Blatter: Judge told me corruption charges would be dropped

Suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter expects all corruption charges to be dropped following his FIFA ethics committee hearing.

Speaking for the first time since the hearing, Blatter said the trial has had a severe impact on his health as well as the lives of his family, but said he had been told the charges would be dropped.

“The judge told me at the beginning of the hearing that they would drop the corruption accusations,” Blatter told SonntagsBlick.

“At the end, I got the feeling that justice will prevail.”

Blatter said he nearly died in October as the FIFA corruption crisis began to unravel.

“I nearly died at the end of October. It was five to 12,” Blatter recalled.

“My immune system fell apart and I just collapsed. Luckily, my heart and brains always functioned and fought off death.”

He said even his family has had to bear the burden of the allegations against Blatter.

“My granddaughter got bullied in school, because people told her that her grandfather is a bad person and the gangster of the country,” Blatter said.

“That has hurt her so badly that she has been forced to switch schools, from Sion back to Visp.”

Blatter faced the ethics committee in relation to an investigation into a $2million payment to UEFA chief Michel Platini in 2011.