By Justin LaBounty
Four days ago, Sepp Blatter gave a victory speech after winning the FIFA presidency once again. His speech was highlighted by his “Now I am the president of everybody, president of everybody, president of the whole FIFA” quote. This coming on the heels of a scandal where FIFA leaders were being arrested by the FBI while the Swiss government was also building a case against FIFA.
Through all this Sepp Blatter felt as if he was still the right guy to right the ship. Blatter had been the president of FIFA since 1998, and his time has been mired in controversy. The Qatar and Russia bids for the World Cup are both being investigated for fraud and bribery. The building of the stadiums in Qatar is being investigated by the UN for human rights violations with as many as 1,200 people dying so far in the building of the stadiums and the death tolls projected to reach 3,000 by the time the stadiums are done.
The even more startling ideas come when people find out that these workers are being imported from Nepal and Thailand to be paid $9.50 a day. The corruption isn’t just FIFA in this scenario but FIFA is allowing it to happen regardless. All of this under the watch of Sepp Blatter, a man who just won reelection.
Fast forward five days; Sepp Blatter is now resigning. Wait … What the? … What changed so drastically over the weekend that Blatter goes from the best man for the job to resigning? There have been rumors about European, North and South American countries boycotting but these are just the normal reactions to people not getting what they want.
These threats are certainly not enough to make Blatter resign. So what could have been the reason that so much changed? Was it the arrest of FIFA VP Jeffrey Webb? Was it the media and fan backlash? Is it possible the investigations were getting to close to Blatter?
There have been recent reports of the FBI and other organizations investigating Blatter in the U.S. The biggest reason may end up being the amount of major sponsors threatening to end their sponsorships. These aren’t just any sponsors: We are talking companies like Visa, Anheuser-Busch and Adidas.
For whatever reason Blatter’s resignation is certainly just the beginning of what has already been an amazing story of corruption at the highest levels of FIFA. Blatter said in his press conference that he will hold an emergency vote sometime between December and March.
Blatter still isn’t saying anything on why he is really leaving. FIFA isn’t in the clear yet. Blatter’s predecessor was known for taking bribes and being surrounded in corruption, so the next election will show a lot as to FIFA’s desire to fix itself. At the end of the day the soccer world is finally heading in the right direction. Even though Blatter is simply one piece of the puzzle that is FIFA corruption, he is a big piece.