One week after the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. attorney general announced the arrests of seven leading FIFA officials, the organization’s leader and the man once referred to as “Roger Goodell’s a**hole” by John Oliver is set to resign.
Sepp Blatter, the president of the International Federation of Association Football (or FIFA), said Tuesday he will be stepping down from his position amid widespread corruption charges levied against the organization.
The FBI announced federal indictments against 14 soccer officials, all of whom played major roles in the organization’s many corrupted business ventures. The corruption charges involve bribes affecting votes for future World Cup host sites and kickbacks from sports marketing firms to FIFA officials in exchange for media rights.
The corruption that took place under Blatter’s watch was so gross and extensive that $110 million in bribes were given in exchange for the 2016 Copa America Centenario (the de facto North, Central and South American championship tournament) to be played in the United States.
Additional bribes were handed out during the World Cup votes for 2010, 2018 and 2022, in which hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes were exchanged. Consequently, the 2018 World Cup will be played in Russia’s Siberian tundra and, as far as the 2022 World Cupin Qatar goes, temperatures tend to hover around 120 degrees in the summer, leading to the time frame of the tournament changing from the traditional months of June and July to November and December.
Blatter maintained his innocence, claiming that the United Kingdom and United States were jealous after losing out on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup votes, respectively.
However, by announcing his resignation from FIFA a mere eight days later, Blatter is starting to look more and more like the gluttonous monster that we all suspected him to be.
By insulating himself from the widespread and rampant corruption around him, Blatter maintained plausible deniability and ensured that he wouldn’t be going down with the ship.
But though Blatter escaped criminal charges and U.S. prosecution, he is far from in the clear. His dirty laundry has made it out into the open, and something stinks.
Anyone with half a brain and a moral compass knows that Blatter is surely a criminal; the fingerprints just haven’t been found yet. But with the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice working with foreign governments and agencies on six continents, it won’t be much longer before the evidence surfaces.
Blatter must have sensed the water getting hot and decided to hop out of the tub while he still could in an attempt to save face, but in doing so, he’s left FIFA in shambles. Billions of dollars intended for children in developing third-world countries have been forever squandered.
Meanwhile, Blatter slips away from the sport like an anti-Robin Hood, stealing from the poor to enrich himself and build a personal fortune.
The departure of Blatter and other leading FIFA officials (and several billion dollars) leaves soccer in a dark, dirty place. The worst is yet to come and the sport will surely fall even farther as this investigation continues.
But even if Blatter is able to escape prosecution and the grasp of law enforcement, FIFA will assume new leadership and rise from the ashes. And in time, we might finally be able to again appreciate the beautiful game.