The Ethics Committee investigation into Sepp Blatter has been compared to "the Inquisition" by the suspended FIFA president.
Sepp Blatter has sent a letter to FIFA's member federations likening the current Ethics Committee proceedings brought against him to the Inquisition.
FIFA president Blatter and his similarly suspended UEFA counterpart Michel Platini have hearings before the FIFA ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert in Zurich on Thursday in relation to an alleged disloyal payment of two million Swiss francs made to the former France captain in 2011.
Both Blatter and Platini have denied any wrongdoing and the 79-year-old Swiss accused the Ethics Committee of having "reinforced public prejudgement" in a "dangerous" fashion in a letter distributed to football's 209 national governing bodies.