SEPP BLATTER HAS been FIFA President since 1998 — he has survived four US presidential elections, three Taoiseachs and 10 Kilkenny All-Irelands.
Quite frankly, even if he were the greatest president in any field ever since time began, most people would by now be utterly sick of his impressive powers of resilience. Yet ‘great’ is a word that’s seldom, if ever, associated with Blatter.
And it’s not as if he was in anyway elusive before taking up the role — he has, in fact, been working with FIFA since 1975, firstly as Technical Director (1975-1981) and then as General Secretary (1981-1998).
Perhaps not surprisingly, his eventual elevation into the FIFA hotseat was marred by rumours of bribery and corruption – and these allegations have become increasingly vociferous in recent years to the point where the organisation is no longer considered credible by the average person.
Not only has Blatter’s time in office been mired by countless accusations of fraudulence levelled at numerous members of his organisation, but he has also overseen the awarding of future World Cups to two of the least popular prospective hosts ever — Russia and Qatar — even when several more viable alternatives, such as Spain and the United States, were proposed.
And now, over four years after that egregious decision was made, we are not much closer to discovering how exactly a World Cup is feasible in a country with a population of just over two million people, where the heat becomes so intense in the summer that it is difficult to function outdoors, and where adultery is punishable by death in certain cases.
You almost hope for FIFA’s sake that bribery was a major factor in bringing the World Cup to Qatar — otherwise Blatter and his cohorts are even more grossly incompetent than they are generally assumed to be.
Either way, it’s difficult to see the world’s most popular sport run by charlatans — who continually repel outside attempts at reform, who reject the possibility for transparency at virtually every available opportunity and who are presided over by a man who once suggested the solution to making women’s football popular lay in encouraging its participants to wear more revealing clothing. FIFA are in dire need of complete restructuring and to quote The Wire, ‘shit rolls downhill,’ hence Blatter must go.
