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| Sepp Blatter |
Ousted FIFA president, Sepp Blatter has insisted that he is still the president of the football governing body, adding that he did not commit any offence which prompted his 8-year-ban from football related activities.
Blatter vowed to storm the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), as he maintained his innocence at a press conference in Zurich.
He said: “To say that it is a good day for me or for FIFA, it would be totally wrong” he said.
“You can identify me as an optimist. Together with a Swiss lawyer, we thought that we had convinced the panel, with Mr Eckert in the chair, about the situation with the payment. We thought that we were in a situation that was clear, with a clean sheet.
“We had an oral contract, a gentleman’s agreement. This was made in 1998 after the World Cup. What astonished me now when I talk about the decision today is that they deny the existence of such an agreement. This agreement was confirmed by two meetings. We have the proof that this agreement existed.
“Therefore, the 2m Swiss francs paid to Platini went through the finance committee, the executive committee and was done in good terms. This is a donation. This is a gift.
“We avoided the issue of corruption. We did this because this arrangement was in the Fifa books. You can have oral contracts. Once again we go to the appeal committee.
“We go to CAS, the court of arbitration for sport. There might have been an administrative error, but this was nothing to do with the ethics. This cannot be proven. If it cannot be proven, then it cannot be guilty.”
It would be recalled that FIFA’s Ethics Committee banned its suspended president and the president of UEFA, Michel Platini, for eight years each.
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