Disgraced FIFA boss Sepp Blatter has claimed that American law enforcement agencies targeted the world football governing body because of the United States’ failed 2022 World Cup bid.
“If we voted as planned for the United States, the Americans would have had no reason to attack FIFA because they would have had their World Cup,” Blatter told L’Equipe, courtesy of ESPN FC.
Blatter’s comments come on the heels of an FBI raid of a Zurich hotel on May 27 of last year, ahead of FIFA’s 2015 congress, where several top executives were arrested and extradited to the United States to face federal corruption charges.
The charges laid were for alleged widespread corruption over the last two decades, including World Cup bids, marketing and broadcasting deals, and, most notably, questions surrounding Qatar’s allegedly unethical proposal to host the event.
“The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States,” U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch claimed in May.
Blatter announced his resignation shortly after the arrests, which were carried out by Lynch, and the Swiss Federal Office of Justice.
Despite a tenure littered with corruption claims and unethical practices, the 79-year-old Swiss-born executive maintains that none of these raids would have occurred were it not for the U.S.’s failed bid for the 2022 tournament.
Had the U.S. received the tournament, Blatter contends that no arrests would have been made, and thus would have been able to “have finished the last four years of my mandate peacefully.”
FIFA is holding its presidential election in Zurich on Friday, with UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino, Asian Football Confederation boss Sheikh Salman, and Jordanian Prince Ali considered the favourites for the position.
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