ZURICH: Banned and disgraced ex-FIFA president Sepp Blatter has claimed that he was properly rewarded in pay and bonus terms for leading the world football federation between 1998 and 2015.

Blatter issued a statement through his United States lawyers in response to the revelation by FIFA and legal advisers Quinn Emanuel that he and former senior officials Jerome Valcke and Markus Kattner had connived at paying themselves more than $80m between 2011 and 2o15.

Richard Cullen, of McGuireWoods, said in a statement: “We look forward to showing FIFA that Mr Blatter’s compensation payments were proper, fair and in line with the heads of major professional sports leagues around the world.”

Blatter is under criminal investigation by the Swiss judicial authorities over the resale of World Cup television rights and a ‘disloyal payment’ of SFr2m which he authorised FIFA pay to Michel Platini, the similarly-banned head of the European federation UEFA.

Now 80, Blatter was barred from football for six years by the FIFA ethics committee for ethics code breaches. He has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

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