Beleaguered FIFA president Blatter faces key meeting

FIFA president Sepp Blatter, battling to keep a grip on soccer's most powerful job, was set to hold a key meeting on Monday on the allegations of financial impropriety that have rocked the world governing body.

Blatter, who faced an astonishing personal attack from European football's leading figure on Sunday as he prepares for a FIFA vote on his presidency next month, was due to hold talks with his General Secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen in Zurich.

The Swiss leader and Zen-Ruffinen, once close friends and allies, have dramatically fallen out in the wake of the crisis now engulfing the FIFA leadership.

Zen-Ruffinen reiterated in interviews with Swiss Sunday papers that he knew secrets about FIFA finances that he had withheld until now out of loyalty to Blatter and said more facts were coming to light that even he had been unaware of.

Zen-Ruffinen told the SonntagsZeitung he had arranged to meet Blatter in Zurich and said the matter was not a feud between the two men but rather a question of how FIFA could get its act together.

Blatter, due to stand for re-election at the FIFA congress in Seoul on May 29 just before the start of the World Cup finals, is facing a serious challenge for his post from Issa Hayatou, the African Confederation (CAF) chief.

The election campaign took a dramatic turn on Sunday when UEFA president Lennart Johansson launched an unprecedented attack on Blatter's credibility, accusing him of exposing the body to financial uncertainty and running a one-man show.

Johansson is backing Hayatou's campaign and is urging all the European delegates eligible to vote in the election to vote against Blatter to "help end the present crisis within FIFA."

He attacked Blatter with a ferocity unprecedented in their long rivalry marked by periods of peace and hostility. The letter widens the rift between them which now seems unlikely ever to be bridged.

In addition to the attack on his management of the finances, the letter, sent to all 51 presidents of UEFA's member associations, accompanies a five-page report which accuses Blatter of provoking conflicts, protecting allies under investigation and ignoring the interests of world football.

BLATTER RESPONSE

Blatter has rejected as unjustified and false the allegations levelled against him by Zen-Ruffinen.

"I am surprised that, after four years of cooperation, it is only now during the election campaign that the General Secretary is confronting me in public with such allegations", Blatter said in a FIFA statement on Sunday.

Matters came to a head on April 12 when Blatter suspended the work of the ad-hoc Internal Audit Committee (IAC) which was set up by FIFA's executive committee to examine the state of FIFA's finances.

The move came after the collapse last year of ISL-ISMM, FIFA's long-term marketing partner, with debts of around $300 million.

Blatter stopped the IAC's work, saying there had been a breach of confidentiality. The IAC had been about to question FIFA's finance director Urs Linzi and Zen-Ruffinen to establish more facts.

Zen-Ruffinen, who on Thursday first said he knew of some irregularities at FIFA, reiterated his remarks on Sunday when he was quoted as saying: "I know of some irregularities that have occurred that concern the finances and flow of functions within FIFA.

"And the review panel put in place by Blatter has also found such irregularities. They will find even more if they ask the right questions," he was quoted as saying.

He said FIFA statutes did not allow Blatter to stop the work of the IAC, whose findings would play a key role in whether Blatter was re-elected president at the FIFA congress.

Zen-Ruffinen declined to detail his allegations but said he had proof of irregularities that he had got from FIFA staff.

Zen-Ruffinen said it was hard to forecast who would be the next FIFA president -- Blatter or Hayatou of Cameroon.

"It is hard to say who has a majority," Zen-Ruffinen said. "Each candidate apparently believes he has great support. I think the decisive factor will be whether the financial review committee uncovers something or not.

"If any accusations can be proven, it could get dramatic for Blatter's candidacy. If the commission finds nothing, then his opponents will be discredited and I can imagine Mr Blatter will win relatively easily."