Its former president FIFASepp Blatter, in an interview with the German weekly Die Zeit, said he could not protect football from political and business interference. Blatter, who has led FIFA for 17 years, said he “tried to control these interventions” but repeatedly failed “because of the economic value of football and because of politics,” he stressed in an interview to be published tomorrow in Die Zeit. .

Blatter was removed from his position as FIFA president and banned from playing football in 2015 after the Swiss Attorney General’s Office opened a criminal case against him. In June, he was acquitted by a Swiss court on charges of fraud, but prosecutors appealed the decision.

Recalling that his predecessor, João Havelange, told him that he had “created a monster”, Blatter told Die Zeit, “Maybe he was right.”

Blatter said the recent World Cup in Qatar was symbolic of the biggest problem affecting football, hyper-commercialization. “There are attempts to squeeze more and more of the lemon, for example with the 48-team World Cup final or now with the (larger) Club World Cup,” he said, adding that FIFA has nothing to do with club football.

Source: APE/MEB