Infantino wants to turn football into a huge money machine: Sepp Blatter

ZURICH: Disgraced former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has trained his guns at current chief Gianni Infantino and referred to him as a "megalomaniac". Blatter hit out at Infantino's proposed expansion of the FIFA World Cup to 48 teams and stated he wants to convert the sport into a money churning machine.

He also took aim at the proposed changes with respect to Women's World Cup and Club World Cup and stated more number of teams in the competitions with make them "too heavy".

"Gianni Infantino wants to turn football into a huge money machine. He wants everything to be bigger," Blatter was quoted as saying by Swiss outlet Keystone-ATS as per Daily Mail. "A World Cup of 48 teams, the Goal project renamed because he wants three times more money. A big Club World Cup with 24 teams, passing the Women's World Cup from 24 to 32 teams. It's not possible, it's too heavy to digest.

"He plays with himself because he is imbued with himself. He has become a megalomaniac. In his arrogance, he no longer speaks to the Presidents of the associations but only to heads of state."

Blatter, who was at helm at FIFA from 1998 to 2015, was ousted from the organisation after Swiss Attorney General's office started proceedings against him with respect to criminal mismanagement and misappropriation.

He was banned from FIFA-related activities for eight years initially before the sentence was reduced to six years by a FIFA appeals committee.

An interim president was named till Infantino was elected as the organisation's ninth president during an extraordinary FIFA Congress, held in February 2016. IANS