SEPP BLATTER claimed yesterday he saw the “fire of the devil” during his near-death experience earlier this month.

The suspended Fifa president spent a few days in hospital after suffering an “emotional breakdown” and was released from intensive care on November 12.

Blatter, who alongside Michel Platini was suspended from Fifa on October 8 by the ethics committee because of a £1.35 million payment to the Uefa president in 2011, told Swiss TV channel RTS that he was “close to death.”

He said: “The pressure on me was enormous. It came to the point where my body said: ‘Stop. Enough is enough.’

“I was close to death. I sat between angels singing and the fire of the devil.”

Blatter and Platini are facing long-term suspensions from football’s world governing body and were told yesterday that will have formal hearings later this month into allegations that they breached Fifa’s ethics code.

If convicted, the pair face bans of a minimum of six years, the same duration given to Korea’s former Fifa vice-president Chung Mong Joon for illegal vote trading — which allegedly involved Prince William and Prime Minister David Cameron.

Platini still harbours hopes of replacing Blatter as the head of Fifa, with the outgoing president calling Platini “an honest man,” before backing him to take his place.

“If he comes back, he will be elected,” Blatter said. “And then if he comes back, I’m coming back also.”