FIFA has refused to clarify whether president Sepp Blatter was a recipient of a £16,400 watch - one of 65 given to football executives that now have to be returned - as UEFA president Michel Platini criticised the world governing body over its handling of the controversy.
FIFA's ethics committee on Thursday ordered all the Parmigiani watches, given by the Brazilian FA to the 28 FIFA executive committee members and the heads of the 32 associations who played in the World Cup, to be returned by October 24.
FA chairman Greg Dyke and Platini were among the recipients but both said they had no idea of the value of the Swiss watches.
Asked whether Blatter had received a watch and if so had he returned the gift, FIFA said in a statement: "The deadline to return the watches by any person who received one is no later than 24 October 2014 as stipulated by the investigatory chamber in its statement yesterday. Please understand that we cannot communicate about individuals."
Platini was furious that FIFA had not asked for the watches to be returned when they were handed out in June. He also said he considered it rude to return a gift and would prefer to make a donation for the value of the watch to charity unless FIFA insisted on it being given back.
Platini said: "I was very surprised by the press release of FIFA. I think that the best thing would have been to call us, to say that the ethics committee has done 'so and so' and they're not pleased.
"But if the ethics committee was not pleased, they should've told us that four months ago in Brazil, when we received the watches. They were aware that we were receiving these watches because everybody received them."
Platini added: "Because there's an article in the British press, all of a sudden FIFA says that they need to return the watches. There's something that's very surprising to me in the way that this process has played out and I do not like that."
Platini said he had "received many watches" in his role and was "surprised to see the value of the watch".
FIFA also confirmed that Longines watches worth £120 were given to all 750 delegates at the FIFA Congress in June but that that value was allowed under its ethics code.
The statement added: "During the 64th Congress FIFA distributed as a gift a Longines watch for all 750 delegates. The watches were purchased by FIFA from Longines - who FIFA has no commercial relation with - for the face value of 180 Swiss francs. This is within the provisions stipulated in the FIFA code of ethics."
Dyke said his Swiss watch was in a bag in his study among gifts he planned to hand over to charity.
He said: "Seriously, none of us knew. I will give it back because I don't think people should go around giving presents of that sort of value."
Source: PA
