“I don’t think he should ever have stepped down”, Ecclestone said of Blatter, who has been in office for 18 years and been suspended for 90 days amid the worst corruption scandal in FIFA’s history.
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He says the reason Blatter deserves support is for getting so many countries into football.
The chief of world football’s governing body was handed a 90-day ban after the Swiss attorney general opened a criminal investigation into an alleged “disloyal payment” made by Blatter to UEFA president Michel Platini, who was also suspended by FIFA, in 2011. He denied any wrongdoing.
Ecclestone, who was speaking on a Russian TV station, argued that sport – and nations – should be run by dictatorship, saying: ‘I don’t think there’s any place for democracy.
He shrugged off criticism for his friendship with Russian president Vladimir Putin and professed: ‘I’m his best supporter’.
The 85-year-old added: “It’s a tax football had to pay”.
Ecclestone added that he was Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “best supporter” and defended under fire Federation Internationale de Football Association president Sepp Blatter.
Ecclestone is no stranger to controversy, having faced bribery allegations in a German court previous year.
Asked about Putin, Ecclestone said: “Super”.
Ecclestone reiterated a view he has previously expressed that “Europe is a thing of the past” and said he was “not very enthusiastic about America”.
“The biggest problem with America is that they believe that they are the greatest superpower in the world”.
Inevitably, the show host quizzed him further on this subject, to which Ecclestone concluded: “It’s hard, because, they are a big island, so they are a bit isolated; they are slowly starting to learn what other people in the world do”.
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The US Grand Prix is in Austin, Texas, next weekend with Ecclestone expected to attend.
