Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter spent a week in an induced coma after heart surgery in December, his family said Thursday.
Blatter, 84, who also tested positive for COVID-19 late last year, was good enough, but this week he was transferred from intensive care to the Swiss hospital.
“The doctors are satisfied with his condition. But there is still a long way to go,” said Blatter’s daughter, Corinne Blatter Andenmatten, in an interview with Swiss media. “It was the hardest and saddest Christmas of my life.”
Blatter has been under criminal investigation by Swiss federal prosecutors since 2015 and has not yet been told that FIFA filed a new criminal complaint against him last month, his daughter said in an interview circulated on behalf of the family.
The latest case concerns FIFA funding for the World Soccer Museum in Zurich. It was a Blatter pet project that was only inaugurated in February 2016, after his presidency ended following the fallout from US and Swiss inquiries into football officials.
“He still doesn’t know about the museum’s complaint,” his daughter said. ‘And that’s a good thing. It would just fiddle unnecessarily. ‘
When asked about the stress of multiple lawsuits and interviews with prosecutors, Blatter Andenmatten said that “you can imagine you’ve been under a lot of pressure”.
He first spoke at length about Blatter’s health before a meeting scheduled next week in one of several civil and criminal cases between FIFA and the president between 1998 and 2015. Blatter appeared to have overcome his COVID-19 infection and he expected his heart surgery to be routine.
“But then things got more complicated and more dangerous,” said her daughter. “In all, he spent more than a week in an artificial coma and was unable to communicate.”
Blatter had a previous health problem in 2015, when FIFA’s ethics committee first suspended him on suspicion of financial mismanagement. Mr. later said he was “near death” after falling ill while visiting his parents’ graves.
“He has earned the right to enjoy the rest of his life without being constantly torpedoed by his previous employer,” said Blatter Andenmatten, asking his father “to give what he needs on the way to hopefully recovery, time. and relaxation ”.