activities, Sepp Blatter, former president of FIFA, has said that he would be at the 2018 World Cup in Russia at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin of Russia. “I will go to the World Cup in Russia. I received an invitation from President Putin,” the 81-year-old said in an interview with AFP.
Dmitri Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, told reporters that Russia would be happy to see (Blatter) in Moscow. “You know that Putin and Blatter have for a long time been, you could say, friends. The World Cup is a great celebration of football and everyone who is invited will be welcome, and old friends will also be welcome.”
Blatter told AFP that Michel Platini, the ex-UEFA president, who is also banned from FIFA activities on charges of corruption, had also been invited to the tournament by Putin. But according to one of his close allies, Platini “hasn’t received an invitation from Putin to go to the World Cup and doesn’t know what he will be doing next summer.”
Blatter, who led world football’s governing body for 17 years, was thrown out of the sport in 2015 at the height of a massive corruption scandal. FIFA’s ethics committee suspended him from all football-related activities for six years after finding him guilty of accepting an improper two million Swiss franc ($2.1 million, 1.8 million euros) payment from Platini, the then-UEFA chief.
But the ever-defiant Blatter said he had no plans to miss the World Cup, an event he has habitually attended since going to work at FIFA in the 1970s. “I don’t know how long I will go for, whether I will be there for the opening match or the final,” he said during the interview in Zurich. “Because I can’t work in football and I don’t have an assignment to do, maybe I will only make a short visit.”
Blatter is also the target of an investigation by Swiss prosecutors over alleged criminal mismanagement at FIFA and the infamous Platini payment. Switzerland has ongoing probes into the 2018 World Cup, including possible bribery and corruption that may have led to Russia winning hosting rights. “I’m sure that World Cup 2018 will be a great World Cup. Russia has to show that it can welcome the whole world. It’s a big challenge,” Blatter said.
– Oct 20, 2017 @ 16:45 GMT |
Tags: Dmitri Peskov FIFA Putin invites Sepp Blatter to 2018 World Cup RUSSIA Sepp Blatter
