FIFA president Sepp Blatter said he was satisfied but not happy with the outcome of a corruption investigation, which led to bans for two executive committee members.
“I am very satisfied, but I’m not happy. You cannot be happy when you have to sanction members of our family, it is not a pleasure, but I’m satisfied with the work down by the ethics committee,” he told reporters.
Saying “all doubts have been cast aside”, Blatter said he was confident no further corruption cases would come to light ahead of the votes in Zurich on December 2 to decide the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
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“It is with a large amount of optimism that I am looking forward to this decisive date December 2,” he said.
Six officials received bans and fines on Thursday following a FIFA ethics committee investigation resulting from reports and secretly filmed interviews by Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper.
They included executive committee members Amos Adamu of Nigeria was banned from football activity for three years and Reynald Temarii of Tahiti for one year. They will now not take part in the December 2 secret ballot.
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Asked if he was pleased with the Sunday Times reports, which led to the sanctions, Blatter said: “No, I am not pleased about that because that is not very fair, but looking to the results it gave us the opportunity to clean a little bit whatever has to be cleaned.
“But I cannot say it is very fair when you open traps ... entrapment of people.” Blatter said because action was taken against six people in “a football family of 300 million” it did not mean “that football is corrupt.”
He added: “I am not a prophet but I am convinced that the decision taken now by the ethics committee and with the executive committee (today) there will be no more cases.” On allegations of collusion between 2018 bidders Spai-Portugal and 2002 hopefuls Qatar, Blatter said the ethics committee had decided there was not enough evidence to pursue the issue.
“What does it mean collusion?” he said, adding: “It is obvious these people (on the executive committee) speak together. You cannot avoid collusion. But if there should be something wrong than someone should intervene.
“You find collusion in politics, in elections ... where two parties are enemies during the year but then they go together. That’s collusion, this has not been banned.” Blatter said he did not think England’s chances would be harmed by the Sunday Times investigation as is feared by the England 2018 bid.
The technical evaluation should be key information for executive committee members to make up their minds but “we are not dealing with the institution FIFA World Cup we are also dealing with human beings and human beings may have other ideas than those that are available in the documents.”