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Fifa: Sepp Blatter faces criminal investigation | |
(35 minutes later) | |
Swiss prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Sepp Blatter, the head of football's world governing body Fifa. | |
The attorney general's office said he was being investigated "on suspicion of criminal mismanagement as well as - alternatively - on suspicion of misappropriation". | The attorney general's office said he was being investigated "on suspicion of criminal mismanagement as well as - alternatively - on suspicion of misappropriation". |
Mr Blatter was being questioned, and his office was searched, it added. | |
Fifa said it was co-operating with the investigation. | |
Mr Blatter, 79, has run Fifa since 1998 and has always denied any wrongdoing. | |
The Swiss attorney general's office said the investigation surrounds a TV rights deal Mr Blatter signed with former Caribbean football chief Jack Warner in 2005. | The Swiss attorney general's office said the investigation surrounds a TV rights deal Mr Blatter signed with former Caribbean football chief Jack Warner in 2005. |
Mr Blatter is also suspected of making a "disloyal payment" of two million Swiss francs ($2m; £1.3m) in 2011 to UEFA president Michel Platini, the statement said. Mr Platini is widely expected to replace Mr Blatter when he steps down in February. | |
In May, seven Fifa officials were arrested in Zurich on corruption charges by US authorities. | |
Mr Blatter won a fifth consecutive Fifa presidential election on 29 May but, following claims of corruption, announced his decision to step down on 2 June. | |
He is due to leave the role at a Fifa extraordinary congress on 26 February. | |
Fifa cancelled its news conference on Friday only minutes before it was due to start. | |
Mr Blatter would have been speaking in public for the first time since general secretary Jerome Valcke was suspended last week amid allegations regarding ticket sales at the 2014 World Cup. | |
Newspaper reports implicated Mr Valcke, 54, in a scheme to sell tickets for above face value. | |
Mr Valcke, who describes the allegations as "fabricated", has been released from his duties pending an investigation. |