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Putin Says FIFA President Sepp Blatter Worthy of Winning Nobel Prize

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Preliminary Draw of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia
FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter shakes hands with Vladimir Putin, President of Russia ahead of the Preliminary Draw of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia at The Konstantin Palace on July 25, 2015 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.Laurence Griffiths/FIFA&mdashGetty Images
By Sarah Begley

Vladimir Putin said that FIFA President Sepp Blatter “deserves the Nobel Prize.”

The Russian president spoke favorably of Blatter in an interview with a Swiss broadcaster on Monday, invoking the indictments of other FIFA officials on bribery and fraud charges and saying, “I don’t want to go into details but I don’t believe a word about him being involved in corruption personally,” Reuters reports.

Putin added that Blatter’s fellow “heads of big international sporting federations, or the Olympic Games, deserve special recognition. If there is anyone who deserves the Nobel Prize, it’s those people.”

Russia will host the FIFA World Cup in 2018; by then, Blatter will no longer be president, as he has announced that he will resign when a FIFA Congress elects his successor on Feb. 26, 2016.

 

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