FIFA investigators grill Blatter and Platini
RIO DE JANEIRO — FIFA president Sepp Blatter and European soccer leader Michel Platini were questioned for several hours by FIFA’s own investigators over a $2-million payment to Platini, two people familiar with the probe said.
The details of the internal investigation, just before both men’s suspension from soccer for 90 days, show how far FIFA insiders have pushed in response to the Swiss attorney general’s probe of their organization. And they reveal how deeply isolated Blatter and his inner circle have become within the organization he ran with an iron fist for nearly two decades.
Blatter was informed Thursday by FIFA that he would be suspended from any participation in the sport while further investigations are conducted into his behaviour. The provisional suspension comes a month after Swiss authorities opened a criminal probe into an allegation that Blatter approved an illicit payment to Platini.
Shortly after his suspension Blatter released a statement, saying he wasn’t afforded due process because he’d been denied the “opportunity to be heard.” Yet, the 79- year- old was interviewed by a FIFA ethics investigator Oct. 1, the same day another investigator talked with Platini, recently considered a favourite to replace Blatter as FIFA president, said two people familiar with the process.
Blatter is appealing the ban, his adviser Klaus Stohlker said.
Blatter and Platini have both denied any impropriety, and said the payment relates to advisory work carried out by Platini from 1999 to 2002. They have yet to make it clear why it took years to pay the balance. Platini suggested FIFA, which grosses more than $5 billion from its World Cup games, had a cash flow problem and deferred his payment.
The payment to Platini was made in February 2011 and came amid another period of crisis at FIFA. The organization was under severe pressure to explain how it chose wealthy desert-state Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup and Blatter was embroiled in a bitter election campaign with ex-Asian soccer head Mohamed Bin Hammam. Platini expressed his support for Blatter at about the same time.
The details of the payment were passed to the Swiss attorney general’s office by UBS AG, which is among the banks cooperating with a probe by Swiss authorities into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Karina Byrne, a UBS spokeswoman, declined to comment.
The Swiss attorney general’s office then queried the payment with FIFA, said one of the people familiar with the matter.
Blatter’s U. S.- based lawyer Richard Cullen didn’t respond to an email for comment. Andreas Bantel, a spokesman for FIFA’s ethics committee, cited FIFA’s rules that forbid any comment on ongoing ethics proceedings. Chief investigator Cornel Borbaly and German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, who decided Thursday’s suspensions, have both appealed to FIFA to publish more details of their work. FIFA’s board, led by Blatter, pushed the decision back to December at their last meeting.