Blatter accuses US authorities and British press

 May -30, Newly re-elected Fifa president Sepp Blatter has launched an astonishing attack on the USjustice system and the British media in the wake of the string of bribery charges against senior officials that plunged world football into chaos last week.

As he denied being the unnamed high-ranking official who authorised the payment of a $10m bribe to disgraced former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner, as alleged in last week’s US indictment, Blatter targeted his enemies and warned: “I forgive but I don’t forget.”

Emboldened after being re-elected for a fifth term in office, he turned on his accusers and claimed that the timing of the raid by the Swiss police, who have been cooperating with a long-running FBI investigation, was designed to remove him from office and motivated by revenge.

“No one is going to tell me that it was a simple coincidence, this American attack two days before the elections of Fifa. It doesn’t smell right. This has touched me and Fifa,” said Blatter. “There are signs that cannot be ignored. The Americans were the candidates for the World Cup of 2022 and they lost. The English were the candidates for 2018 and they lost, so it was really the English media and the American movement.”

As the Fifa executive committee met for the first time since Blatter’s victory over his challenger, the Jordanian Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, Blatter said he believed the arrests and subsequent media coverage were a coordinated attempt to “denigrate” him and force him out.

Blatter criticised Gill’s decision and also turned on Uefa president Michel Platini, who had led calls for his former mentor to step down. “The journalists made a deal: Blatter out. It is a hatred not only by one person at Uefa but by the organisation of Uefa that has not accepted that I have been president since 1998. I forgive everyone but I don’t forget,” he said.

Source: Theguardian.com