Sepp Blatter salary as Fifa president revealed for first time
The disgraced president was paid £2.6 million in 2015 while world football's governing body paid out $61.5 million on "legal matters"
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Your support makes all the difference.Former Fifa president Sepp Blatter was paid a total of 3.63million Swiss Francs (£2.6m) in 2015, it was confirmed in the world governing body's financial report published on Thursday.
Blatter, 80, had been in Fifa's top job since 1998 until he was forced to resign amid a corruption scandal which engulfed the organisation. The Swiss is now appealing against a six-year ban imposed following breaches relating to a payment to former head of UEFA Michel Platini.
Following reforms voted in at the Fifa's extraordinary congress in Zurich last month, the governing body has now moved to make public it accounts for the first time.
As well as Blatter's salary details, the figures also revealed a breakdown of what was paid to secretary general Jerome Valcke - another official who was banned in the wake of the corruption scandal for breaching seven counts of the ethics code including over misuse of private jets and the selling of World Cup tickets.
Fifa's accounts show Valcke received a gross salary of some 1.51million Swiss Francs (£1.07m) with additional extras such as social security and pension fund contributions taking the total up to 2.12m CHF (£1.51m).
The report revealed Fifa had returned a significant loss for 2015 of 122m US Dollars (£84.2m), which was a first deficit since 2002 and a result of both the legal costs of fighting the corruption scandal as well as losing main sponsors which the organisation put down to "the extraordinary circumstances that occurred as well as the slower pace of finalising revenue-generating contracts."
Blatter was last month succeeded as Fifa president by Gianni Infantino, who was secretary general at UEFA under Platini.
In his statement at the start of the report, Infantino spoke of his hopes to move the organisation forwards following an "an incredibly tough year for Fifa, and one that will take some time and collective hard work to fully recover from."
Infantino said: "By taking the necessary steps to support reform at the extraordinary congress in February, I believe that we have turned a corner and that Fifa is poised to emerge stronger than ever.
"During my presidency, I pledge to make this happen and to lead Fifa into a brighter and more sustainable future so that we can all return our full focus to football."
He continued: "I am committed to putting football back at the heart and soul of what our organisation does, so that we can regain the trust of fans, as well as the commercial partners that are so vital to the success of our mission.
"My time in office will be focused on helping our member associations to fully implement the reforms at all levels of the game to ensure we restore full confidence in Fifa among all of our stakeholders."
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