Moscow: Fifa’s disgraced former president Sepp Blatter will go to next year’s World Cup in Russia at the invitation of president Vladimir Putin, despite being banned from football.
“I will go to the World Cup in Russia. I received an invitation from President Putin,” the 81-year-old said in an interview.
A Kremlin spokesman said Russia will “be happy to see (Blatter) in Moscow”.
“You know that Putin and Blatter have for a long time been, you could say, friends”, Dmitri Peskov told reporters.
“The World Cup is a great celebration of football and everyone who is invited will be welcome, and old friends will also be welcome,” the Kremlin spokesman further said.
Blatter said Michel Platini, the ex-Uefa president who is banned from football over corruption, had also been invited to the tournament by Putin.
But according to one of his close allies Platini “hasn’t received an invitation from Putin to go to the World Cup and doesn’t know what he will be doing next summer”.
Blatter, who led world football’s governing body for 17 years, was thrown out of the sport in 2015 at the height of a massive corruption scandal.
