ZURICH (AP) – FIFA canceled a news conference scheduled with President Sepp Blatter without explanation on Friday, fueling the sense of turmoil surrounding football’s embattled governing body.
Blatter was set to meet international media at FIFA headquarters after a two-day executive committee meeting.
The news conference was originally scheduled to start at 2 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) but was first pushed back by one hour before FIFA announced it was canceled all together.
He would have faced questions about American and Swiss investigations of corruption in FIFA and a decision to suspend his secretary general, Jerome Valcke, last week. Valcke, who denies wrongdoing, was implicated in a proposed black-market deal to sell 2014 World Cup tickets above face value.
Blatter’s answers on a range of subjects could possibly stray into legally difficult areas for FIFA, which has been advised since June by American legal firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.