Tennis Says footballers are under more scrutiny

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The fiscal problems of football players are magnified and other sports figures who accumulate great fortunes are untouchable, former FIFA President Joseph Blatter has claimed.

Blatter presided over football's governing body from 1998 to 2015 and, giving an example, he named his Swiss compatriot and tennis star Roger Federer in a recent interview.

"Why is the world of football always attacked?" he said to the Swiss public television RTS.

"Nobody ever said anything about other top-earning sports stars.

"Look at Federer, he is untouchable.

"I'm sure he is because he's always doing everything right."

The former chief of world football also mentioned that the top American sports stars are not attacked.

However, he acknowledged that the recent fiscal problems of stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, accused by the prosecutor's office of Madrid of defrauding 14.7 million euros from the tax authorities, and Lionel Messi, who received a suspended sentence of 21 months in jail for evading 4.1m euros in taxes, are not good for football.

When speaking about the case of Ronaldo, he urged the Portuguese forward be presumed innocent until proven guilty.