Zurich: Fifa President Sepp Blatter kept out of sight for the second successive day on Thursday when he failed to show up at a medical conference the day after world football’s governing body was plunged into another corruption scandal.
The embattled 79-year-old Swiss national, who rarely misses a Fifa-related event and usually stops to speak to the media, was also conspicuous by his absence on Wednesday when he failed to attend a meeting of African delegates, assembled in Zurich ahead of Friday’s Congress.
The Swiss authorities also announced a criminal investigation into the awarding of the next two World Cups being hosted in Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.
US authorities said nine football officials and five sports media and promotions executives faced corruption charges involving more than $150 million (Dh550 million) in bribes.
Those actions have sparked the gravest crisis in Fifa’s 111-year history with confederations now seemingly in open warfare with one another, just a day before Blatter is expected to be re-elected as Fifa president for a fifth term on Friday.
The crisis has also shown up deep divisions in the French football federation.
Michel Platini, the French president of Uefa and a firm opponent of Blatter, is backing Blatter’s presidential opponent Prince Ali Bin Al Hussain of Jordan if Friday’s election goes ahead.
However the president of the French FA, Noel Le Graet, said he was backing Blatter as “he did not know Prince Ali”.
Les Murray of Australia, a former Fifa Ethics committee member, also called for Blatter to resign as have the FA chairmen of a number of leading European countries including England and Germany.
