Blatter reasserts innocence ahead of FIFA ethics hearing
ZURICH: Suspended Fifa president Sepp Blatter again proclaimed his innocence in a corruption scandal gripping the world football body as he prepares to testify this week before the group’s ethics panel.
“I will fight on for my rights and present my view of things to the...chamber with great conviction and a firm belief in justice,” he told the Swiss newspaper Blick ahead of Thursday’s hearing. “I am suspended but not isolated and not at all mute.”
His adviser, Klaus Stoehlker, confirmed Blick’s report that Blatter would write his traditional end-of-year letter to Fifa members, this time on his own stationery. “It is the annual letter the president has written for 17 years to the now 209 members of Fifa,” Stoehlker said.
EX-COSTA RICA CHIEF AGREES TO EXTRADITION NEW YORK: A former Costa Rican football chief has agreed to stop fighting extradition from Switzerland to the United States to face charges that he accepted bribes in exchange for media and marketing contracts, his US lawyers said on Monday.
Eduardo Li, former president of the Costa Rican football federation, was one of seven football officials arrested in a dawn raid on a luxury Zurich hotel in May.
US prosecutors say Li asked for and received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from sports marketing companies in exchange for commercial rights to
World Cup qualifier matches.
FRED BANNED FOR DOPING
RIO DE JANEIRO: Shakhtar Donetsk and Brazil international midfielder Fred has been handed a one-year ban for doping, South American foot ball’s governing body Conmebol said. The 22-year-old tested posi tive to the diuretic hydrochloro thiazide in June during the Copa America in Chile.
Normally used to control hypertension and cardiovascu lar problems, hydrochlorothi azide is also a known masking agent for performance-enhanc ing drugs.
Fred, who has repeatedly pro tested his innocence, is expected to appeal the decision.
ALLARDYCE PLANNING TEAM TRIP TO DUBAI LIVERPOOL: Manager Sam Allardyce is planning to take his Sunderland squad to Duba in February so they can recharge their batteries after their daunt ing run of festive season fix tures.
The manager said he viewed a trip to a warmer climate as a necessity, given the Premier League’s lack of a formal winter break.
“The Christmas period is relentless. All you do is travel, play, recover travel, play, recov er,” Allardyce told British media “More and more figures (statistics) prove that winter
breaks work.”