Sepp Blatter: Fifa charges like ‘The Inquisition’

Sepp Blatter has written to Fifa’s 209 member associations protesting his innocence and criticising Fifa’s ethics committee for being “tendentious and dangerous” ahead of disciplinary hearings later this week.

The 79-year-old outgoing Fifa president also claims the proceedings against him have been “like The Inquisition”.

Blatter and Uefa president Michel Platini will have hearings before Fifa ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert tomorrow and Friday in Zurich over a €1.8m payment made to Platini by Fifa in 2011.

Blatter, provisionally suspended, has written to the associations saying: “I am bewildered by the insinuations and allegations brought against me by the investigatory chamber of ethics committee.

“However the way in which the investigatory chamber of the ethics committee has communicated on the current proceedings, demanded the maximum penalty and reinforced public prejudgement has reached a tendentious and dangerous dimension. These proceedings remind me of The Inquisition.

“I will continue to fight for my rights and I will present my case before the adjudicatory chamber with great conviction and a strong belief in justice.”

Blatter and Platini are likely to escape lifetime bans for corruption but investigators expect the pair to receive lengthy suspensions of at least seven years.

Blatter’s case will be heard tomorrow with Platini’s following on Friday, with a decision expected on Monday next week.

The 2million Swiss franc payment was made to Platini in February 2011. The Frenchman and Blatter say the payment was honouring an agreement made in 1998 for work carried out between 1998 and 2002 when Platini worked as a technical advisor for the Fifa president. However the payment was not part of Platini’s written contract — they have insisted it was a verbal agreement, which is legal under Swiss law.

The timing of the payment has raised eyebrows however. It took place nine years after Platini had stopped working for Fifa.