Tim Roth: I only took Sepp Blatter role in Fifa film for money

TIM Roth took a role in a critically panned film about Fifa in order to finance his childrens’ education, he has admitted.

Tim Roth as Sepp Blatter in United Passions

The English actor starred as disgraced football administrator Sepp Blatter in United Passions, a film that was widely written off as Fifa propaganda and made less than £400 in its opening week in the US box office.

In an interview on Reddit, Roth suggested that he saw no artistic merit in the film and only agreed to work on it for the money, which United Passions wasn’t short of – it had a budget of $27 million.

“The film is awful (can’t say that because I haven’t seen it),” he said. “I hated doing it, it was the wrong film but for the right reasons. I had two kids in college so I had to make a decision and it was probably poorly judged, but once you make that decision you have to follow through. It’s a hard road, being in something you don’t want to do, but I’m glad I did it for my family.”

Sam Neill and Tim Roth in United Passions

United Passions, one of the biggest box office flops of all time, emerged at a time when Fifa was the target of a US-led effort to prosecute the organisation on corruption charges. But the film painted its protagonist Blatter as the hero of the film, and no mention was made of any allegations of wrongdoing.

Blatter was banned for football for eight years by Fifa’s ethics committee yesterday and denies allegations of impropriety.