Fifa crisis: Sepp Blatter speaks to The Independent*

Suspended Fifa president Sepp Blatter (Getty Images)

We meet at Mr Blatter’s home in the Swiss village of Visp, a flattened bowl spread beneath jagged mountains. Towering above us is the highest peak in the Swiss Alps which, at the age of 79, Fifa’s beleaguered President still summits every morning.

In the world of football, Sepp Blatter is a fallen giant. “Here,” he says, “I am just Sepp. A simple man.”

Despite being banned from all football related activity, last week Blatter headed Visp FC’s injury time equaliser in a fierce local derby cup tie, then went in goal for the penalties. Visp won 3 - 0.

His home is humble enough, a two room wooden cottage constructed entirely from Coke cans. “People, they are always saying, Sepp Blatter, he is many times millionaire,” he says as he opens the door, his eyes, head, smile and spectacles all glinting in the autumn sun. “So I bought this place. I do all my interview here now.”

His ban from football, handed down three weeks ago by the Fifa Ethics Committee means he is not allowed, officially, even to discuss Fifa business. This is, however, the third interview he has given in as many days, and as we speak a series of officials in embossed blazers come and go and, at one point, he clearly signs a contract awarding exclusive TV rights to the 2031 Women’s World Cup to ITVBe.

You appear to be keeping yourself busy?

Of course. Life must carry on. Football must carry on. In football, you must play to the whistle. The Ethics Committee, they do not have a whistle. So I carry on.

The last few months must have been hard on you.

No. I am strong. I am happy. I do not mind if people are always talking, but it has not been so easy for my family. There is always these critics, in the media, and when you are living in a small village people will say things. Last week, my daughter, she says to me: “Papa, why don’t you just stop lying to everybody all the time? Nobody believes you.

It is not easy for her. But I still have many friends from when I was an executive in luxury watch business, so I give her some presents and then things are okay again. Sometimes I will sneak in to her room and leave them on the bed in a little bag. All good fathers do this.

Last year, she came to visit me at Fifa World Cup in Brazil and I give her some small presents. When she got home, Swiss customs make her pay 110,000 Francs in import tax. It was very funny.

You said earlier this week that it was agreed, prior to the vote in 2010, that Russia would get the 2018 World Cup and the USA would get 2022, but that you were then betrayed by Michel Platini, and that is why there is now a US led conspiracy against Fifa. Is that right?

Yes! This is absolutely correct. Before the vote, me and my friends, we met in secret, and we decided among ourselves where the World Cup would go. This is why there is now a conspiracy against Fifa. America, the British media, they all want to know why the voting process was not fair. I do not want to say this is just racism against Fifa, because it must be more complicated than that. But why else is America interfering in Fifa business?

Because Chuck Blazer, the most corrupt Fifa man of them all, is an American?

But why this personal attack on Fifa? America it attacks Fifa. Why? They have this man, Blazer, he has embezzled millions of dollars, he owes even more millions in unpaid taxes. They arrest him. He admits he is a criminal. He secretly records half of Fifa admitting they are also criminal. He gives the tape to the FBI, and now the FBI says Fifa is criminal. Some people, they even say Sepp Blatter is a criminal. I do not understand this.

People blame you because you were the head of the organisation while all this was going on.

To these people, I say this. Fifa is a little ship, sailing on the wide ocean of the world. Then suddenly we are hit by a huge wave. And now people they are saying to me, ‘But you have been sailing on this ship for forty years. And you did not see that all the other sailors, they are wearing eye patches and big gold earrings? You did not see that there is huge skull and crossbones flying off the top mast and everybody they are all the time shouting ‘Shiver me Timbers!’ But if you are the one steering the ship you do not notice these things.

But you accept those people needed to be arrested?

But why in Switzerland? Why two days before we have Fifa Congress? This is political interference.

Because otherwise they wouldn’t have all been in the same place. There are operational reasons.

No. They could have done this at any time.

But didn’t Marco Polo del Nero, the Brazilian, run home to Brazil the very next day?

Yes, this is true. He did. He did not even come to the Executive Committee meeting. He gets paid $300,000 plus expenses to come to four meetings a year and yes he flew all the way to Zurich at Fifa expense and then turned around and went straight home again, but this is just because he remembered he had shut his dog in the bathroom. People are saying he is try to get away from police but this is not true.

What have your dealings been with the U.S. investigators?

I cannot speak about this. I am forbidden. It is an ongoing investigation.

But you are forbidden from speaking about everything we’ve been talking about.

I cannot speak about this. I cannot. But I will just say this. In my family, we have a saying: “Do not cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice.”

Why do the Swiss police think the 2 million Swiss Francs you paid to Michel Platini was potentially fraudulent? Is it because it doesn’t appear in any of Fifa’s accounts?

The Swiss Attorney General, he is not humble man, like me, from the mountains. Up here, we have this saying, ‘The cheese is supposed to have holes in.’ Sorry my English is not good. When the Attorney General, he say to me, ‘Where is the money?’ I tell him, ‘The cheese is supposed to have holes in.’ He does not understand.

Why was there no written contract for the payment?

Because this is football. When Iniesta plays a through ball for Messi, is there a written contract? Of course there is not.

When Mr Platini ask me for money, I shake his hand and I say, ‘Okay. No problem.’

Handshakes are important. I tell the Nobel Prize people this many times, but they do not like Sepp Blatter.

Do you think any of the new candidates can successfully reform Fifa?

No. They think they will come in and fix all of Fifa’s problems overnight. But it will be very difficult for them. Already we decided that Fifa World Cup 2026 will go to North Korea, and 2030 we will be in rural Nigeria. Ah, Africa! The home of football. Home of Sepp Blatter!

It was always my mission to bring the World Cup back to Africa, and with the help of Boko Haram, we have made it so. The crowds have already been abducted. The decision is made. Football must always go to new markets.

What will be your legacy to football?

I think now, everywhere there is football. In Syria, there is football. In Afghanistan, there is football. In the vibrating spaces between sub atomic particles, football is being played.

Even in Guam even there is football. Guam! This is tiny island, as near to Bangkok as to Brisbane, just a barren rock made entirely from albatross droppings. Even in Guam they have three brand new state-of-the-art training academies and a 75,000 all seater stadium. I flew in for the opening last year. One of the locals, he threw a huge handful of bird shit at me. The President tells me, ‘This means good luck.’ It was a very happy day. This I think will be my legacy.

What happened, in those four days after you were elected, that made you decide to stand down?

I have said many times. I have been told I cannot speak about this.

By the Ethics Committee?

No. By my publisher. My book will be out in March. Thank you. Bye.

As imagined by Tom Peck