Russian President Vladimir Putin says the United States is meddling in the affairs of the world football governing body by trying to block Sepp Blatter’s reelection bid for the FIFA presidency.
“This is clearly an attempt to block the reelection of Blatter as president of FIFA and is an extremely serious breach of the principles of how international organizations work,” Putin said Thursday in a speech aired on state TV.
The comments by the Russian president came a day after a raid by Swiss authorities on a FIFA summit in Zurich, which led to the arrest of seven high-profile officials of the body. The Swiss government says the raid is part of a US-led probe into alleged corruption in FIFA.
A separate probe has been launched by Swiss authorities into the granting of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups respectively to Russia and Qatar, a highly controversial case which has embarrassed Blatter and other FIFA senior officials over the past months.
Putin hailed Blatter for not succumbing to “pressure put on him with the aim of banning" the major event in Russia, saying the US is trying to “spread its jurisdiction to other countries.”
Relations between Russia and the US has been deteriorating since the outbreak of a militancy in east Ukraine in March 2014.
Washington blames Moscow for having a major hand in the unrest. Russia denies the allegations, saying it will do its utmost to protect an ethnic Russian minority living in the area against Ukrainian government's suppression.
Also on Thursday, some members of US congress urged FIFA to reconsider its rewarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia.
Robert Menendez, a Republican senator known for his hawkish anti-Russia rhetoric, said, “I have long been concerned about FIFA’s selection of Russia and today’s announcement only underscores the need for FIFA to elect a president who will not only uphold FIFA’s values, but will ensure FIFA does not reward countries that do not uphold these values as well."
FIFA delegates are in Zurich to push ahead with plans for electing FIFA president. But some football associations around the world, especially those in countries allied with the US, have called for the elections to be postponed.
Blatter has rejected demands to quit, saying the vote will go ahead as planned on Friday. The Swiss man is vying for his fifth term against Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan.
Meanwhile, Blatter held an emergency meeting on Thursday with the heads of FIFA’s six confederations in Zurich amid the ongoing corruption scandal.
Attending the meeting were the president of European governing body UEFA Michel Platini along with the heads and representatives of the Asia Football Conderation (AFC), CONMEBOL (South America), CAF (Africa), OFC (Oceania) and CONCACAF (North, Central American and Caribbean).
The subject of the meeting was not disclosed.
Speaking on Thursday, Platini said a 'very large majority' of European nations will oppose Blatter at the FIFA vote. The UEFA president added that he had made a new call for Blatter to leave at the emergency FIFA meeting.
"I asked him to resign: enough is enough, Sepp. He listened to me but he told me it is too late," Platini said, adding that other confederation leaders did not back his call.
"I say these things with tears in my eyes. I don't like it this way. But there are just too many scandals."
