Swiss prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Sepp Blatter, the head of football's world governing body FIFA. And, about effing time, an'aal. The Swuss attorney general's office said he was being investigated 'on suspicion of criminal mismanagement as well as - alternatively - on suspicion of misappropriation.' Blatter was being questioned, and his office was searched, it added. Which, one trusts, would've wiped the smile off Blatter's smug face, even if only briefly. FIFA said it 'was co-operating' with the investigation. Blatter has run FIFA since 1998 and has always denied any wrongdoing. In much the same way that Robert Mugabe does. The attorney general's office said the investigation surrounds a TV rights deal Blatter signed with the odious former Caribbean football chief Jack Warner in 2005. 
Blatter is also suspected of making a 'disloyal payment' of two million Swiss francs in 2011 to the UEFA president Michel Platini, the statement said. Platini has also been interviewed though the attorney general stressed this was 'as a witness.' Platini is widely expected to replace Blatter when the latter steps down in February. That is, if he hasn't had his ass thrown into jail by then, of course. In May, seven FIFA officials were arrested in Zurich on corruption charges by US authorities. Blatter won a fifth consecutive FIFA presidential election on 29 May but, following continuous claims of corruption and rotten doings, he announced his decision to step down on 2 June. He is due to leave the role at a FIFA extraordinary congress on 26 February. FIFA cancelled its news conference on Friday only minutes before it was due to start. Blatter would have been speaking in public for the first time since FIFA's general secretary, Jerome Valcke, was suspended last week amid allegations regarding ticket sales at the 2014 World Cup. Newspaper reports implicated Valcke in a scheme to sell tickets for above face value. Valcke, who describes the allegations as "fabricated", has been released from his duties pending an investigation. In May, Swiss authorities arrested seven FIFA officials in dawn raids in Zurich at the request of the US. One, FIFA Vice-President Jeffrey Webb, has already been extradited. The US then unveiled indictments against seven other people in their corruption case. Nine of those accused were high-ranking current or former FIFA officials. They include the odious Jack Warner who is is accused of accepting millions of dollars in bribes and is currently fighting extradition from Trinidad. The Swiss opened their own investigation into FIFA hours after the initial arrests. The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says that the timing of the announcement of the investigation into Blatter was 'no accident', coming as it did while the world's media were gathered in Zurich for a FIFA news conference. She added that ever since the first arrests in May, the Swiss attorney general's office has told her it was 'serious' about investigating FIFA and proving to a sceptical world that Switzerland can 'get tough' on financial corruption. FIFA owns the TV rights to the World Cup and sells them to regional federations which then sell them on to broadcasters. Blatter's lawyer, Richard Cullen, said that he was 'confident' the inquiry would clear Blatter of any wrongdoing regarding the contract with the odious Warner. 'We are confident that when the Swiss authorities have a chance to review the documents and the evidence, they will see that the contract was properly prepared and negotiated by the appropriate staff members of FIFA who were routinely responsible for such contracts, and certainly no mismanagement occurred,' he said.
Blatter is also suspected of making a 'disloyal payment' of two million Swiss francs in 2011 to the UEFA president Michel Platini, the statement said. Platini has also been interviewed though the attorney general stressed this was 'as a witness.' Platini is widely expected to replace Blatter when the latter steps down in February. That is, if he hasn't had his ass thrown into jail by then, of course. In May, seven FIFA officials were arrested in Zurich on corruption charges by US authorities. Blatter won a fifth consecutive FIFA presidential election on 29 May but, following continuous claims of corruption and rotten doings, he announced his decision to step down on 2 June. He is due to leave the role at a FIFA extraordinary congress on 26 February. FIFA cancelled its news conference on Friday only minutes before it was due to start. Blatter would have been speaking in public for the first time since FIFA's general secretary, Jerome Valcke, was suspended last week amid allegations regarding ticket sales at the 2014 World Cup. Newspaper reports implicated Valcke in a scheme to sell tickets for above face value. Valcke, who describes the allegations as "fabricated", has been released from his duties pending an investigation. In May, Swiss authorities arrested seven FIFA officials in dawn raids in Zurich at the request of the US. One, FIFA Vice-President Jeffrey Webb, has already been extradited. The US then unveiled indictments against seven other people in their corruption case. Nine of those accused were high-ranking current or former FIFA officials. They include the odious Jack Warner who is is accused of accepting millions of dollars in bribes and is currently fighting extradition from Trinidad. The Swiss opened their own investigation into FIFA hours after the initial arrests. The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says that the timing of the announcement of the investigation into Blatter was 'no accident', coming as it did while the world's media were gathered in Zurich for a FIFA news conference. She added that ever since the first arrests in May, the Swiss attorney general's office has told her it was 'serious' about investigating FIFA and proving to a sceptical world that Switzerland can 'get tough' on financial corruption. FIFA owns the TV rights to the World Cup and sells them to regional federations which then sell them on to broadcasters. Blatter's lawyer, Richard Cullen, said that he was 'confident' the inquiry would clear Blatter of any wrongdoing regarding the contract with the odious Warner. 'We are confident that when the Swiss authorities have a chance to review the documents and the evidence, they will see that the contract was properly prepared and negotiated by the appropriate staff members of FIFA who were routinely responsible for such contracts, and certainly no mismanagement occurred,' he said. 
