Sowetan

Stressed’ Blatter in hospital

- AFP

GENEVA – Suspended Fifa president Sepp Blatter has been hospitalis­ed after being placed under medical observatio­n for stress, but he is expecting to leave the facility early next week, his spokesman said yesterday.

“He is preparing to leave on Monday and will be back on the job on Tuesday, ” Blatter ’ s spokesman Klaus Stoehlker said.

Stoehlker added that 79-year-old Blatter had “regained his good humour ” and has vowed to persist with “his fight against the (Fifa) ethics committee ” which suspended him for 90 days over corruption allegation­s.

Blatter, long the most powerful man in football, suffered a medical incident last weekend and had been placed under medical observatio­n from his home.

Blatter ’ s daughter Corinne has said her father had been forced to cancel all of his appointmen­ts up to November 15.

Stoehlker previously said the stress-related medical incident had been brought on by the pressure the embattled Swiss national has faced in recent weeks.

Blatter has been at the centre of the worst scandal to ever hit world football. Swiss prosecutor­s opened a criminal case against him in September, an announceme­nt that led to his suspension from Fifa.

Prior to his suspension, Blatter had been in charge of Fifa since 1998. –

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