News Digest

Putin: People like Sepp Blatter deserve the Nobel Prize

FIFA boss Sepp Blatter deserves a Nobel Prize for his stewardship of soccer’s governing body, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview. On Saturday, at a meeting with Putin in St. Petersburg, Blatter said that FIFA, facing a major bribery scandal, had passed a resolution offering full support for holding the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Blatter announced that he was quitting in June over a bribery scandal being investigated by U.S., Swiss and other law enforcement agencies that plunged FIFA into the worst crisis in its 111-year history. Officials have been indicted, although Blatter himself has not and he denies any misconduct.

I think people like Mr. Blatter or the heads of big international sporting federations, or the Olympic Games, deserve special recognition. If there is anyone who deserves the Nobel Prize, it’s those people.

Russian President Vladimir Putin

In May, when the scandal broke, Putin harshly criticised the U.S. investigation into FIFA as meddling in matters that were outside its jurisdiction. He rekindled that criticism in the interview broadcast on Monday and widened it to include Britain, noting that those two countries had bid on hosting the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Blatter has pledged his “total support” for Putin and Russia’s World Cup bid.

I don’t want to go into details but I don’t believe a word about him being involved in corruption personally.

Vladimir Putin