Pele pleads with Blatter and FIFA to come clean

Pele has called on Sepp Blatter and FIFA to come clean(AFP) 

Three-time World Cup winner and global icon Pele is keen for Sepp Blatter to come forward and set the record straight on FIFA for the good of the game.

Pele has urged Blatter to give an honest account of his time in charge of FIFA as world football’s governing body continues to battle a corruption crisis.

Blatter was re-elected as FIFA president in May against the backdrop of nine past and present officials being indicted for racketeering conspiracy and corruption under an investigation by United States and Swiss authorities.

The 79 year-old subsequently announced his resignation and he will leave his post later this year, although the suspension of FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke last week, pending a formal investigation into allegations linking him to a scheme intending to sell 2014 World Cup tickets for inflated prices, continued a deeply troubled period.

Brazilian Pele is a member of the FIFA’s football committee, which has not met for several years, and the slew of negative stories surround the global game has upset the man many regard as football’s all-time greatest player.

“I was invited to help FIFA, with Franz Beckenbauer, and we worked together for two or three years, so it is very sad when you see what has happened,” Pele said.

“I don’t know exactly what happened, you hear but you do not know, but after what has happened in the last two years, Blatter deserves to be honest and say the truth of what he has seen.”

Among the FIFA officials taken into custody in Zurich earlier this year was former Brazilian Football Federation chief Jose Maria Marin and Pele called on his home nation to get its affairs in order.

“This all happened after the last World Cup, when all Brazilians were very sad about the national team’s defeat, and then you have our representative in FIFA in this situation,” Pele said.

“So we have to forget the last World Cup and clean up.