Top Blatter aide fired but keeps 150K pay

Marketing advisor Guido Tognoni is the most mercurial figure in world soccer. He was fired from FIFA for the first time in the mid-1990s and went to work for UEFA where he secretly helped reporters investigating alleged wrong-doing at FIFA in the Blatter presidential election campaign of 1998.

In 2001 Blatter lured him back to FIFA to help deal with problems after the collapse of their marketing partner ISL.

Tognoni's other job was media manipulation, whispering favourable titbits in the ears of selected reporters. Tognoni's contract stated it was "based on the personal relationship of trust between President Blatter and Guido Tognoni."

This week that trust ran out. Tognoni, 53, told SportsMail, "I left on good terms and have signed a confidentiality agreement so I don't talk publicly."

FIFA insiders claim Blatter's personal spindoctor has been hinting for months that Guido would be ousted. They say that Tognoni lost out in a power struggle to new general secretary Urs Linsi.