ZURICH: FIFA’s own internal investigation into corruption allegations against Sepp Blatter has reportedly failed to find substantive evidence against the suspended president of the world football federation.

A report in the Swiss financial newspaper Handelszeitung will come as good news to 79-year-old Blatter who is due to appear before the ethics committee next week to contest a case of misconduct in office.

Investigator Robert Torres recommended action against Blatter who faces a criminal investigation over an under-valued TV rights deal and a ‘disloyal payment’ of SFr2m UEFA’s French president Michel Platini.

Blatter has insisted the payment was to honour a verbal contract while Platini has said it referred to work he had undertaken for FIFA nine years earlier.

However its true purpose has been questioned because of the payment delay and also because of the proximity to the 2011 FIFA presidential election.

Handelszeitung quoted a source close to the FIFA inquiry as saying: “Nowhere could be found any tangible and legally admissible evidence to support an allegation of corruption.”

Platini, according to Handelszeitung, had asked FIFA for his overdue salary at least twice in 2010.

The Frenchman is also facing ethics action over the controversy.

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