Blatter to make case to FIFA ethics body in coming weeks: paper

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[December 05, 2015]  ZURICH (Reuters) - Suspended FIFA President Sepp Blatter said in a Swiss newspaper interview published on Saturday that he expects to make his case to the ethics committee of soccer's governing body in the coming weeks.

Blatter was suspended in October for 90 days along with European soccer boss Michel Platini amid a deepening corruption scandal as the sport faces criminal investigations in Switzerland and the United States.

FIFA's Ethics Committee is investigating their conduct and they could face much longer suspensions when the final verdict in the case is announced later this month.

"The week after next, I have the chance to comment," Blatter told Zurich's Tages-Anzeiger daily. "Then the ethics committee must prove that I have behaved unethically. And one cannot prove what is not true."

Blatter also said it was "super" that a package of reforms proposed by to clean up the scandal-plagued FIFA was approved so easily this week.

The measures included limits to the number of terms top officials can serve and a new separation of policy and management positions, with a 36-member FIFA council replacing the 25-member executive committee.

Blatter added that he should receive some recognition for the proposals.

"One should mention the author of the reforms," Blatter was quoted as saying. "It was the elected FIFA president who initiated this process at the 2011 congress."

(Reporting by Joshua Franklin; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

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