FIFA: Blatter Slams Infantino ‘Money Machine’ Approach

Disgraced former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has trained his guns at current chief Gianni Infantino and referred to him as a “megalomaniac”.

Blatter took a swipe at his successor for his desire for ‘everything to be bigger’.

He was particularly critical of his planned expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams and similar proposals for the Club World Cup and Women’s World Cup.

He also took aim at the proposed changes with respect to Women’s World Cup and Club World Cup and stated more number of teams in the competitions with make them “too heavy”.

“It seemed that Gianni Infantino wanted to pave the way for the Presidency,” Blatter told Swiss news agency Keystone-ATS.“Gianni Infantino wants to turn football into a huge money machine. He wants everything to be bigger.

“A World Cup of 48 teams, the Goal project renamed because he wants three times more money. A big Club World Cup with 24 teams, passing the Women’s World Cup from 24 to 32 teams.

“It’s not possible, it’s too heavy to digest.

“He plays with himself because he is imbued with himself. He has become a megalomaniac. In his arrogance, he no longer speaks to the Presidents of the associations but only to heads of state.”

Blatter was ousted as FIFA’s president five years ago and is currently serving a six-year ban from football-related activities due to ethics violations from his time.

In April he pleaded his innocence after the US Department of Justice issued an indictment charging that Russia and Qatar paid bribes

in order to secure votes ahead of being awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups respectively.

After taking charge of world football in 1998 to 2015, the Swiss helped turned the World Cup into one of the biggest revenue makers in world sport.

An interim president was named till Infantino was elected as the organisation’s ninth president during an extraordinary FIFA Congress, held in February 2016.