ZURICH (AP) — The latest developments concerning FIFA:
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11:15 a.m. (0915 GMT, 5:15 a.m. EDT)
Sepp Blatter has little use for U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and an American federal investigation into international soccer corruption that she says has uncovered $150 million in bribes.
In a defiant interview with a Swiss RTS on Saturday, the president of world soccer body FIFA says “there is something that smells” about the timing of dawn raids to arrest top FIFA soccer officials in Zurich two days before his re-election on Friday. The arrests took place under a U.S. warrant.
Two FIFA vice presidents and a recently elected FIFA executive committee member are among seven men detained in Zurich and accused of racketeering, money laundering and fraud in connection with tournament television rights.
“I was shocked by what she said,” Blatter told RTS. “As a president I would never make a statement about another organization without knowing.”
Blatter also claimed that American animosity to him stemmed from U.S. backing for his defeated opponent, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, and from the U.S. losing out to Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup.
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10:55 a.m. (0855 GMT, 4:55 a.m. EDT)
The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin, host of the 2018 World Cup, has sent a telegram to Sepp Blatter congratulating him on winning a fifth term at the helm of FIFA.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced the telegram on Saturday after Blatter, 79, was re-elected Friday to lead the world soccer body despite strong opposition to his tenure from other nations in Europe.
The Kremlin said Putin “expressed confidence that experience, professionalism and high authority will help Blatter and further promote the expansion of the geography and popularity of football in the whole world. Putin emphasized that Russia is interested in and ready for collaboration with FIFA in general and in the preparations” for the 2018 World Cup.
Last week, Swiss authorities announced a criminal investigation into how FIFA awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
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