Fifa president Sepp Blatter is staying away from the United States because he doesn’t want to be questioned by the FBI about World Cup bid corruption, according to a high-ranking football insider.
The astonishing claim comes as America’s national crime investigators are making their own inquiries about the murky process around the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 tournaments to Russia and Qatar respectively.
Globetrotter Blatter has only set foot in the USA once since those controversial World Cup votes in Zurich in December 2010, despite America becoming a rapidly growing marketplace for football in the intervening years.
Blatter’s last brief visit was for the Concacaf Congress in Miami in May 2011. Before that there was a four-day trip in July 2009, when he watched the Gold Cup final between the USA and Mexico in New York and had an audience with President Obama at the White House.
The Fifa delegation that accompanied Blatter to meet Obama included then Concacaf president Jack Warner, since exposed as the biggest rogue on the Fifa executive. Warner has now resigned all his football positions.
The FBI’s own World Cup probe has involved warning Phaedra Al-Majid, the American former press officer for the Qatar 2022 bid, that she is in danger. Al-Majid, who alleges Qatar’s bid was corrupt, has been offered protection.
Federal agents turned discredited Fifa executive member Chuck Blazer, faced with a bill for millions of dollars in unpaid tax, to act as an informant. Blazer reportedly used a key-fob bugging device to record meetings with colleagues at the London 2012 Olympics.
Fifa would not comment about Blatter allegedly wanting to avoid the FBI but said he tended to only visit countries for specific tournaments or football-related activities. – Daily Mail