I Will Always be President - Sepp Blatter

A day before he relinquishes his title as the most powerful man in sports, Sepp Blatter already had his final morning as FIFA president planned. He said he would wake up and dance a little, as he always does (Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” is a favorite). He will monitor the election, he said. But he has turned down several offers from friends, journalists and, he said, even a priest, to give him company while his FIFA career officially comes to a close.

In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Blatter, president of world soccer’s governing body for 18 years and a central cog in its operation for more than four decades, was alternately upbeat and reflective, wistful and whimsical, spiritual and — perhaps most of all — unbowed regarding how he will remembered.

Casually dressed and at ease at a table at Sonnenberg, the restaurant and private club near FIFA’s headquarters that features a FIFA salad on its menu, Mr. Blatter ranged widely as he talked about the scandal that led to his own suspension and the arrests of many of his colleagues, as well as who will win Friday’s election to replace him and how his life has changed as he is now just two weeks from his 80th birthday.

“Every day is a fiesta,” said Mr. Blatter, who is currently under criminal investigation by the Swiss authorities for corruption. He added: “I am a happy man. Sometimes sad, yes. But I am a happy man.”

Like many people approaching retirement, Mr. Blatter seemed conflicted about finding the balance between withdrawing from the professional life he has known for so long and the day-to-day existence of his future. He has avoided making a public endorsement of any candidate in Friday’s election for his successor, but on Thursday he defended the candidacy of Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, who is a member of Bahrain’s royal family and has faced questions about human rights violations in his home country.

Mr. Blatter dismissed such allegations, saying they were only being highlighted to “discredit” Sheikh Salman. “In his country, it’s a kingdom, so it’s different,” Mr. Blatter said, before questioning whether European countries “are very clean when they come to human rights?” He then invoked his religion, saying, “You know, in the Bible, it is said: Don’t judge, otherwise you will be judged.”

Of course, Mr. Blatter is dealing with judgments on several fronts. In addition to the ongoing Swiss corruption probe of his actions as FIFA president, a separate United States investigation is continuing; he is not among the dozens of former colleagues charged in the case. On Wednesday, FIFA’s appeals committee reduced Mr. Blatter’s suspension to six years from eight, citing his long service to global soccer. Noting that Michel Platini, the president of European soccer’s governing body who was suspended along with Mr. Blatter over what FIFA has called an improper payment of about $2 million, also had his suspension similarly reduced, Mr. Blatter laughed and shook his head.

“This ban of six years, eight years, 20 years — whatever it is, it will not be upheld by the tribunal,” Mr. Blatter said, referring to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. “In their ruling, they took out bribery and corruption —– so what is left if there is no bribery and corruption? It’s not logical.”

He smiled. “I have also worked double than Platini — they should have given me four years reduction, not two,” he said. “He is 60 and I am 80.”

“No man is a prophet in his own country,” he said. “The Swiss authorities here treated me like I was the last of the gangsters in the world.”

Mr. Blatter was not downbeat, though. He variously discussed his interest in music (he enjoys playing a set of Caribbean drums he has in his apartment), his appreciation for American professional baseball stadiums (“the catering is amazing”), and his delight over reconnecting with his longtime girlfriend (“I have found love”).

Mr. Blatter often returned to his own legacy, however, and said that he believes that his time as FIFA’s president may best be defined by how he helped make soccer a universally beloved institution.

Mr. Blatter noted that the terrorist attacks at the Stade de France near Paris last November “were only outside the stadium,” adding that, “So far, all these outlaw groups, they have never attacked football because they know and they feel that football is for everybody.”

He continued: “And no footballers have been killed while playing. I think football is something that puts people together that gives them hope.”

Mr. Blatter also said he had reconnected with his Catholic faith since being suspended in early October. After paying a visit to his parents’ gravestones in his hometown, Visp, last November, Mr. Blatter said he fell seriously ill and was hospitalized following “a total breakdown of the immune system.”

Since returning to good health — he is 93 percent well, he said — Mr. Blatter has spent his days balancing enforced retirement with obsessive politicking. He watches soccer matches on one of the five televisions in his apartment here, and he has conducted frequent meetings with soccer officials, his finger every bit on the pulse of international sport as it was when he had an office in FIFA.

Some observers have noted that Mr. Blatter’s six-year suspension would expire in time for him to play a role in the staging of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar — a tournament that was awarded controversially during his tenure — but Mr. Blatter said he had no interest in returning to soccer as anything more than a spectator.

“Enough is enough,” he said. “I will always be a president.”