Pele backs Blatter, Warner demands resignation

FIFA boss, Sepp Blatter

Brazilian legend Pele said Monday he backed Sepp Blatter’s re-election as FIFA President last week, despite the corruption scandal embroiling world football’s governing body, saying it needed an “expert” chief, AFP reports.

“I was in favour,” Pele told journalists at Havana airport ahead of a match between the Cuban national team and his former club the New York Cosmos.

“We needed an expert guy.”

But despite Pele’s position, former vice-president of FIFA Jack Warner who is facing investigation in the current scandal on Monday demanded Blatter’s resignation. No one has brought more shame on FIFA than its president Sepp Blatter and he should step aside for a younger leader, the organisation’s former vice president Warner said.
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Pele, the only player to win three World Cup titles, closed out his career in the 1970s at the Cosmos, who will play Cuba on Tuesday in an exhibition match symbolic of the thawing ties between the United States and its former Cold War foe.

It is the first visit to Cuba for the 74-year-old former star, who has recently faced a series of health problems.

Blatter, FIFA’s president since 1998, was re-elected Friday to a new four-year term.

The vote came two days after US officials indicted 14 people, including nine current and former FIFA executives on charges of fraud, money laundering and bribery.

Warner, who has been accused of soliciting bribes as part of a US-led corruption case against senior soccer officials, left jail in Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday after he was granted bail, according to local media.

“Why are there no investigations in Asia, or in Europe?” Warner told German magazine Stern in an interview released on Monday.

“Why are there no investigations into Sepp Blatter? No other person has brought so much shame and disgrace on FIFA.”

Warner is among nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives charged by the US Department of Justice with running a criminal enterprise that involved more than $150m in bribes.

Asked by Stern if he thought 79-year-old Blatter was corrupt, Warner said, “I only know this: he was elected FIFA boss five times in succession. Is he corrupt? I don’t know.

“If I were his age…I’d retire and pass the presidency of FIFA on to someone younger. But everyone has different ideas of what to do with their lives.”

Warner issued a statement protesting his innocence on Wednesday as FIFA reeled from police raids in Switzerland and the US and a second investigation opened by the Swiss authorities into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Warner faces 12 charges, including racketeering and bribery.

The 72-year-old resigned from FIFA after ethics investigations were begun into a meeting he held with former Asian Football Confederation chief Mohammed Bin Hammam where payments were made to Caribbean soccer officials ahead of the election for FIFA president in 2011.