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Blatter Quits As FIFA Corruption Pressure Mounts
Zurich (AFP) – Sepp Blatter on Tuesday resigned as president of FIFA in a stunning capitulation to critics as a mounting corruption scandal engulfed world football’s governing body.
“I don’t feel I have a mandate from the entire world of football,” Blatter, who defiantly rejected calls to quit for several months, calmly told a press conference at FIFA’s Zurich headquarters.
The 79-year-old Swiss official, FIFA president for 17 years and only reelected on Friday, said he would remain in charge until a special congress can choose a new leader.
“I felt compelled to stand for re-election, as I believed that this was the best thing for the organisation,” he said on a day in which new revelations about doubtful payments put pressure on the governing body.
“That election is over but FIFA’s challenges are not. FIFA needs a profound overhaul,” Blatter added.
“While I have a mandate from the membership of FIFA, I do not feel that I have a mandate from the entire world of football – the fans, the players, the clubs, the people who live, breathe and love football as much as we all do at FIFA.”
“Therefore, I have decided to lay down my mandate at an extraordinary elective Congress.
The arrest of seven FIFA officials in a Zurich hotel last week, as part of a US corruption inquiry, and a Swiss police investigation into the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup to Russia and Qatar proved the final straw.
The seven are among 14 football officials and sports marketing executives accused by US prosecutors over more than $150 million of bribes.
Blatter had repeatedly pleaded his innocence and that of FIFA over the corruption.
“The executive committee includes representatives of confederations over whom we have no control, but for whose actions FIFA is held responsible. We need deep-rooted structural change,” he reaffirmed in his statement.
He added that as he would not stand in the election, “I shall be able to focus on driving far-reaching, fundamental reforms that transcend our previous efforts.”
The special congress cannot be held until between December 2015 and March 2016, according to Domenico Scala, chairman of FIFA’s independent audit and compliance committee.
Critics were quick to welcome Blatter’s shock announcement, though some praised him.
“It was a difficult decision, a brave decision, and the right decision,” said UEFA president Michel Platini, a former ally who last week told the FIFA president to his face that he should leave.
English Football Association chief Greg Dyke, one of the fiercest criticis of the FIFA leader, said the resignation was “brilliant for world football.”
Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, a member of the FIFA executive and both a key figure in the 2018 World Cup and supporter of Blatter’s, said the resignation came as a “complete shock” but was intended to preserve FIFA’s unity.
Prince Ali bin al Hussein, who challenged Blatter in last Friday’s vote, immediately announced that he will be a candidate to take over.
The Jordanian prince withdrew from the race after the first round of voting at the Zurich congress.
Blatter beat him by 133 votes to 73 in the first round, with rock solid support from Asia and Africa seeing him through.
Blatter has been with FIFA for 40 years, starting as a marketing official, becoming secretary general in 1981 and president in 1998, taking over from Joao Havelange, whose long reign was also overshadowed by scandal.
The Swiss official took over an international federation facing financial difficulties and turned it into a multi-billion dollar operation.
In the four years between the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, FIFA made $5.7 billion (5.3 billion euros). The organisation has a cash mountain of $1.5 billion.
But since the first day, scandal has never been far from his office. There were allegations over the vote that elected him in 1998 and the collapse of the ISL sports marketing giant also triggered a crisis at FIFA.
The past four years have been his toughest however. The day after the December 2010 vote that awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups triggered widespread accusations of bribery.
Qatar has strongly denied any wrongdoing but one senior Qatari official, a FIFA vice president, was banned for life amid accusations that he gave bribes.
Swiss police investigating the award of the 2018 and 2022 tournaments raided the FIFA headquarters last Wednesday when the arrests were being carried out at a luxury city hotel.
“It is my deep care for FIFA and its interests, which I hold very dear, that has led me to take this decision,” Blatter said.
“What matters to me more than anything is that when all of this is over, football is the winner.”
Blatter, stolid throughout the 10 minute appearance, then shook the hand of a member of his staff and calmly walked back to his office.
This post has been updated.
Photo: AFP / Fabrice Coffrini
Why Must Americans Clean Up a Foreign Sport?
The competent Loretta Lynch can no doubt handle the job of cleansing professional soccer of widespread corruption. But why is that the U.S. Attorney General’s job? One must ask.
The World Cup does attract a large U.S. audience every four years, but largely because it’s played when the basketball and hockey seasons are over. Soccer is the top sport on just about every continent except this one, north of the Rio Grande.
FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, is based in Switzerland. Only one of the 14 defendants indicted by the U.S. Justice Department is American. The roundup of senior FIFA officials happened at a five-star hotel in Zurich.
No one has adequately explained why the accused are being dragged to a federal court in Brooklyn, New York. Prosecutors there issued a 161-page indictment detailing, as Lynch put it, “rampant, systemic and deep-rooted” corruption. The findings are the result of, as the media always say, “a sweeping FBI investigation.”
And who is picking up the tab to restore decency to the national sport of other countries? The U.S. taxpayer.
In his 1925 novel, Arrowsmith, Sinclair Lewis observed the rewards in America’s urge to protect humankind. The papers could then “announce that America, which was always rescuing the world from something or other, had gone and done it again.”
This has led to noble campaigns — curing deadly illness everywhere and sending troops on solely humanitarian missions. It’s mystifying, though, how reforming a sport most Americans ignore, corrupted by officials in other countries, got on the American to-do list.
It pains one to agree with Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s Swiss president, but he’s right when he says that “with all the respect to the judicial system of the U.S. with a new minister of justice, the Americans, if they have a financial crime that regards American citizens, then they must arrest these people there and not in Zurich when we have a congress.”
Lynch argues that the sleaze involves Americans. For one thing, a former American member of FIFA’s executive committee, Chuck Blazer, pleaded guilty to evading U.S. income taxes. Good; simply go after Blazer and make sure he pays up.
Another reason for U.S. involvement, according to the indictments, is that the alleged conspirators sent bribe money to accounts at U.S. banks. Well, money involving almost everything goes through U.S. banks. No one is accusing the banks of wrongdoing.
Finally — and this reason is almost funny — some of the alleged malefactors supposedly discussed bribe payments at meetings in Miami and in Queens, New York. Investigators surely know that illegal payments, kickbacks and bribes that actually affect Americans are plentiful and awaiting discovery in Miami and Queens.
Defending the honor of professional soccer should be in the interests of the teams, the advertisers, associated businesses and fans. The growing tawdriness and violence at the games are already costing the sport followers in even the most soccer-crazy countries.
Nonetheless, the U.S. Justice Department has piled on its shoulders the work of saving this foreign sport from the foreigners ruining it. “Enough is enough,” Lynch boldly proclaims. But isn’t it ultimately up to the people who patronize soccer to say when they’ve had enough?
Fans in other countries are now thanking Lynch for her efforts. Why wouldn’t they? Americans are doing the work their governments should be doing but won’t, especially if Americans are marching in to set things aright.
Let’s start practicing indifference to the smaller offenses that barely touch the United States. The soccer scandal would have been a good start — but too late for that.
Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Web page at www.creators.com.
Photo: PAN photo via Flickr
Blatter Wins FIFA Vote Amid Corruption Storm
Zurich (AFP) – Sepp Blatter won the FIFA presidency for a fifth time Friday after his challenger Prince Ali bin al Hussein withdrew just before a scheduled second round.
The veteran Swiss powerbroker fell seven votes short of the required 140 majority in the first round of voting.
Just before the second round was about to start the Jordanian prince, a FIFA vice president who had campaigned on the need for reform, withdrew thanking those “brave enough” to vote for him.
Blatter, 79, has been FIFA’s president since 1998 and has defied European calls to stand down as corruption scandals tarnish the multi-billion dollar body’s image.
Photo: AFP / Fabrice Coffrini
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