By OKECHUKWU PEACE
Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter, 79, has described the lowest point in his life.
Blatter was retelling his accounts of the early morning raids on the Baur au Lac hotel and FIFA HQ on May 27, 2015 just two days before the last presidential election took place.
“The breaking point in my life, the day I would like to forget,” Blatter said. “That day I said to myself ‘Even God has abandoned me.’ When something like that falls on you, it’s terrible,” he told L’Equip in France.
“I don’t know why they would have come for me, but yes, I was scared, even physically,” Blatter said. “Anyway, this kind of police raid is done to scare people.”
Swiss authorities — working on behalf of the FBI and the U.S. government — stormed a luxury hotel in Zurich and FIFA’s headquarters which led to the arrest of more than a dozen high-ranking officials just 48 hours before the last presidential election which Blatter ultimately won to seal a fifth-straight four-year term in charge of world soccer’s governing body.
However, the Swiss official has since announced his decision to resign as president after 17 years in charge and the latest FIFA presidential election will take place in Zurich on Friday — the five candidates to succeed Blatter are Gianni Infantino, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, Tokyo Sexwale, Sheikh Salman of Bahrain and Jerome Champagne — with a new man at the helm by the end of this week.
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