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FiFA president Sepp Blatter stands on the verge of another four years as the leader of world football's governing body, despite the organisation appearing to be teetering on the brink of outright revolt.

Following an extraordinary press conference in Zurich on Monday, Goal.com takes a sideways look at some of Blatter's most incredible statements during his reign at the top of football's political tree…

"The source of wealth is from individuals with little or no history of interest in the game, who have happened upon football as a means of serving some hidden agenda."
Sepp Blatter here talking about about himself and his FIFA pals greedy businessmen taking over football clubs to make a fast buck.
"Unfortunately there are other pressing and unpleasant issues that also must be dealt with: corruption, racism, betting and doping."
Zero out of four isn't that bad, I suppose.
"Because I love football and I love the footballers."
You just hate the fans, the ordinary people who aren't fortunate enough to have the money to go to Fifa tournaments, journalists asking fair questions, etc, etc.

"FIFA cannot sit by and see greed rule the football world. Nor shall we."
No, FIFA will not stand by, it will get actively involved to ensure its senior members make a killing too.
"If there is no winner at the end of 90 minutes of play, we would proceed directly to penalty kicks."
He obviously never watched the MLS, as he thinks there should be no drawn games at World Cups. 
"It can also be dangerous. It can be like to hang somebody."
On football's biggest issue: the snood.
"I do not think, and the FIFA Congress are of the same view, that you can afford to stop the game, and with the camera system HawkEye showed us, there is a delay in announcing the decision and the situation can change. The chip in the ball technology, which Adidas and Kairos trialled, was not accurate enough and the problem is that you have to put the chips in millions of balls made by lots of different companies."
Blatter bleats on about not using simple goalline technology in 2009 because it'd cost a lot of money. Hmm. Fifa has lots of money, so do football teams, so do ball manufacturers… where is the problem?
"As soon as we have a safe, fast and uncomplicated goal indicator, we will use it."
Sepp changes his tune on technology a year later. Don't know if you know, mate, but it's been around in cricket and tennis for plenty of years and works just fine.

Rather embarrassing associating myself with this… | … thinks the guy in the lion suit
"Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball. They could, for example, have tighter shorts."

Apparently Andy Gray and Richard Keys were appalled by this outburst.

"Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men - such as playing with a lighter ball."
For the head of world football, you'd think he'd know that the women's game is played with the same ball as the men's.

"I think in football, there's too much modern slavery, in transferring players or buying players here and there, and putting them somewhere."
Finished with being sexist, Sepp makes a ridiculous and lazily offensive analogy when asked about the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer saga, because, of course, a £100,000-a-week footballer really is just like a slave.
"The host of the 2018 World Cup is… Russia!"

And then everyone acted surprised.
"The host of the 2022 World Cup is… Qatar!"
But remember, they didn't buy the World Cup. Even if the general secretary of FIFA said they did. Because he didn't mean it like that, obviously.
"I'd say they [gay fans] should refrain from any sexual activities."
Ah good, back to offending people. Sepp laughs at a legitimate question about the World Cup being staged in a country where homosexuality is illegal.
"Handling the past will be presented to the Congress. We have to make sure that immediately after the election that we rebuild the image of Fifa."
Or you could rebuild the image of FIFA before and during the election. Just a thought.

"This committee will strengthen our credibility and give us a new image in terms of transparency. I will take care of it personally, to ensure there is no corruption at FIFA."
Sepp will investigate Sepp to ensure that Sepp is doing things by the book. Seems fair.
"I received once an envelope, when I was secretary general and in this envelope there was an amount of money. I couldn’t refuse because he put it in my pocket. I came home here to Fifa and gave it to the finance director and he put this money on the account of the Swiss Bank Corporation…. Then it was specifically known that please don’t try to give money to somebody who’s in the FIFA."
Sepp proudly boasts that he turned down a bribe, but receives full marks for incompetence by doing nothing about the man who tried to buy him off.
"Crisis? What is a crisis? If one of you can describe to me what a crisis is, I can answer."
It'd be two senior members of FIFA, one of them your best mate for years, being charged with bribing officials and it happening on your watch.

I've lost my dictionary! | Blatter fumes as he struggles to understand what 'crisis' means
"We are not in crisis, just some difficulties. The difficulties will be solved, and solved inside our family."
There was a load creaking noise as he said that: it was the sound of a giant carpet being lifted up so the whole corruption saga could be swept underneath it.
"…"
For a change, Sepp said nothing after being asked to respond to critics who say he should step down.
"Listen. I will not go into discussions with people that like to create problems."
Blatter seems to think that it's the journalists' fault that FIFA is in turmoil, rather than the in-fighting, the blatant corruption and the sham of an election set to take place on Wednesday.

Football, eh, isn't it great?

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Labels: Blatter, calling, crazy, footballers, Goalcom, president, shorts, slaves, suggesting, tighter, women, words

ZURICH, June 1 (Reuters) - Beleaguered FIFA president Sepp Blatter called on his federation’s 208 members to help him solve soccer governing body’s problems without external help as he opened the annual Congress on Wednesday.

“We know that the FIFA ship is in moving waters, I could even say in troubled waters but I think this ship must be brought back on the right route,” he said in an opening address.

“I’m the captain of this ship and it is my duty and responsibility to see we get back on the right route but I can only do it with you the 208 (national) associations.

“You are the owners of FIFA.

“You are the legislative body but you are the decisive body. I’m certain you can follow me in the idea that we can settle the problems in side FIFA either by… strengthening what we already have.”

FIFA has been beset by allegations of corruption and four executive committee members have been suspended since October.

Chuck Blazer took his place on the executive committee despite moves to sack him as secretary general of the CONCACAF federation.

Blazer was the author of a report which led to Jack Warner and Mohamed bin Hammam being provisionally suspended on Sunday amid cash-for-votes allegations.

(Editing by John O’Brien; To comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Labels: Blatter, inside, problems, Reuters, solve

ZURICH (AP)—President Sepp Blatter called on FIFA delegations to back him for a fourth presidential term on Wednesday and said he was the “captain” to clean the sport of the bribery scandals that have soiled the image of football’s governing body.

Hours ahead of the election, in which Blatter is unopposed after his only challenger was embroiled in a bribery scandal, the president told his Congress that the worst scandal in the body’s history could be solved within FIFA itself.

Blatter said in an opening address that “the FIFA ship is in troubled waters but this ship must be brought back on the right track.” He added that “I am the captain of the ship” and that “it is therefore my duty and responsibility to see to it that we get back on track.”

Labels: Blatter, captain, scandals, solve

MIAMI, May 31 (Reuters) - Suspended CONCACAF president Jack Warner wrote to members of the Caribbean Football Union on Tuesday reminding them that they should vote for incumbent Sepp Blatter in FIFA’s presidential election.

Warner, who was provisionally suspended on Sunday pending an ethics committee investigation into allegations of bribery, asked Caribbean Football Union members not to protest against his suspension during the FIFA congress.

(Reporting by Simon Evans in London, editing by Ed Osmond; To comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

Labels: Blatter, Caribbean, Reuters, Should, suspended, Warner

ZURICH (AP)—It comes as perhaps no surprise that Sepp Blatter, after decades as the head of world football, has become immune to the threat of crisis.

Facing the biggest scandal in FIFA’s 107-year history, the Swiss bureaucrat plans to ride this one out, like he has so many before, and win a fourth presidential term on Wednesday.

“Crisis? What is a crisis?” he memorably asked on Monday at a packed FIFA news conference where he attempted to weather the storm of recent bribery allegations. “We are not in a crisis. We are only in some difficulties.”

But Blatter was clearly rattled. So often in control, displaying an enigmatic smile in the face of the toughest adversity, he lost his cool, scolding reporters not to treat his house “like a bazaar.”

He moved to leave the platform, hesitated, then returned. Refused to answer, then came back to answer.

It was the exception to the rule that highlights what an operator, schmoozer and diplomat Blatter has been ever since he started working for FIFA in 1975.

Behind closed doors, he has proved a ferocious force that has kept him at the helm of FIFA for 13 years and extended the boundaries of the World Cup to include South Africa last year and Qatar in 2022.

Blatter has made sure FIFA is overseeing a $4.19 billion budget in a four-year World Cup span and, under him, the world’s most popular sport has political clout on a par with the International Olympic Committee.

And a decade after the Olympic movement went through a cathartic bribery scandal linked to the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, much the same is happening at FIFA.

And this is where his remaining challenge lies. Blatter’s meeting with IOC President Jacques Rogge at the opening ceremony of the FIFA congress on Tuesday might have been a reminder of what is at stake—handle the crisis well and you survive, like the IOC did. Let it get further out of hand, and there is no knowing what will happen.

On the eve of his expected coronation, the bribery scandal threatens to turn Blatter’s legacy of a visionary who brought the World Cup for the first time to Africa with the successful staging of the 2010 World Cup into one of a lethargic leader who let the rot of corruption take over the world’s premier game.

In his long career, Blatter has often survived adversity, even thrived on it.

He reached the pinnacle of football, with a late entry into the 1998 race for the presidency, much to the displeasure of then-UEFA chief Lennart Johansson.

At the time, the key factor was winning endorsement of the English FA, which he did on his way to a stunning 110-80 win. Little wonder accusations of backstabbing and bribery went flying. It is the same English federation which called on him Tuesday to postpone the election and has said it will not vote for him.

In 17 years leading up his election, Blatter had already learned to deal with shifting alliances first as FIFA secretary general, then as CEO under Brazil’s Joao Havelange.

Even though the ongoing bribery scandal is bigger for FIFA itself, Blatter himself was in more trouble in 2002 when FIFA was on the verge of bankruptcy after the collapse of the ISL marketing company.

There was bitter infighting with secretary general Michel Zen-Ruffinen and several members of the executive committee. Blatter survived. Little wonder he has been called the Teflon man.

And a decade later, FIFA under Blatter made a $631 million profit in the four years leading up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, registering $202 million of that in the last year alone.

How does he survive at the top? Many credit his mastery of every detail of FIFA’s rules and machinery learned under his mentor Havelange.

The Brazilian, an imposing figure, physically exuded power and had a bullying, brooding style.

Blatter, a short, chubby man, has added charm and flattery to be just as effective in getting what he wants.

AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar contributed to this report.

Labels: Blatter, despite, extend, poised, reign, scandal

* Widespread call in Britain for Blatter to quit

* FIFA in urgent need of reform, lawmakers and FA say

* Fans say situation is a farce

By Michael Holden

LONDON, May 31 (Reuters) - British politicians, media and fans united on Tuesday in calls for Sepp Blatter to be kicked out as FIFA president, saying his credibility was shot and he could not lead essential reform of the sport’s governing body.

Blatter, 75, is set to be re-elected unopposed as president on Wednesday, having brushed off allegations of corruption which has concerned some leading sponsors of the organisation he has run since 1998. [ID:nL3E7GV0LN]

His rejection of criticism and any suggestion of a crisis has prompted widespread anger and derision in Britain, where many people are still smarting from England’s humiliating failed bid to stage the 2018 World Cup.

“Rotten does not even come close to describing FIFA — football’s governing body is mired in allegations of corruption, bribery and sleaze,” The Daily Mirror newspaper said in its editorial under the headline “Give the boot to Blatter”.

“If Blatter had an ounce of dignity he would have resigned months ago. Sadly, the beautiful game has been brought low by the ugly actions of its leaders.”

The mass-selling Sun tabloid described Blatter as “shifty, arrogant, evasive”.

“How shameful for world football that Sepp Blatter is likely to be re-elected unopposed as its head,” it said. “FIFA must be cleaned up. It cannot happen with him at its helm.”

The British media has long been hostile to FIFA and has particularly targeted the organisation since England’s campaign for the 2018 tournament attracted just two votes, despite the involvement of Prime Minister David Cameron and Prince William.

Newspaper and TV reports have since claimed a number of senior FIFA officials had taken bribes in return for votes.

Two senior figures, the head of Asian soccer Mohamed bin Hammam and CONCACAF chief Jack Warner, have now been suspended over bribery allegations which they both deny.

BRIBERY PROBE

Both the English and the Scottish Football Associations have called for the FIFA presidential election to be postponed, and with the issue dominating the news agenda, the issue has attracted increasing political attention. [ID:nLDE74U0Y5]

Britain’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport said it backed the FA, calling for a full probe of the bribery claims.

“FIFA has to undergo massive reform and become much more transparent and accountable,” a spokeswoman said.

Ivan Lewis, the spokesman on sport for the opposition Labour Party, said Blatter’s credibility had “gone”.

“Football does not belong to a small elite. It belongs to the millions of fans from remotest Africa, to the beaches of Brazil, the great cities of Madrid, Paris and London, and they deserve better leadership than this,” he told Sky News.

British parliamentarian Damian Collins, who is involved with “ChangeFifa”, a recently launched international parliamentary coalition, told Reuters that governments, football associations and FIFA sponsors needed to unite to force change.

“This is a real crisis and I don’t think Sepp Blatter addressed that at all in his remarks yesterday,” he said.

Meanwhile, ordinary fans expressed disillusionment.

“If this wasn’t so serious it would be something out of Gilbert and Sullivan. It’s a farce,” Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporters Federation, told Reuters.

“I don’t think you’ll find a single football fan in this country who believes that everything at FIFA in terms of both the World Cup bid and other things is clean and above board.

“Things cannot go on. It’s self-evident I think that this organisation cannot continue in its present state.”

(Additional reporting by Avril Ormsby and Adrian Croft)

Labels: Blatter, CALLS, English, Reuters, Smarting

* Blatter rejects crisis talk

* FIFA moves to neutralise leaked email

* Qatar denies wrongdoing over 2022 World Cup bid

By Mike Collett

ZURICH, May 30 (Reuters) - FIFA president Sepp Blatter, facing a deepening corruption scandal including accusations that Qatar bought the right to stage the 2022 World Cup, denied there was a crisis and described the problems as local difficulties on Monday.

Blatter began a week in which he should be re-elected as president for a fourth term in combative mood, berating media for their lack of manners and giving Qatar his public backing.

FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke earlier issued a statement denying he meant to suggest anything corrupt about the Qatar bid for 2022.

While all the talk outside FIFA House has been of a drip-feed of corruption allegations creating the worst crisis the game has faced, Blatter said his organisation was merely experiencing local difficulties they could solve internally.

It did not feel that way earlier in the day when CONCACAF president Jack Warner made public an email in which Valcke wondered if Mohamed bin Hammam, who planned to stand against Blatter, thought he could buy the presidency as Qatar “bought” the World Cup.

Qatar issued a flat denial of any wrongdoing and Valcke later said he only meant that the Gulf state’s financial muscle meant they were able to mount an effective lobbying campaign.

Qatar received further support from Blatter at his dramatic evening news conference, with the president saying FIFA had received no evidence that there were issues with the process to choose the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Blatter, the 75-year-old Swiss who has run soccer’s world governing body since 1998 and seen it grow wealthy on the sale of TV rights and sponsorship, will run unopposed in Wednesday’s election following Bin Hammam’s withdrawal on Sunday.

That came hours before the Qatari was suspended along with Warner over an allegation that Bin Hammam paid Caribbean delegates $40,000 to vote for him instead of Blatter.

Blatter said he regretted the recent “damaging” allegations but said the problems could be solved in-house.

“Football is not in a crisis,” said Blatter. “Football is in some difficulties and they will be solved inside our family.”

FIFA sponsors also reacted to the controversy.

“Adidas has a very long and successful partnership with FIFA, which we are also looking forward to continue,” an Adidas spokesman said.

“Having said that, the negative tonality of the public debate surrounding FIFA is neither good for football nor for FIFA and its partners.”

Turning to other allegations, Blatter said there was no case to answer against four FIFA executive committee members accused of corruption during a British parliamentary hearing this month.

Blatter also said there had been no evidence from the Sunday Times newspaper over a claim that Issa Hayatou and Jacques Anouma had been paid to vote for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid.

Last November, executive committee members Reynald Temarii and Amos Adamu were banned for agreeing to sell their votes to undercover newspaper reporters, the first in what turned out to be a wave of allegations.

Blatter, cleared by a FIFA ethics committee on Sunday, distanced himself from his executive committee, whose members are elected by their respective confederations rather than from within FIFA itself.

FORMER CHALLENGES

Blatter has faced down challenges to his position before, notably in 2002 when secretary general Michel Zen-Ruffinen claimed his 1998 election victory was based on bribery and corruption.

Blatter subsequently won re-election and Zen-Ruffinen was soon out of a job.

Five years later, he was elected unopposed for a third term.

While the last six months have been the most turbulent of his reign, he is on course to get the fourth term he said during the campaign would be his last.

The recent problems stem from last year’s World Cup votes, when Russia saw off opposition from England and joint-bids from Netherlands-Belgium and Spain-Portugal for 2018 and Qatar got the 2022 nod over Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States.

Bin Hammam, who is appealing against the decision to suspend him, dismissed the allegation that he had handed over money in exchange for votes.

“You would have to ask Jerome Valcke what he was thinking,” he told the BBC. “If I was paying money from Qatar you would also have to ask the 13 people who voted for Qatar.”

Questioned by reporters on Sunday, Valcke agreed that FIFA was facing “a watershed moment”, drawing comparisons with the International Olympic Committee’s crisis when IOC delegates were found guilty of taking bribes for votes to award the 2002 Winter Games to Salt Lake City.

British sports minister Hugh Robertson said FIFA should bow to growing international pressure and bring about internal reform.

“Even if you consider that FIFA lives in an ivory tower you could not help but notice the clamour around the world for change at the moment,” he said.

(Writing by Kevin Fylan in London, editing by Ed Osmond; To comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

Labels: Blatter, crisis, deepens, denies, Reuters, scandal

ZURICH (AP)—Sepp Blatter said rebuilding FIFA’s image would be his top priority if he is re-elected as president next week after a series of corruption allegations leveled at soccer’s ruling body.

Blatter told reporters of his firsthand experience of attempted bribery when he received a cash-filled envelope while FIFA secretary general before becoming president 13 years ago. He said he handed over the money to a FIFA colleague and it was returned to the unnamed bribe-giver.

He promised to tackle allegations of past corruption and strengthen FIFA’s panels that investigate alleged wrongdoing.

“We shall find a solution how to handle the past … in order that we can stop forever in the future all these damaging things about corruption,” Blatter said.

“We have to make sure that in the next term of office immediately starting after the election that we rebuild the image of FIFA,” said the 75-year-old Swiss, who joined soccer’s governing body in 1975.

Blatter pledged “there will be facts” revealed in his zero-tolerance project being presented to the FIFA Congress on June 1, immediately before his election contest against former ally Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar.

Their campaign has been clouded by fresh allegations of World Cup bid corruption.

Bin Hammam’s native Qatar has been accused in England of bribing two FIFA executive committee members to help secure 2022 hosting rights.

Blatter, who wants the case resolved before election day, said it hurt him that people believed FIFA was corrupt.

His first presidential election in 1998 prompted allegations of vote-buying by his supporters in Paris, and some high-ranking colleagues have been linked to corruption scandals on his watch.

Senior FIFA officials have been accused of taking kickbacks from television rights deals, profiting from World Cup tickets sales and pocketing or seeking bribes to vote for World Cup hosts.

Though retrospective disciplinary action is unlikely, Blatter said he wants to improve FIFA’s ability to investigate internal affairs.

“For the future we must have, I would say, a stronger organization,” he said at a briefing at FIFA headquarters.

Responsibility for choosing leaders of FIFA’s ethics, disciplinary and appeal committees could be given to members at Congress, Blatter suggested. Currently, power to appoint the investigative positions lies with FIFA’s 24-member executive committee, which has been severely discredited.

Blatter acknowledged that some people “do not deserve to be … in the government of FIFA.”

He distanced himself from the continental bodies who elect their delegates to the ruling panel he chairs.

“They have their own agenda. I have no influence and I cannot take any responsibility,” said Blatter, lamenting that he erred in “trusting people too fast.”

Blatter said he was only once offered a bribe, during his 1981-98 stint serving as chief administrator to then-president Joao Havelange.

“In this envelope there was an amount of money. I couldn’t refuse because he put it in my pocket,” said Blatter, declining to identify who made the offer. “I came home here to FIFA and gave it to the finance director and he put this money on the account of the Swiss Bank Corporation.”

The cash, which Blatter has said amounted to 50,000 Swiss francs, was later withdrawn by the bribe-giver.

Labels: Blatter, FIFAs, image, pledges, restore

(adds details)

LONDON, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be played in the summer as originally planned and will not be co-hosted with neighbouring countries, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said.

Blatter, reiterating comments made by soccer’s governing body two weeks ago, said there were no plans to stage a winter World Cup and any request to do so would have to come from the Qatari hosts who have already said they plan to stage the event in summer.

“Everything is settled now for summer and with all 64 matches in the territory of Qatar,” he told the BBC in an interview.

“In the bidding documents it was clearly established that the executive committee reserved the right to change anything in the bidding process, but here in this case it must come from Qatar.

“Qatar has not moved for the time being. I think for the time being this matter is on ice because we have just signed in the last days the final documents.”

Qatar were chosen as hosts in December, winning a contest also featuring Australia, Japan, South Korea and United States.

Their bid was based on a summer World Cup using air-conditioned stadiums to combat the desert heat.

Despite this, there has been wide support for a winter World Cup with Franz Beckenbauer and UEFA president Michel Platini backing a January-February tournament.

Platini also suggested a “World Cup in the Gulf” with Qatar sharing matches with neighbouring countries.

Blatter denied supporting a winter tournament himself and said he was impartial, although he feared a winter tournament could clash with that year’s Winter Olympics.

“I’m not in favour of one or the other although January and February would be in conflict with the IOC (International Olympic Committee) of which I’m a member.

“Who said first we should play in winter? It was Franz Beckenbauer, secondly Michel Platini, thirdly it was the professional players’ union, FIFPro.”

(Reporting by Brian Homewood in Garmisch-Partenkirchen; Editing by Justin Palmer)

To comment on this story: sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

Labels: alone, Blatter, Qatar, Reuters, summer

LONDON (AP)—FIFA president Sepp Blatter has changed tack once again on the timing of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, telling the BBC “everything is settled for summer.”

Blatter had said recently that he expected the tournament will be shifted to the winter months to avoid the searing heat in the desert nation.

Blatter also insists that “all the 64 matches will be played in the territory of Qatar” following suggestions the tournament could be split between Gulf nations.

Any decision on moving the dates must first come from the local organizing committee.

Labels: Blatter, expects, summer