article: Media playback is not supported on this device "Football is not in a crisis, only some difficulties," said the Fifa president. Blatter brushed off suggestions, from the British government among others, that Wednesday's presidential election - for which he is the only candidate - should be suspended. "If governments try to intervene then something is wrong," he said. "I think Fifa is strong enough that we can deal with our problems inside Fifa." Blatter, unusually appearing alone at a news conference in Zurich, gave a defiant display despite the storm surrounding the organisation. "This was an absolutely extraordinary appearance by Sepp Blatter. Delusional, one colleague said to me afterwards. "The phrase that will stick in the mind is: 'Crisis? What crisis?' - reminiscent of that famous newspaper headline during the Winter of Discontent. "But Blatter is not playing to our audience, he's playing to the members of Fifa who he hopes will re-elect him. "He wouldn't deal with Mohamed Bin Hammam's suspension, wouldn't talk about Jack Warner and his claims and wouldn't talk about reopening the World Cup 2022 vote. "After this conference there are so many questions. This is not going away for Blatter." But he ended the news conference in an angry exchange with a German reporter and talked of his time working as a journalist, complaining about a lack of "respect" from some members of the media, warning them: "We are not in a bazaar; we are in Fifa's house." The 75-year-old Blatter insisted that a Football Association inquiry by barrister James Dingemans QC looking into ex-FA and bid chairman Lord Triesman's claims of alleged Fifa impropriety had "found no elements" which would prompt the world governing to investigate further. This despite Dingemans' report revealing that Fifa executive committee Nicolas Leoz's aide had asked for the FA Cup to be named after the Paraguayan Exco member, who Triesman claimed in Parliament had demanded a knighthood from England's 2018 bid. Fifa has now published a summary of Dingemans' report on its website. Sports minister Hugh Robertson had expressed the British government's displeasure at Fifa's situation last week, calling for its presidential election to be suspended. But Blatter argued neither governments nor anyone outside the Fifa membership could have any bearing on the election process, and vowed to carry on unless Wednesday's congress decided otherwise. "If somebody wants to change something in the election or in the congress of Wednesday, these are the members of Fifa," he said. Media playback is not supported on this device "This cannot be done by the executive committee, it cannot be done by any authorities outside of Fifa - it's only the congress itself that can do it. "Congress will decide if I am a valid or non-valid candidate." Blatter is expected to stand unopposed in an election marred by a torrent of dissent from within and beyond football's world governing body. The only rival candidate to emerge - Mohamed Bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) - pulled out having been suspended by Fifa's own ethics committee over allegations that financial incentives
summary: Sepp Blatter has insisted that Fifa is not in crisis, despite the "great damage" done to its image by ongoing corruption allegations.