In the waning days of his presidency, Sepp Blatter attempted to save his job on Thursday at the FIFA ethics committee he helped create and whose authority he does not recognize in his case.
The suspended FIFA president had been expected to tell four judges he is innocent of wrongdoing during the hearing at the headquarters of soccer's governing body, the first time Blatter has entered the building since he was banned for 90 days in October.
"Blatter looks forward to a decision in his favor, because the evidence requires it," Blatter's lawyer, Richard Cullen, said in a statement after the hearing. "The evidence demonstrates that President Blatter behaved properly and certainly did not violate FIFA's Code of Ethics. This investigation should be closed and the suspension lifted."
With a large bandage on his face, Blatter arrived at FIFA headquarters shortly after 8 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) in a chauffeur-driven car for a hearing that was scheduled to start at 9 a.m. A spokesman for Blatter, Thomas Renggli, said the Swiss official has had a minor procedure to treat a skin problem on his right cheek.
At 5 p.m., Blatter and lead lawyer lorenz Erni drove away from the building without making any comment.
In 2012, Blatter was key to empowering a tougher and more independent FIFA ethics committee that he now insists cannot remove an elected president.
"Now it has come back to haunt him," Mark Pieth, a former anti-corruption adviser to FIFA, told The Associated Press this week.
Blatter risks a life ban if the verdict - due early next week - is guilty for approving a payment of about $2 million from FIFA to Michel Platini in 2011. Platini has also been banned for 90 days.
Otherwise, Blatter could be banned for several years for a conflict of interest between the two longtime FIFA executive committee colleagues. He is also likely to be quizzed about falsifying FIFA accounts.
In a Swiss television interview last month, Blatter said it is "humiliating" for a FIFA president to be barred from office by his own ethics committee. He also said the ethics committee he ushered in after a previous corruption crisis had no right to take him down.
In July 2012, FIFA moved from an in-house committee monitoring unethical conduct to a two-chamber group of prosecutors and judges with freedom and funding to pursue cases.
Pieth led a group of anti-corruption experts and soccer officials who steered Blatter and FIFA toward modernizing reforms from 2012-14. Not all were accepted, but the two-chamber ethics court was crucial.
Blatter was charged by the ethics committee after Switzerland's attorney general opened criminal proceedings against him for the payment to Platini, who is boycotting his own ethics hearing on Friday.
Platini asked for a salary of 1 million Swiss francs. Blatter has said the former France international had a contract for 300,000 Swiss francs, plus a "gentleman's agreement" to get the rest later.
The timing has raised suspicion, coming months before a presidential election when UEFA urged its members to support Blatter against Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar. Blatter won unopposed after Bin Hammam was implicated in bribing Caribbean voters.
Vasquez arrested
SAN SAlVADOR: El Salvador police say they have arrested the country’s former football federation president Reynaldo Vasquez.
Salvadoran national police deputy director Howard Cotto says Vasquez was captured on Wednesday in a housing complex. He said Vasquez “was alone and put up no resistance.” The US Department of Justice has accused Vasquez of receiving bribes from marketing company Media World in exchange for broadcast rights to international matches involving El Salvador.
FIFA prez need 2-term limit
Moscow: The FIFA president should not hold the post longer than two terms, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan, who is running for the world football governing body’s presidency said.
The FIFA executive committee in December approved to limit the term its president can serve to 12 years.
“My point of view is this I come from a national association, I’ve been president of it for many years. It’s a bit different than the FIFA president because when you are in a national association, you have your teams, you have your leagues to deal with whereas the FIFA president is there to serve 209 national associations together,” Prince Ali said. “So, therefore, I do believe that a two-term limit should be the maximum. And it also gives an opportunity for new ideas, new people to come in.”