Sepp Blatter accuses Gianni Infantino of disrespecting him
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has accused his replacement Gianni Infantino of disrespecting him.
The 80-year-old is facing up to life after football after he lost his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against his suspension from football-related activity.
Blatter, who was president of the governing body between 1998 and 2015, and former UEFA president Michel Platini were punished in December 2015 over a €1.53m "disloyal payment" made to Platini in 2011.
The scandal led to Infantino being elected in February of this year and Blatter says that an initially friendly relationship with his countryman has turned icy.
He told the BBC's World Football: "I have never seen in any company the new president not paying respect to the old president.
"After his election we had a very good contact and he stopped at my house and we had a chat and we drank a glass of red wine. I told him I have a list of questions that should be solved in FIFA which has not been solved before.
"He said, 'I will work on that', and he never came back. I have asked him, I have sent him a letter and I have his personal number and I was told that it's still correct because I have some connections. I sent him emails.
"Never, never an answer, never. Now we speak only through lawyers."
Blatter, whose 34-year career with the game's governing body ended in disgrace, also revealed that doctors told him he only had hours to live after he had a breakdown just weeks after his suspension in October 2015.
"I had a breakdown, it was November 1 2015, I was at the cemetery in my home village in Visp and we have a family grave and I was there, very weak, I couldn't move and then they brought me to hospital in Zurich," he added.
"They thought I was going to die in the next few hours. It was on a Sunday and there was only one doctor there, a lady doctor, and she asked me who I had to phone.
"Then they brought another doctor and told me to calm down. I had time in hospital to think that life is something else other than football.
"My daughter was absolutely unhappy with the way I was organising my life and she told me that if I said once again that FIFA was my family then she would leave me."
The Swiss is banned until October 2021, when he will be 85. He must also pay a fine of 50,000 Swiss francs (around €46,000).
