Fifa president Gianni Infantino poses with children after the inauguration of the $140 million World Football Museum in Zurich on Sunday. (Photo: AFP)
Fifa president Gianni Infantino poses with children after the inauguration of the $140 million World Football Museum in Zurich on Sunday. (Photo: AFP)
Sepp Blatter warned Gianni Infantino on Sunday that miracles will be expected from him as the newly-elected Fifa president but there will be plenty of backstabbers if he fails to deliver.
Blatter, currently serving a six-year suspension from football, saw his 18-year reign as Fifa chief officially end on Friday when 45-year-old Uefa secretary-general Infantino was voted in as football’s most powerful man.
But in an open letter to the Swiss-Italian lawyer, Blatter warned his successor to be wary of the pitfalls that come with the job. He also said he was ready to offer his help if required.
“I congratulate you, but remember however that this position you wanted will not be easy. Miracles will be expected,” Blatter wrote in an open letter published in French newspaper, Journal du dimanche.
“I had these expectations for the last 18 years at Fifa which I served for 41 years.”
Blatter said Infantino will be allowed a period of grace but could face stormy waters if reforms are implemented too slowly for the patience of federations and sponsors.
Blatter absent as prez opens museum Infantino paid tribute to his disgraced predecessor in the job, Blatter, for the role he played in establishing a new $140 million football museum which opened on Sunday in Zurich. “It’s a really fine museum which reflects the universality of football. It’s a very good idea of Sepp Blatter’s, a museum which came from his initiative,” he said.
He was accompanied at the inauguration by Fifa’s acting general secretary Markus Kattner and former Swiss international Stephane Chapuisat, but there was no sign of Blatter who is banned from all football-related activities for six years on corruption charges.
The 79-year-old former supremo’s contract with Fifa officially ended with Infantino’s election late on Friday.
“This means he has to leave his official apartment or pay rent,” according to a Fifa source who requested anonymity.
The company car and the salary, whose size was always kept secret, also comes to an end.
Blatter took a particular inerest in the museum, which is filled with inter-active games as well as balls, shirts, like one worn by a member of Italy’s 1938 World Cup winning side, and other memorabilia.
Blatter gets only a minimal mention in the works devoted to football heroics in the new museum.
