Fifa scandal: Sepp Blatter to release book on 'harsh reviews and prejudices'
The Swiss is awaiting the verdict on his appeal against an eight-year ban for his role in a “disloyal payment”
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Outgoing Fifa president Sepp Blatter is to release a book chartering his time at the crisis-hit organisation in the coming days.
Swiss publisher Werd and Weber says the photograph-based publication will focus on the “harsh reviews and prejudices” which the 79-year-old has faced during his 18 years at the head of the world football governing body.
Featuring anecdotes about his entire 40 years at Fifa, as technical director and general secretary before taking the presidency in 1998, the 300-page book promises to reveal how he “learned to deal with hostility” amid an unprecedented crisis in Zurich. Sepp Blatter: Mission Football will be sold at a retail price of £35.
It remains unclear how much - if any - of the book’s content will centre on the corruption scandal which has seen prominent members of Blatter’s inner circle be arrested and indicted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The Swiss himself is awaiting the verdict on his appeal against an eight-year ban for his role in a “disloyal payment” to Uefa counterpart Michel Platini and is frequently forced to defend the voting system which saw Russia and Qatar announced as the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments.
“Despite the success, Blatter repeatedly had to put up with harsh reviews and prejudices,” the publisher's preview said. “In this richly illustrated book, Sepp Blatter tells how he learned to deal with the hostility.”
Meanwhile the 2016 Fifa congress, which is set to stage the presidential election to see in Blatter's successor, has been thrown into doubt after Prince Ali Al Hussein of Jordan called for the ballot to be suspended.
The 40-year-old has taken his complaints to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the highest tribunal level, following reports that delegates allegedly documented how they voted during June’s presidential election.
Mobile phones and cameras have since been banned from proceedings but Prince Ali's calls for see-through booths to be incorporated have thus far been ignored by the world football governing body. The Jordanian believes the booths would prevent voters from coming under pressure to produce evidence of their vote to interested parties.
Prince Ali is joined by Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa, Gianni Infantino, Jerome Champagne and Tokyo Sexwale on a five-man candidate-list to be elected president.
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