Sepp Blatter has been criticised for his outspokenness, but this is the very quality that makes him such sparkling company. For more than an hour, the Fifa president was unflinching in his determination to give straight answers to straight questions, to the point of talking in rare depth about his private life and his enduring regret that his first marriage fell apart, fracturing the life of his beloved daughter, Corinne.

Blatter came bounding into the presidential lounge on the first floor of Fifa's futuristic headquarters in Zurich with a grin so warm and mischievous that I was no longer at a loss to understand how a rotund PR man from a remote Swiss community had managed to reach the pinnacle of football's supreme body. “Isn't this such jolly fun,” his dancing eyes seemed to be saying. “All this pomp and circumstance for little old me.”

The 71-year-old is in the second year of his third term as president and, although he has not ruled out a fourth bid for office, he is aware that time is running out to make an indelible imprint on the game he first played in a village at the foot of the Matterhorn. He soon makes it clear that he believes his legacy hinges on enacting a quota system, in which six places in the starting line-ups for domestic league matches are reserved for players eligible to play for the national team.

“Six plus five,” he said when I asked him about the biggest issues confronting Fifa. “This is not only a question of identity but of protecting the spirit of the game. In the old times, the football club was a local club, then it was a regional club and then it was a national club. Now, in some cases, it is not even a continental club.

“Take Inter Milan. They have had ten non-European players on the field in recent matches. If you ask the fans if they want a strong national team, the answer is yes. If you ask whether they want to see national players in the clubs, they say yes. But they never get a chance to see the players.

“Look at Arsenal - almost all the players are from outside England. There is no place for the young English players coming through because the clubs simply take players from the wider market. This is damaging to the identity and integrity of football.”

It is possible to object to Blatter's arguments on a number of levels, among them the somewhat prosaic problem that any such quota would contravene EU laws guaranteeing the mobility of labour. “But the EU has not said it is impossible,” he replied. “The exemption for sport has already been established in the treaty. It has been said now that there is specificity of sport and its structures.”

Would you bet your job that the quota will not be vetoed? “I am very confident,” he said. “We don't want to go into a confrontation so we are preparing the field first. There is a movement that is led by Jacques Rogge, of the International Olympic Committee, which embraces the wider sports community, including basketball, ice hockey, rugby union, volleyball. They are all involved in the same objective for the autonomy of sport.

“Subject to the approval of the Fifa Congress [on May 29 and 30 in Sydney], the plan is that we evolve to six plus five over time. We will begin with four home players in 2010, then five in 2011 and six in 2012. This is a ruling that will apply to leagues worldwide.”

Blatter's reign has been punctuated with controversy, most notably when his campaign for re-election in 2002 was marred by bitter allegations of financial corruption. Next week a case will come before a court in Switzerland involving the collapse of ISL, Fifa's former media partner. Blatter is confident that Fifa will not be implicated in the case. “Of course there will be many mentions of Fifa in the media during this trial, but this is inevitable because ISL was our partner,” he said. “We provoked this case because we wanted to recuperate money [from the collapse of ISL], but we discovered that the money has already gone and been circulated in other channels. But once you start a criminal investigation it must go on.

“I am very confident that nobody at Fifa will be implicated because the prosecutor has already said that no official from Fifa, now or in the past, is on the bench of the accused. In the election of 2002 many attempted to hold such things against me, but it was only envy, jealousy and maliciousness. I have done nothing that I could not share with my conscience.”

Blatter's passion for football is undeniable. Before serving as Fifa president he was technical director for seven years and general secretary for 17. “You see this lovely headquarters today, but when I first arrived in February 1975 it was like a tiny village,” he said. “We had only 11 staff, now there are 300. The growth of Fifa has mirrored the growth of the game, which has itself been driven by the special wedding between football and television.” Do you have a life beyond football? “Football has been my big love for the last 33 years,” he said. “But I do not want you to think that I am an abandoned or isolated man. I have girlfriends. I have a daughter and granddaughter and this is my family.”

Do you have any regrets in your private life? “Yes, I have deep regrets that I was unable to keep my family together when I was first married,” he said. “When I was growing up in the small village near the mountains our family was very close and this was a lovely thing. My father was a mechanic for 40 years and although life was tough, we were happy because the family was so together.

“From the age of 12 I worked in the local hotels in the holidays, bringing wine from the cellar. And then in the evenings I would brush the shoes of the mountaineers and make them clean - my father allowed me to buy my first football boots with the money I earned from this job. Our family was very close.

“That is why I regret my first marriage. I was involved in tourism and newspapers and I was not at home enough; instead I was writing articles for football publications. This led to our divorce and my separation from Corinne. I am lucky that I have such a good relationship with my daughter today. My first wife has made a life with a new man and we met two weeks ago during holidays. There is not a problem between us any longer.”

Blatter remarried twice but never rediscovered the love he had shared with his first wife. Today he finds consolation in the literature of Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian spiritualist and philosopher, and Su Doku. Is he any good at the addictive numerical puzzles. “Good?” he replied. “No, I am not good, I am very good.”

Blatter on . . .

The lack of gay footballers

“There are gay footballers, but they don’t declare it because they think it will not be accepted in these macho organisations. But football is open for everybody, which is why they made a gay competition in South America. And look at women’s football: homosexuality is more popular there.”

Goalline technology

“So few conflicting situations have been identified since Geoffrey Hurst’s goal in 1966 that it would be wrong to introduce a technology that is only available to the top tier of football.”

England’s 2018 World Cup bid

“England is definitely one of the most important candidates. The way they organise football in the league and international matches is highly professional. They also have the stadiums in place.”

Football and society

“Football is a game but it is also a mirror of our society. Our society is a cheating and a violent society. These are the things we have to take out of football; it is our social responsibility.”

Dangerous tackling

“Players who do this kind of thing intentionally should be banned from the game. Attacking somebody is criminal whether it happens on a pitch or elsewhere. It is a crime and should be treated as such.”

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