UNDER-FIRE FIFA President Sepp Blatter believes racism is partly behind the corruption allegations engulfing Qatar’s winning bid to host the 2022 World Cup.
Global football chief Blatter blasted critics trying to “destroy” FIFA on Monday.
Blatter, 78, who is poised to announce his candidacy for a fifth term as president of football’s global governing body, launched a strong defence of his term during addresses to Asian and African officials.
Speaking to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) gathered in Sao Paulo ahead of FIFA’s 64th Congress, Blatter lashed out at his critics.
“Show unity and confirm this unity, it’s the best way to reply to all the destructors in the world,” Blatter said.
They want to destroy, not the game, but they want to destroy the institution, because our institution is too strong.
Blatter said FIFA was “so strong we are sure they’ll not destroy it.”
In separate comments to Confederation of African Football (CAF) delegates, Blatter said he believed unnamed critics of Qatar 2022 were motivated by “racism and discrimination.”
African officials in turn pointed the finger directly at the British media over the Qatar claims, accusing news outlets of waging a “hateful, defamatory and degrading” campaign against “the entire African continent.”
The same statement meanwhile praised Blatter, citing his “continuous involvement in the development of football in Africa.”
Blatter’s rallying cry comes as FIFA faces mounting pressure over its 2010 decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
Five of FIFA’s six biggest commercial partners — Adidas, Sony, Visa, Coca-Cola and Hyundai — have demanded an investigation of claims that Qatari official Mohammed bin Hammam paid millions of dollars in bribes to secure the tiny Gulf state’s victory in the 2022 race.
Qatar beat the United States, Australia, Japan and South Korea to the 2022 tournament, despite a FIFA technical report which warned the searing temperatures during June and July in Qatar posed a health risk.
Amid calls for a re-vote, FIFA investigator Michael Garcia was to finish his inquiry into the 2022 vote and the 2018 bid contest, won by Russia, on Monday.
Garcia is to speak at the Congress about his work, but his report will not be handed over to the FIFA adjudicatory chamber until mid-July, when the World Cup final is held.
Blatter said Monday that he expected the FIFA Ethics Committee to decide what, if any, action to take over Garcia’s report in three to four months time.
“I hope it will be in September or October,” he told AFC officials.
Blatter is expected to use the FIFA Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday to announce his intention to stand again for a fifth term as FIFA president.
On Monday, Blatter told delegates he still had the passion to carry on his position, 16 years after his election to the post at a 1998 vote in Paris.
“I still have the fire inside,” Blatter told his audience, hinting once again that a declaration for the presidential race is almost certain.
an absolute clown, hiding behind smoke and mirrors
Not one red thumb. Congrats. But I e never read a truer statement.
Think it’s time for blatter to go there to long.
Blatter you are an absolute muppet and president of one of the most corrupt and backwards organisation…please go away.
Wasn’t going to be bother reading the whole article. Whenever anyone plays the race card like this they know they’re so hopelessly lost that all they can do is attack the people questioning them, classic straw man argument and not surprising from this absolute scam artist.
It is a weak argument alright,
The people against Qatar are not from Qatar, therefore they are racists.
He is a horrible little man.
Bet he was paid to say that
Blatter is like the Robert Mugabe of sport. Slimy weasel
I really hate that man.
Sepp Bladder is taking the p!ss
He really would do anything to deflect criticism away from FIFA and more importantly himself! This ‘investigation’ sounds like it will reveal nothing. Sham of an Organisation.
At this point its impossible to like blatter! Completely ignorant to everyones opinion but his own!
What a bunch of crooks and fraudsters. Blatter is a detestable, extravagant, horrible person. These guys should be behind bars. An independent enquiry should have taken place in relation to Qatar. As if an independent enquiry is going to prove corruption. That would be tantamount to turkeys voting for Christmas. Bloody hell!
When he can’t even admit that there is racist chanting at football games and punish teams accordingly then I can’t even begin to take this statement with any bit serious. Sort out your own shop first blatter before you start throwing racist comments around.
The lady doth protest too much.! Oh how he laughed at us when we attempted to appeal Henry’s handball. Has the look of a man with a few petrol dollars salted away somewhere! How do these guys sleep at night?
So all the multinational companies from all around the world that asked for an investigation are racist? The man is a cancer on football
He is a tool but there is a bigger issue here. An article on the BBC sport website pointed out that nothing that the media have accused Qatar of in recent weeks is illegal in law or in terms of bidding for a World cup. In fact the English used Prince William and David Cameron as ambassadors and offered incentives to vote for them when they bid for it. Anything Qatar has been accused of is actually common practice in nearly every sporting organisation when a bidding process is held. The truth is that the British media has been running a campaign against Blatter and FIFA since he threatened to remove Britain’s three permanent seats on the executive committee. I don’t care what happens to Blatter and do think that FIFA needs to clean up their act but this is just a power play by the FA. And too many people on here just lap up the media spin and don’t do a small bit of research and make up their own minds.
Shut up sepp