Deposed FIFA President Sepp Blatter claimed that "some draws for European football competitions were fixed" using "hot and cold balls" but insisted it never happened on his watch in Zürich, according to Samuel Stevens of the London INDEPENDENT. The "disgraced Swiss is currently in the process of appealing his six-year ban from football through the court of arbitration for sport after being implicated in a wide-ranging probe into corruption" during his 18-year tenure at FIFA.
While Blatter did not elaborate on which draws were allegedly interfered with, "he claimed balls containing team names were cooled to make identification possible when being picked out." During an interview with Argentine newspaper La Nacion, Blatter said rigging fixtures "can be done" in a statement which places "yet further scrutiny" on the practices of those who have held office at both European and world level. Blatter: “I never touched the balls. Of course, you can mark them [by] heating them or cooling them. I witnessed draws at the European level where that happened. But never at FIFA. Of course it can be done" (INDEPENDENT, 6/14). REUTERS' Rex Gowar wrote draws to decide which teams play each other "are conducted by selecting the table tennis-size balls from plastic bowls." Referring to the late UEFA president who was in charge of Europe's governing body from '73 until he died in a road accident in Tuscany in '83, Blatter said, "There was only one person who had that power (to fix draws) in Europe. Artemio Franchi did it for the draw in club tournaments." UEFA described Blatter's allegations as "absurd." UEFA said, "Allegations that UEFA has in the past fixed draws for its competitions are completely absurd and therefore not worth a reaction" (REUTERS, 6/14). The AFP reported Blatter, 80, defended himself and FIFA "against the corruption accusations that have thrown the organisation into turmoil and led to the arrest of a laundry list of top football officials." Blatter: "Blatter isn’t corrupt. They tried to find something on me, but they won’t find any (evidence) I violated any Swiss law" (AFP, 6/13).
