Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/620988
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 30 DECEMBER 2015 20 Sport SPORTTODAY FOOTBALL ATHLETICS 20 Sport Banned chief Sepp Blatter feels 'abandoned' by FIFA Banned FIFA president Sepp Blatter feels "abandoned" by the global football body and will now focus on clearing his name, the 79-year-old Swiss told German magazine Bunte FIFA'S watchdog last week banned Blatter and UEFA boss Michel Platini for eight years for ethics violations. Both men immediately denied any wrongdoing and said they would appeal to the Swiss- based Court of Arbitration for Sport. "I now no longer fight for FIFA," Blatter, who led football's govern- ing body for 17 years, said accord- ing to a preview of an interview with Bunte. "They abandoned me. I am now only fighting for myself and my honour." Blatter had come out swinging against the ban, holding a news conference to tell reporters that he was sorry only that the presi- dent of FIFA was being treated as a "punching ball", adding: "I will fight for me and I will fight for FIFA." He told Bunte that he was re-en- ergised by the "false claims" against him. "After Christmas I will start to fight back," Blatter said. The inquiry by FIFA's ethics committee began after the Swiss attorney general's office opened criminal proceedings against Blat- ter over a 2 million Swiss franc (£1.36 million) payment to Platini in 2011. Switzerland's prosecutor is also investigating FIFA's award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals to Russia and to Qatar, a small, wealthy desert country with no real football tradition. The ethics committee said it had not found evidence that the pay- ment, made at a time when Blat- ter was seeking re-election, con- stituted a bribe, which meant the men were spared potential lifetime bans. In the United States, prosecutors have indicted 27 current or former football officials over allegations that they ran bribery schemes connected to the sale of television rights for football competitions. These include eight former FIFA Executive Committee members and the current heads of both the North and South American fed- erations. Sepp Blatter has told Bunte magazine he will "fi ght back" against "false claims" of corruption Russia unlikely to compete in Rio, European Athletics chief says EUROPEAN Athletics president Svein Arne Hansen does not expect Russia to return to international competition in time for next year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Russian athletes were banned in- definitely by the International As- sociation of Athletics Federations (IAAF) after a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report alleged widespread corruption and a state- sponsored drugs culture in a sport- ing superpower. An IAAF inspection committee is due to visit Russia in January to oversee the country's reform proc- ess and ensure the criteria set out by the sport's ruling body are met. The committee will report back to the IAAF Council at the earliest at its meeting in Cardiff, Wales, on March 27, less than five months be- fore the Olympics. "For the moment they have to fulfil the conditions, but I cannot really see them competing in Rio," Hansen, whose body includes Rus- sia as a member federation, told Athletics Weekly magazine on Tuesday. "They must have a cultural change. They must get rid of all those people from before." European Athletics, which over- sees the sport in Europe, works with the IAAF world governing body on doping and medical is- sues. However, the organisation will have no influence on the decision to reinstate Russia as an IAAF mem- ber, which will only be made on the recommendation of the world rul- ing body's inspection team. Norwegian Hansen believes that Russia's Athletic Federation (ARAF), which has confirmed it will co-operate fully with the in- spection team, will work hard to change the culture. "We know some good people in Russian athletics and I'm sure they will be elected. We hope that some new people will come in who re- ally understand that this must be changed," he said. Russian athletes will not be able to compete in the world in- door championships in Oregon in March. Russia has also lost the hosting rights to next year's race walking World Cup and the world junior championships which were sched- uled to take place in Cheboksary and Kazan respectively. Russia's national team athletes conduct training at their ground in Sochi, Russia, last November