President of FIFA rejects invitation to testify in US Senate session on corruption
The president of FIFA has rejected the invitation to participate tomorrow Wednesday in the session of the United States Senate that will analyze the corruption epidemic in soccer organization. Blatter already said on Sunday that he would not travel "to risk areas until everything is clarified", but he has confirmed his presence in Saint Petersburg on the 25th next month to participate in the draw for the group stage of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Republican US senator Jerry Moran, promoter of the session and chairman of the subcommittee of the US consumer office, confirmed that Blatter has rejected participating as an informant. "FIFA has responded that its president will not appear," said Garrette Turner, spokesperson for Moran.
The session Senators will participate in the session of the United States Senate, the Secretary General of the United States Soccer Federation, Dan Flynn, Michael Hershman, a private detective who worked on the independent governance committee of FIFA between 2011 and 2013, and Sunjeev Bery, an official of Amnesty International. The Senators want to "deeply understand what is happening in FIFA and, especially, if the officials of the United States Federation did something to avoid it and what they propose to solve it," said in the office of Jerry Moran.
The Senate subcommittee is also interested in knowing "what role the sponsors of FIFA have in the whole matter, especially the American company Nike and its relationships with the Federation of Brazil." In a statement last week, Moran explained that "the session on the recent FIFA scandals will begin with a discussion about our country's participation in the organization, the ways in which the United States and our allies can work to reform FIFA, and how we can restore the integrity of soccer, a sport that has millions of followers in the United States." A recent survey conducted in the country offers 69% support for the performances of the FBI and the US Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, against corruption in FIFA.