ZURICH: Scandal-tainted FIFA’s ethics watchdog was locked in talks on Wednesday to decide the fate of world football President Sepp Blatter as attacks on the veteran sports baron mounted.
The ethics committee tribunal was also to decide whether to take action against UEFA leader Michael Platini and former FIFA Vice President Chung Mong-Joon, both candidates to take over from Blatter.
Chung hit out at Blatter on Wednesday, calling him “a hypocrite and a liar” and threatening a legal case for embezzlement of FIFA funds.
The 79-year-old Swiss official Blatter, who has ruled FIFA for 17 years, insisted in a German magazine interview however that he would not be forced out of office before an election to be held in February.
FIFA has kept the activities of its independent ethics committee cloaked in secrecy in recent months as accusations of corruption have mounted.
But a Senegalese member of the committee’s adjudicatory chamber, FIFA’s highest court, said it started a five-day meeting on Monday with Blatter and the other two officials on the agenda.
Abdoulaeye Makhtar Diop, a former Senegal sports minister, said in a statement: “the members will focus on the topics of the Swiss Sepp Blatter, FIFA president, the Frenchman Michel Platini, president of UEFA, and the South Korean Chung Mong-Joon.”
FIFA officials refused to comment on the disclosure.
But the world body, fighting off multiple corruption accusations, has been forced to consider suspending its president since Swiss authorities opened an investigation for “criminal mismanagement” against Blatter.
Platini has also been implicated in the investigation because of a two million dollar (1.78 million euros) payment made to the French football legend in 2011.
FIFA’s secretary general Jerome Valcke was suspended last month following press allegations that linked him to the sale of World Cup tickets at inflated prices.
Blatter won a fifth term of office on May 29, despite a major storm over a US inquiry into the football business. But four days later he announced he would stand down when a new election is held on February 26.
Despite the new allegations, Blatter said he will carry on until the election.
“I will fight until Feb.26. For me. And for FIFA,” he told Bunte, a German magazine.
“I am convinced that evil will come into the light and good will triumph.”
Platini had been favorite to win the election until the Swiss investigation named him. His entourage said that he did not appear before the FIFA commission this week and that he feels he has done nothing wrong.
“The president feels that he has given satisfactory explanations to the authorities that are dealing with this case,” Platini’s spokesman, Pedro Pinto, told reporters in London.
Platini, Chung and Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein, a former FIFA vice president from Jordan, are the main candidates for the election so far.
Chung is under investigation because of his lobbying for South Korea’s bid for the 2022 World Cup, which Qatar controversially won.
The South Korean tycoon says FIFA has cleared him of the charges once in 2012 and that the new charges are part of a Blatter campaign to block his bid for the presidency.
Chung returned to the attack on Wednesday at the Leaders Sport Business convention in London, saying Swiss lawyers could launch a $100 million “embezzlement” case against Blatter.
Chung, a FIFA vice president for 17 years until 2011, condemned what he called Blatter’s “secretive” ways in not declaring his salary and taking payments without permission.
He said Blatter had “repeatedly meddled” in the elections of major football confederations and FIFA votes.
“FIFA has become a badge of shame,” he said. “In short Mr.Blatter is a hypocrite and a liar.”
Chung said the FIFA ethics committee has sought a 15-year ban against him. He called it a “smear campaign” by Blatter.
FIFA tribunal to decide Blatter’s fate
FIFA tribunal to decide Blatter’s fate
How Saudi football scored in the runup to 2026 FIFA World Cup
- Saudi Pro League asserted global dominance with star-studded lineups and record-breaking performances from Asia’s elite top-tier clubs
- Domestic leagues reached new heights, yet the national team faces mounting pressure ahead of a high-stakes global tournament
DUBAI: FIFA President Gianni Infantino seemed full of optimism on Dec. 21 when he said Saudi Arabia had become a major hub on the global football stage and that the Saudi Pro League was on track to become one of the top three in the world.
With players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema and a nation crazy about the great game, this endorsement perhaps comes as little surprise.
Infantino also predicted a successful World Cup in 2034 when the tournament will be hosted by Saudi Arabia. With infrastructure being built and upgraded, the Expo 2030 venue under construction, and reforms underway, the World Cup seems destined to be a success.
The FIFA boss also praised the progress made not only at the senior national team level and across youth categories, but also in the women’s game, thanks to the backing of football authorities in recent years.
While this paints a positive picture of the game in the Kingdom, it follows the national team’s 1-0 loss to Jordan in the semi-finals of the 2025 Arab Cup. Many supporters will need far more convincing of the team’s prospects going into the New Year.
Although the return of Herve Renard as coach of the Green Falcons following Roberto Mancini’s disappointing stint has resulted in a second consecutive World Cup qualification (and seventh overall), failure to win the Arab Cup in Qatar and some less than inspiring performances means the jury is still out on the Frenchman.
At the 2026 World Cup, Saudi Arabia will face Uruguay, European champions Spain, and Cape Verde in their three Group H matches, taking place in Miami, Atlanta, and Houston respectively.
Saudi fans sharing Infantino’s positive outlook will hope Renard’s men can emulate the historic win over Argentina on that memorable night at Lusail Stadium in 2022. But that is far easier said than done, and many remain unconvinced.
For a start, just as Poland and Mexico were alerted to Saudi Arabia’s potential following that humbling of Lionel Messi and co in Qatar, their opponents in the US will likewise be on their guard this time around.
Worryingly for Saudi fans, the team has rarely, if at all, hit the same highs since Saleh Al-Shehri’s equalizer and Salem Al-Dawsari’s stunning strike brought about arguably the most famous win in the Green Falcons’ history.
The 2023 AFC Asian Cup, played in early 2024 and only months after Mancini’s arrival, saw Saudi Arabia eliminated by South Korea on penalties in the round of 16.
World Cup qualification was eventually secured but not before the team needed to negotiate a fourth round group that included Iraq and Indonesia in October.
The semi-final exit at the Arab Cups prompted rumors — immediately denied by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation — that Renard’s job was under threat. Still, it was hardly a ringing endorsement of the way things had turned out on his second stint as national team coach.
Outspoken Saudi-based football pundit Battal Algoos has been scathing in his criticism of Renard and his employers, and in particular of the excuses for the Arab Cup disappointment.
“It seems to be a contagion that has affected the Saudi camp,” he said on the football show “Filmarma” on Al Arabiya.
“Everyone justifies (their position) through others’ failures. We brought you to win a championship, not to say ‘those before me didn’t win championships, I’m no worse than them’.
“It seems to be contagious, from (SAFF President) Yasser Al-Misehal to Renard. Or their thinking is one and the same.”
Paul Williams, Australian journalist and founder and presenter of “The Asian Game” podcast, was at Lusail Stadium the day Saudi Arabia beat the eventual world champions, but believes urgent fixes are needed by Renard this time round.
“There are a multitude of areas that Saudi Arabia need to improve,” he told Arab News. “The obvious is in the final third, where there are still issues finding a reliable avenue to goal, an issue that blighted most of their qualification campaign.
“But they also haven’t yet found a capable replacement in midfield for Salman Al-Faraj, and the entire narrative around Saudi football has changed since before 2022.
“There has always been pressure and expectation from the fans, but that is even more intense now and it feels like that sits heavily on the squad, who are yet to prove they are capable of delivering under that burden of expectation.”
The team’s main concern remains, as it was four years ago in Qatar, its lack of fire power up front and an over-reliance on Al-Dawsari for goals and inspiration. In that sense, at least the 34-year-old talisman can still be relied on.
The Al-Hilal and Saudi Arabia captain provided one of the highlights of 2025 when he was named AFC Player of the Year at the awards ceremony in Riyadh. Al-Dawsari is the only Saudi to have won the Asian award twice.
On an individual level, he enjoyed a stellar 2024-25 season with his club, although Al-Hilal lost out on the Saudi Pro League title to a Benzema-inspired Al-Ittihad.
Al-Dawsari and Al-Hilal came back strongly in the summer to reach the quarter-finals of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup in the US, along the way drawing 1-1 with Real Madrid in the group stage and brilliantly beating Manchester City 4-3 in the round of 16.
Domestically, however, it is their local rivals that have stolen all the headlines, with their lead at the top of the SPL delighting millions of fans around the world and perhaps in the process reinforcing Infantino’s estimation of the league.
Al-Nassr, now managed by former Al-Hilal boss Jorge Jesus and inspired by the relentlessly enduring Ronaldo, look near invincible at the top of the table, having won all nine matches during this campaign.
The coronation that their fans and the Portuguese legend’s army of global followers had envisioned since he landed in Riyadh three years ago is looking increasingly likely to happen in May. Their end of year report card is glowing 9 out of 10.
Al-Hilal, the self-styled Real Madrid of Asia, can never be counted out however, and the title race in 2026 could be one of the most exciting and close in recent years.
Reigning champions Al-Ittihad, on the other hand, have put up a dismal defense of their title resulting in the sacking of Laurent Blanc, who was succeeded by Sergio Conceicao. Their card will read “must do better.”
Al-Ahli provided further evidence of the SPL’s continental dominance by claiming the 2025 AFC Champions League Elite after beating Japan’s Kawasaki Frontale 2-0 in Jeddah last May.
Elsewhere, Aramco-owned Al-Qadsiah and newly promoted NEOM provide intriguing plot lines as they sit in fifth and eighth respectively, while Al-Taawoun continue to punch above their weight in third.
One of the standout personalities of the season has been US investor Ben Harburg who — through Harburg Group — acquired 100 percent of Al-Kholood in July, making it the first Saudi club wholly owned by a foreign entity. The purchase opens up new possibilities for the SPL.
There is little debate now that the SPL is the most powerful and entertaining in Asia and could in future years, if Infantino is right, become one of the world’s best. The national team’s standing however, until the 2026 World Cup at least, remains up in the air.
