ZURICH, May 12 – Supporters of Joseph S. Blatter, the FIFA president, have removed financial control of the organization from its No. 2 official, telling the general secretary, Michel Zen-Ruffinen, to stop speaking to the news media.
Andreas Herren, the FIFA spokesman, today confirmed a report in the weekly Sonntags Zeitung that the eight-member emergency committee had threatened to discipline Zen-Ruffinen, who has accused Blatter of financial wrongdoing.
Urs Linsi, the finance director of FIFA, soccer’s worldwide governing body, will no longer report to Zen-Ruffinen but instead to the FIFA vice president Julio Grondona, who supports Blatter.
Last week, 11 of the 24 members of FIFA’s executive committee filed a criminal complaint against Blatter with Swiss prosecutors, alleging corruption and financial mismanagement.
Blatter is seeking a second four-year term as FIFA president when its 204 members vote May 29 in Seoul, South Korea. He is opposed by Issa Hayatou of Cameroon, who is backed by Lennart Johansson, the president of UEFA, the European confederation. Blatter defeated Johansson in the 1998 election.
Zen-Ruffinen has accused Blatter of hiding millions of dollars in losses from the collapse of FIFA’s former marketing partner and of steering millions of dollars to soccer officials in the North and Central American and Caribbean governing body.
c. 2002 New York Times Company.
