Strip Havelange of FIFA title: Blatter
Source: Agencies |
July 16, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
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FIFA President Sepp Blatter says world football's governing body should remove the honorary presidency it bestowed on its disgraced former boss Joao Havelange.
Blatter told Swiss weekly Sonntags Blick in an interview published yesterday that Havelange "has to go."
In May at a FIFA congress in Budapest, Hungary, he had led a standing ovation for the ailing 96-year-old Havelange.
Pressure on Blatter has grown after FIFA published a Swiss prosecutor's report last Wednesday confirming Havelange accepted kickbacks from marketing agency, International Sport and Leisure, in the 1990s, while Blatter was a senior FIFA official.
Blatter acknowledges he knew about payments but insisted they were legal in Switzerland at the time.
The 76-year-old Swiss took over from Havelange in 1998. He told Sonntags Blick he won't rule out standing for another term in 2015.
Blatter insisted in midweek he did not have the power to punish Havelange after the accusations against the Brazilian.
Court documents released revealed that Havelange, FIFA president for 24 years before Blatter replaced him, pocketed at least 1.5 million Swiss francs (US$986,000) and FIFA executive committee member and compatriot Ricardo Teixeira at least 12.74 million Swiss francs.
FIFA's discredited Swiss-based marketing partner collapsed in 2001 with debts of around US$300 million.
Blatter told Sonntagsblick: "I did not know until later, after the collapse of ISL in 2001, about the bribery.
"When I now say that it is difficult to measure the past by today's standards, this is a generic statement. To me bribery is unacceptable and I neither tolerate nor seek to justify bribery. But this is what I am accused of now.
"The Swiss Federal Court has this week proven wrong all those people, who for years have accused me of having taken bribes.
"Now it is on record what I have always said: I have never taken nor received any bribes. Now the same people are trying to attack me from a different angle: Okay, he has not taken any bribes but he must have known."
Blatter told Swiss weekly Sonntags Blick in an interview published yesterday that Havelange "has to go."
In May at a FIFA congress in Budapest, Hungary, he had led a standing ovation for the ailing 96-year-old Havelange.
Pressure on Blatter has grown after FIFA published a Swiss prosecutor's report last Wednesday confirming Havelange accepted kickbacks from marketing agency, International Sport and Leisure, in the 1990s, while Blatter was a senior FIFA official.
Blatter acknowledges he knew about payments but insisted they were legal in Switzerland at the time.
The 76-year-old Swiss took over from Havelange in 1998. He told Sonntags Blick he won't rule out standing for another term in 2015.
Blatter insisted in midweek he did not have the power to punish Havelange after the accusations against the Brazilian.
Court documents released revealed that Havelange, FIFA president for 24 years before Blatter replaced him, pocketed at least 1.5 million Swiss francs (US$986,000) and FIFA executive committee member and compatriot Ricardo Teixeira at least 12.74 million Swiss francs.
FIFA's discredited Swiss-based marketing partner collapsed in 2001 with debts of around US$300 million.
Blatter told Sonntagsblick: "I did not know until later, after the collapse of ISL in 2001, about the bribery.
"When I now say that it is difficult to measure the past by today's standards, this is a generic statement. To me bribery is unacceptable and I neither tolerate nor seek to justify bribery. But this is what I am accused of now.
"The Swiss Federal Court has this week proven wrong all those people, who for years have accused me of having taken bribes.
"Now it is on record what I have always said: I have never taken nor received any bribes. Now the same people are trying to attack me from a different angle: Okay, he has not taken any bribes but he must have known."
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