ZURICH -- In midst of one of the biggest scandals in the world of sports, suspended FIFA President Sepp Blatter has one wish in mind: getting his job back.

In the forced days off, something that he is not pleasant about, he spoke to The Nikkei of his responsibility in failing to reform the powerful executive committee, and also of his confidence about not being arrested or charged for any wrongdoing. And with the next FIFA presidential election coming in February next year, Blatter revealed that he will leave the world of football after his successor is chosen.

Blatter, who was provisionally suspended from his job for 90 days in October, was in the hospital for a few days in November. He is now improving and said, "By Christmas, I will be in full shape again." He faces FIFA ethics committee hearings next week and is preparing for the committee's final decision, expected to come by the end of the year.

Even if the ethics committee allowed him to return to his job, he would only have about two months before the next presidential election. So why bother? "At least I can prepare the congress and I can go out of FIFA at the time when I am still the leader of the congress, because I am still the president of FIFA." Blatter hopes to leave FIFA in peace, he said.

But pressure is still on him, as Swiss authorities have opened criminal proceedings against the embattled president. He denies any wrongdoing.

It has also been reported that the FBI is now investigating his affiliation in a bribery scandal regarding former President Joao Havelange, back when Blatter was secretary general. To this, he emphasized that the case with Havelange "is over, it is finished. It was solved in court, and it was solved by the FIFA ethics committee when Mr. Garcia was the [lead] investigator." Asked once more whether or not he knew about the money flowing to Havelange from sports marketing company ISL, he just reiterated, "It is settled. It was settled by a tribunal in Switzerland. They even went to the highest court. [There] was no harm to me on ethics, nothing."

Separation

Looking back to late May, when U.S. Department of Justice charged 14 people, including vice presidents of FIFA, and Swiss authorities arrested seven in an early morning raid, he said, "It was a tsunami." Blatter felt that "Swiss authorities should have at least informed me that such a thing would happen." He was certainly disappointed about the vice presidents who were arrested, but also "shocked when I saw, and [what is] still going on, what has happened in the different confederations." His perception seems to imply that the problems have more to do with regional football federations than FIFA itself.

He went on to speak of his frustrations with the executive committee. While he himself is elected as president in a vote at the FIFA congress, vice presidents and other members are chosen by continental confederations composed of national associations. "I cannot be morally responsible for the bad activities of members of my executive committee when I have no chance to introduce them or to dismiss them."

It was the executive committee that made the controversial decisions on which nations would host the World Cup. For now, the selection of Qatar to hold the 2022 World Cup is the most notorious, which has sparked reports of bribery since 2014.

Blatter expressed that the executive committee is a "government which is not elected by the people." He added: "You must always be very careful how you conduct FIFA. I can tell you it is easier for me to conduct a congress but not an executive committee." He stressed that this is the reality of FIFA, and some reforms were rejected. "We tried to [change] it, and we didn't succeed. This is a big part of my responsibility," he admitted.

He also used a metaphor and said FIFA is "a pyramid," where, "If FIFA has an ethics committee, then you must have an ethics committee also on the level of the confederations." Neither Union of European Football Associations nor the German Football Federation has one, he said. And for him, that is what makes it hard to ferret out all the corruption in the world of football.

Since the scandal broke out in May, sponsors -- or partners as FIFA refers to them -- have strongly voiced their concerns. Visa, McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Anheuser Busch InBev even asked Blatter to step down immediately in early October. Blatter has repeatedly dismissed such moves as being "politically motivated," since most of them came from American companies.

But is he not concerned about sponsors leaving FIFA, which could lead to a loss of revenue? To this, he clearly responded, "No." Blatter then added, "They have just made an alarm clock, but they will not go away." He even expressed confidence: "There is a new world coming in. China decided to go to football, and there is India." Sponsors have more to lose by leaving, and even if they did, new companies from Asia and other emerging markets will fill their spot, he suggested.

He has not left Switzerland since May. The only exception was when he went to Russia for the draw of the World Cup qualification round. "First, we have been in a crisis. This is my military education: When you are in a crisis, the commander is not leaving the command." Another reason is that his health has deteriorated.

He strongly denied that he was afraid of being arrested outside of Switzerland and extradited to the U.S. Yet, he missed the women's World Cup in Canada, and the Club World Cup that started in Japan on Thursday. In addition to staying at the command to handle the crisis, Blatter said he did not go to Canada because he was concerned about drawing the attention of journalists at the expense of the matches.

So, what about the days after the presidency? Blatter will turn 80 years old in March 2016. "I will finally have time for family," he said, "and abandon football which I would have served then for 41 years." It's not long now.