Franz Beckenbauer was full of praise for Sepp Blatter and blamed corruption on the "system". "Without a doubt Blatter is a big personality with enormous prestige all over the world", said Bayern Munich's honorary president.

The former Germany boss said that Blatter may have been unaware of the alleged cases of corruption by top FIFA officials currently being investigated by both US and Swiss authorities. "It's the system and not the man himself", said Beckenbauer before insisting that the FIFA boss does not have to know who the people chosen by each association are, "whether that is Samoa or the Virgin Islands".

In his opinion, FIFA are a "collection of civil servants" and "irregularities" will continue to take place as long as long as there are people with a certain type of attitude and personality. Beckenbauer criticised UEFA's behaviour. Europe's governing body was unable to present an alternative candidate and decided to back a "relatively unknown individual", in reference to Ali Bin al Hussein. "If I want to change something, I have to offer an alternative", he said.