FIFA's Blatter denies criminality

Blatter has vowed to still be in charge at the World Cup

GENEVA, Switzerland -- FIFA president Sepp Blatter, accused of corruption by the general secretary of world soccer's governing body Michel Zen-Ruffinen, has denied committing any criminal offence.

In an interview with Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung, Blatter said Zen-Ruffinen's report, which was presented to FIFA's executive committee on Friday, was full of errors.

"I have made mistakes now and then, but there have been no criminal actions...," the president, who is standing for re-election on May 29, said. "There are so many factual mistakes in his report. It is simply not serious."

The 21-page report alleges that the 66-year-old Blatter has systematically mismanaged FIFA by deception, illegal payments, violating the statutes and cronyism since becoming president in 1998.

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In a withering attack, Blatter told Zen-Ruffinen he should work harder and stop playing detective.

"The general secretary should work more instead of playing at CIA and FBI," Blatter said.

Zen-Ruffinen's report set out a list of charges in minute detail which he backed up with evidence and witness accounts. One allegation accuses Blatter of making "an undue payment to an executive committee member."

In Sunday's interview, Blatter admitted paying executive committee member Wjatscheslaw Koloskow, FIFA vice president from 1980 until 1998, a $50,000 salary for two years and said he had not followed the correct procedures.

"Koloskow was... no longer in an elected office but he was still active in an official function in Russia, so I decided to pay him $50,000, the annual salary of an executive committee member," Blatter said.

"I add that was an irregularity. The Finance Commission should have signed it off. But the general secretary should have pointed that out to me. Now the executive committee members have been told about it, they have all said they would have supported my decision."

Zen-Ruffinen also claimed that Blatter paid referee Lucien Bouchardeau $25,000 to make statements about Farah Addo of Somalia, the vice president of the African Football Confederation (CAF) who is leading a bid by Cameroon's Issa Hayatou to replace Blatter as president in the May 29 vote.

Blatter admitted he gave Bouchardeau money but said it came from his own pocket.

"Because of Addo, Bouchardeau has been left out in the cold in Africa. He said to me with tears in his eyes that he was a poor devil and had nothing left. So I gave him $25,000 of my own money," Blatter said. "I'm too good a person."

In another accusation, Blatter is said to have been behind a contract to pay Lebanese associate Rahif Alameh $5,000 a month for "consulting services" which Zen-Ruffinen said had not been forthcoming.

"The general secretary even signed this contract," Blatter said, adding that that was just one of several factual errors in the report.

Last month Blatter gave an interview to CNN in which he predicted an exciting and trouble-free World Cup -- and vowed to win his own battle to be there.

Then, too, he angrily hit back at bribery allegations concerning his 1998 election campaign and the state of FIFA finances.

Blatter told CNN then that "bad losers" were behind the bribery allegations, adding: "The whole family of football has been damaged and this is a pity, and people going around with such defamatory allegations and information should think about that."

The FIFA chief predicted plenty of surprises at the World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea because the game's powerhouses will not be used to southeast Asian conditions.

"All the world champions so far are now in away games. In east Asia, you will have another climate, other grass, other flowers, other spectators."