Fifa president Sepp Blatter is the victim of a conspiracy from “behind the scenes”, his daughter has told the BBC amid the corruption crisis gripping world football. “Nobody is without fault but (…) he’s not the person who is taking money,” Corinne Blatter said. Her comments come as key Fifa officials face a string of bribery charges. BBC reports:
Mr Blatter, who has been re-elected as Fifa president, has not been implicated but faces calls to stand down. Asked whether she thought there was a conspiracy against Mr Blatter – who won re-election as head of world football’s governing body on Friday despite the current crisis – Corinne Blatter said: “I wouldn’t say from the Americans and the British, but certainly people working behind the scenes, yes absolutely.”She added: “I don’t know if you want to call them dark forces but I mean they really tried hard, they tried in September, October last year. How can Uefa who is saying ‘we are the strongest confederation’, how can they not put up a candidate?” Mr Blatter beat rival Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan on Friday in an election that was overshadowed by arrests and corruption allegations.In September 2014, Mr Blatter had come under pressure to quit after rejecting calls for a report into alleged World Cup bidding corruption to be made public. Corinne Blatter’s comments came as the head of the English Football Association called on Uefa president Michel Platini to unite Europe behind a collective boycott of the 2018 World Cup. And in further intrigue, South African newspapers reported on Sunday that the nation did pay $10m (£6.5m) to a football association led by a figure at the centre of the Fifa allegations, despite a week of denials.
