Blatter’s exit gives FIFA sudden blast of fresh air
Sepp Blatter won the FIFA presidential election last week, but even the ultimate autocrat realized his gig riding atop a sewer of sporting corruption was up.
The question of whether he jumped or was pushed from his perch as one of the most powerful executives in world sport seemed to line up with a New York Times report that Blatter is the focus of a corruption investigation by U. S. law enforcement officials.
His resignation, announced Tuesday at a surprise news conference in Zurich, Switzerland, provides an immediate blast of fresh air for the soccer body on the cusp of the Women’s World Cup in Canada.
It also suggests that even for the imperious Blatter, canny political operator though he has been, the growing pile of indictments on charges of bribery, corruption and wire fraud brought against senior FIFA officials by U. S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch has proved too damaging to the 79- year- old sporting leader’s credibility.
Amid fresh charges of bribery in the millions of dollars dating back decades, Blatter’s ability to lead the organization he ran for 17 years as president and served for 40 years in various capacities had been crippled.
“Although the members of FIFA have given me the new mandate, this mandate does not seem to be supported by everybody in the world of football,” Blatter said, speaking in French as he delivered that massive understatement.
Blatter last Friday won a fifth four- year term as president, although a large cluster of countries, including the United States, Canada and Great Britain, voted against him this time and emphatically urged change.
Saying “FIFA needs a profound restructuring,” Blatter acknowledged the need for reform in the sporting body. His abrupt resignation underscores that Blatter obviously knows he is not the man to lead sweeping reform.
Blatter is right that profound change is needed. Soccer’s rotten governance is not the work of one man, not even when that man is Blatter.
Worldwide, the sport is rife with pork- barrel politics of the “Vote for me and I’ll build you a soccer pitch” variety. Not to mention the bribery the recent indictments detailed ran to the tens of millions of dollars over the past two decades.
In an organization with 209 members, many of them tiny, impoverished countries, development money for sports infrastructure was often worth the sub rosa quid pro quo of cash payments that went along with it.
Blatter kept power for years by winning support from scores of smaller countries, but for the developed world, the financial cost of doing business with FIFA had become insupportable given the endemic corruption.
That dynamic sank to new depths in the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively. Qatar, especially, where punishing heat required changing the dates of that event and, more outrageously, where thousands of migrant workers have reportedly died owing to the extreme working conditions in building the stadiums, is a result of a corrupt system run amok.
For its part, Canada Soccer said in a statement it “welcomes the news today regarding FIFA President Blatter’s decision and the opportunity that is now in front of the football world for fundamental change to its structure and governance.”
U. S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati echoed that, saying Blatter’s resignation “represents an exceptional and immediate opportunity for positive change within FIFA.”
Blatter will remain in his job, perhaps well into 2016, while FIFA sorts through the process of holding another presidential election to install his replacement. With the powerful Blatter gone, the next election figures to unfold on a more level playing field than the previous five, at the least.
Blatter’s impact on women’s soccer was actually positive, although his recent claim to be “the Godfather” of the FIFA women’s game is risibly overblown.
Still, on Blatter’s watch, women’s soccer participation has increased worldwide and the Women’s World Cup has grown from 12 to 16 to the 24 teams in this year’s field in Canada.
Blatter didn’t know what to expect when FIFA awarded the Women’s under- 19 World Cup to Canada in 2002, but the massive crowds that filled Commonwealth Stadium have proven to be a landmark for the women’s game.
The success of that tournament also helped Canada land the men’s U- 20 World Cup in 2007, the women’s U- 19 tournament last year and this year’s World Cup.
For many, Blatter’s periodic sexist remarks — he once suggested the women wear tighter shorts, not unlike the beach volleyball players — undermined the notion he was an enlightened, inclusive sports leader.
He was savvy enough to realize that the women’s game was a massive growth area for FIFA. And it has been. It’s likely that any alert sports bureaucrat trying to grow the sport could have overseen that growth. It happened to be Blatter.
Initial reaction to the president’s resignation was muted as the news began to filter among the teams and officials on the ground at the Women’s World Cup.
New Zealand head coach Tony Readings was taken aback to learn of Blatter’s resignation, but cautious in his response, saying there would be pros and cons to the longtime president’s departure.
“You see a lot of experience in those types of people,” said Readings. “They’ve been in the top positions in FIFA for a long time.
“Yet, change is always good for our game. The women’s game is a good example ... the game is so much quicker now on the pitch, so much more popular off the pitch.
“And that’s just a ( result) of constant change. I’m sure there will be some benefits ( to Blatter resigning); I’m sure there will be some negatives, as well.”
For Blatter, the negatives slopping out of the massive swill barrel of corruption finally swamped the positives.
There is a reason men like Blatter remain in power so long, of course. And with law enforcement authorities now on his case, Blatter knew it was time to quit.