Blatter: British Scandal Is Irrelevant

Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, president of FIFA, on Monday dismissed as irrelevant the sexual escapades that have led to the resignation of Mark Palios, chief executive of the English Football Assn., as well as two other F.A. employees, in a scandal that also involved England’s Coach Sven Goran Eriksson.

“It is human relations,” Blatter said in Athens of the affairs Palios and Eriksson had with F.A. secretary Faria Alam (who is negotiating to sell her story to two Sunday tabloid newspapers and to television for more than $900,000), and the subsequent cover-up attempts by the F.A.

“It is better than violence or ripping shirts on the field of play, or tackling from behind. Football is life and this is life.”

When pressed by a BBC reporter, Blatter agreed that it was the responsibility of the leaders in the sport to set a positive example, but added that the scandal needed no intervention from FIFA.

“It does not affect the game on the field, and we have [only] to protect the game,” he said.

On another matter, Blatter said FIFA would take no action against Bulgarian International Olympic Committee member Ivan Slavkov, who is part of a promised investigation by the IOC ethics commission in connection with an alleged “votes for sale” scandal in the campaign to secure the 2012 Olympics. Slavkov is president of the Bulgarian Football Union.

A year-long BBC investigation uncovered how easily the votes of IOC members could, in theory, be bought by competing cities or their representatives.

In one segment of the televised program, Slavkov, who has denied any wrongdoing, is shown talking about how votes could be purchased.

Blatter, responding in German to a question from a reporter, said FIFA would follow the principle of “innocent until proved guilty” and would not become involved at this time.

Blatter insisted that FIFA had the right to impose whatever sanctions it considered adequate against drug abusers on a case-by-case basis, regardless of the automatic two-year suspensions called for by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

The long-standing dispute between FIFA and WADA was considered closed when an agreement was signed in Paris on May 21, and Blatter said he was unsure why WADA last week had indicated otherwise.

“It is signed,” Blatter said. “It is over and finished, and we are working on that [basis] and I am sure that WADA will also work with us according to [the terms of] this document.”

-- Grahame L. Jones

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El Salvador lost the game -- and the money.

Bandits raided Cuscatlan Stadium in San Salvador as workers were counting the ticket receipts from the national team’s 4-0 loss to Honduras in a friendly game Aug. 3, making off with the money, computers and other goods, a soccer official said.

The president of the company that operates the stadium said the bandits arrived as the money was being counted, tied up the workers and fled in a car.

He said the money was still in the ticket office because of a vacation period last week.

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West Bromwich Albion forward Lee Hughes, 28, was sentenced in Coventry, England, to six years in prison after being found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.

Hughes’ car hit another vehicle near his home in the West Midlands on Nov. 23, killing a 56-year-old father of four and injuring three other people.