Sepp Blatter has his day in FIFA ethics committee court

Photo credit: AFP.

Suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter appeared before the world body’s ethics judges Thursday to answer corruption allegations as Switzerland announced it has frozen tens of millions of dollars in accounts linked to soccer bribes.

Blatter, who with vice president Michel Platini faces a long suspension, arrived at FIFA’s base in Zurich in a black Mercedes with his lawyer. He made no comment as he entered.

Before the hearing, Blatter, 79, wrote a letter to FIFA’s 209 members calling the FIFA ethics commission’s investigators “the inquisition.”

As the hearing went ahead, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, whose country will host the 2018 World Cup, said Blatter should be a Nobel Peace laureate.

“That is someone who should be given the Nobel Peace Prize,” Putin said. “His contribution to the global humanitarian sphere is colossal.”

Photo credit: AFP.

Blatter is under criminal investigation in Switzerland over a two million Swiss francs ($2 million/1.8 million euros) payment made to Platini in 2011 for work carried out about a decade earlier. Platini’s case will be heard on Friday, but he has said he will boycott the tribunal. His lawyers will go however.

Platini has said the verdict has been decided in advance and his lawyers say FIFA’s ethics committee has recommended a life ban for the French football legend. Blatter and Platini deny any misconduct.

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– Decision next week –

The ethics committee chamber is expected to announce its verdict next Monday. Appeals to a FIFA appeal committee and the Court of Arbitration for Sport are then possible.

FIFA has been plunged into several corruption scandals this year, which played a key role in Blatter’s announcement in June that he would stand down when a new election is held in February.

Platini was considered favorite to take over, but his campaign has been frozen since he and Blatter were suspended in October over the payment which they insist was legal.

The United States asked Switzerland to freeze about 50 accounts in Swiss banks linked to its massive inquiry into soccer corruption, a federal prosecution spokesman told AFP. Federal justice spokesman Folco Galli said “funds in the high tens of millions (Swiss francs) are blocked.” The Tages Anzeiger newspapere said the figure was between 50 million and 100 million Swiss francs ($50-100 million/46-92 million euros). Galli declined to comment on the total.

Photo credit: AFP.

The action involved about 50 accounts in 10 Swiss banks. Numerous FIFA members are known to have accounts in the country. Nicolas Leoz, a longtime head of the South American confederation, CONMEBOL, had 12 accounts in Switzerland, the Swiss television program Eco said, quoting details from the US request.

The United States has charged 39 individuals, including Leoz, and two companies over bribes of more than $200 million paid for soccer marketing and television rights deals. Twelve have so far pleaded guilty.

Galli said that because of the scope of the US inquiry, the FIFA case is “one of the biggest cases of foreign help that we are dealing with.”

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The UBS, Credit Suisse, Pictet, BSI and Julius Baer banks have all received requests for account details.

The federal justice office looks at each request case by case and if suspicious information is confirmed hands details to the United States. But appeals are possible against the decisions ,and Tages Anzeiger said it could take years to get all the cases completed.

Germany has also asked Switzerland for judicial help over its inquiry into allegations that bribes were paid to secure the 2006 World Cup finals.