French Football Federation President Noël Le Graët has stressed that Swiss authorities who took evidence from the organization's HQ on Wednesday "do not suspect it of any wrongdoing," according to Mark Rodden of ESPN. Swiss officials made their move on the FFF's offices with the consent of the governing body and the assistance of French judicial authorities "as part of their criminal investigation" into former FIFA President Sepp Blatter. The FFF said on Wednesday that the information made available concerned "documents related to collaborative arrangements between Michel Platini and FIFA during the period of 1998 and 2002" (ESPN, 3/10).
DUE RECOGNITION: The PA reported Blatter expected his work at FIFA to "receive greater praise at last month's presidential elections and says he wants due recognition in the future." Blatter, who celebrated his 80th birthday on Thursday, also claimed that "he had discovered who his real friends were following the imposition of a six-year ban from all football-related activity." Blatter, who watched the FIFA congress at home on an iPad with his daughter, Corinne, said, "I think that I would have disturbed congress a little, if I had been there. But I had expected that at the least something about my work would have been said by the congress leader at the beginning or the end. ‘Not even a bye-bye,’ wrote a journalist aptly. Yes, two candidates mentioned me -- one who withdrew [Tokyo Sexwale] and another who had few votes [Jérôme Champagne]" (PA, 3/10).
FIFA CONFESSION: The AFP reported a former FIFA match agent's confession that he "helped pay big bribes to football officials in Central America and the Caribbean promises to fan the flames of the scandal rocking the game's beleaguered world body." Miguel Trujillo, a 65-year-old Colombian resident in the U.S., on Tuesday pleaded guilty in a N.Y. federal court "to four counts of money laundering, wire fraud and a falsified tax return." He also "dropped detailed bombshells" against CONCACAF, that -- while not naming names -- could "challenge the not-guilty pleas entered by CONCACAF current and former officials and others indicted." Trujillo, a football consultant and FIFA-licensed match agent, worked with Media World and Traffic Sports USA, "two events management companies implicated in securing lucrative broadcast and marketing contracts through bribes to FIFA officials" (AFP, 3/10).
