"I've finished my work in football. I lost faith in our organization on May 27 with this intervention by American law enforcement," he said, referring to the dawn arrest of seven FIFA officials and soccer executives on corruption charges at a Zurich hotel. "And the same day it presented FIFA as a mafia-type organization," he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Blatter called the activities of FIFA "ambiguous." "Since I've been at FIFA, the World Cup has always been allocated on the recommendation — if not more — of governments," Blatter said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on December 21, the Independent Ethics Committee hasbanned Joseph S. Blatter, President of FIFA and Michel Platini, Vice-President and member of the Executive Committee of FIFA and President of UEFA, for eight years from all football-related activities (administrative, sports or any other) on a national and international level, with the bans coming into force immediately.
