Pele has said that Sepp Blatter should “tell the truth” about what he knows of the unfolding corruption crisis at FIFA, and called for a clean-up of the embattled world governing body.
The three-time World Cup winner is an advisor to FIFA’s football committee, but it has not met for several years and he said he is saddened by the scandal triggered by FBI corruption charges.
“I was invited to help FIFA, with Franz Beckenbauer, and we worked together for two or three years, so it is very sad when you see what has happened,” he said.
Asked if Sepp Blatter should step down immediately rather than stay on until an election next February, Pele called on the FIFA President to be honest.
“I don’t know exactly what happened, you hear but you do not know, but after what has happened in the last two years, he deserves to be honest and say the truth of what he has seen.”
FIFA is mired in its deepest ever crisis, after the FBI levelled corruption charges against nine officials linked to the world governing body, and the Swiss Department of Justice opened criminal inquiries into the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Among those arrested and in custody in Zurich awaiting extradition is the former head of the Brazilian Football Federation, and a former FIFA vice-president, Jose Maria Marin. Pele said FIFA, and Brazilian football, needed to ‘clean-up.’
“This all happened after the last World Cup, when all Brazilians were very sad (about the national team’s defeat), and then you have our representative in FIFA in this situation. So we have to forget the last World Cup and clean up.”
Pele was speaking at the opening of an exhibition of artwork inspired by his career at the Halcyon Gallery in central London.
It includes an original Andy Warhol portrait, painted in 1977 as part of a series of athletes including Muhammad Ali, as well as more recent works inspired by perhaps the greatest player of all time.
