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Just as it says...
#437124
Meanwhile, Blatter will get reelected......... :thumbdown:

Nope, Blatter intends to run for the next FIA president... he and Ecclestone should get on famously!
#437128
FIFA’s beleaguered head, Sepp Blatter, has won his fifth presidential term, despite the eruption this week of corruption allegations during his time as chief of world football’s governing body.

Defiant Blatter, who resisted calls to resign this week as FIFA president or to postpone the election, was elected after his only challenger, Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan, withdrew after the first round. This saw Blatter receive 133 votes, falling short of the two thirds majority needed (out of 209) at FIFA’s 65th Congress in Zurich on Friday. Prince Ali got 73 votes.

In a victory speech, Blatter declared: "Let's go FIFA, let's go FIFA," to a standing ovation.

He also thanked all those who voted from him and his rival, Prince Ali. "I am not perfect, nobody is perfect, but we will do a good job together I am sure," he said.

"At the end of my term I will give up FIFA in a strong position," he added.

Anger within Europe's powerful regional football body UEFA and other members over the damage corruption allegations are doing to FIFA were not sufficient to topple the 79-year-old Swiss.
#437135
Swiss newspapers, like those in the rest of Europe, are shaking their heads at the re-election of Sepp Blatter as president of Zurich-based FIFA, world football’s governing body. But they say he now faces a tougher opponent in the shape of the US Department of Justice.

“Sepp Blatter betrayed three institutions this week,” wrote Le Temps in Lausanne on Saturday. “FIFA’s president succeeded in having opprobrium poured on his organisation, the country which hosts its headquarters and his sport. How can he not draw the consequences from such a fiasco?”

The paper acknowledged that Blatter personally wasn’t being hounded by the US legal system, “but how can he begin a new mandate when such a heavy suspicion hangs over him?”

Blatter began his fifth term at the helm of FIFA on Saturday facing the daunting task of restoring public faith in an organisation tainted by allegations of corruption and deeply divided over his re-election.

The 79-year-old Swiss won Friday’s vote at a FIFA congress in Zurich, having secured the support of blocks of votes from Asia and Africa which outweighed dissenters including European football's governing body UEFA.

The victory came two days after news broke of a major bribery scandal being investigated by US, Swiss and other law enforcement agencies that plunged FIFA into the worst crisis in its 111-year history.

Blatter has not been implicated in any wrongdoing, but having ruled over FIFA since 1998, during which time it has regularly been subject to suspicions of corruption and internal probes, his critics have argued it was time for him to step down.
‘Mafia organisation’

“It’s a characteristic of all dictators that they lose touch with reality, even their own conscience. In front of the FIFA congress, he expressed no doubt in his actions and simply committed to ‘fixing’ what he called ‘his’ FIFA,” Le Temps continued, describing Blatter as “unbudgeable” and “impossible to get rid of”.

“This lack of shame and of any moral retreat on the part of its leader shows the extent to which FIFA isn’t working. All international organisations have developed and improved their standards of governance. FIFA has transformed into a mafia organisation focusing on the personal profit of some people.”
The paper said one shouldn’t believe a single word of what was said at the general assembly in Zurich. “Sepp Blatter can’t dismantle a system which he himself put in place. And his tougher-than-expected election doesn’t constitute a sufficient signal for him to change his methods and organise a moral revolution at the heart of the home of football.”

“What’s worse is that the organisation has become so powerful that no one was surprised when Blatter was re-elected two days after the police [arrested seven top officials]. It was an incredible sleight of hand by a conman on whom no charges seem to stick.”

Le Temps concluded that FIFA’s situation “should alert the Swiss authorities to the importance of taking matters into their own hands”.

“The banks who are paying dearly for repeatedly violating US laws could serve as an example. It’s up to the Swiss legal system to investigate Sepp Blatter. Should a new scandal surrounding FIFA come to light, it will be too late to complain about any interference by the US justice authorities.”

New man needed

“The revolution devours its children,” noted tabloid Blick, quoting 18th-century Geneva-born writer Jacques Mallet du Pan. “The ‘uprising’ of the Europeans under Michel Platini turned out, despite bold words, to be a damp squib.”

The rest of the footballing world is practically united behind Blatter, it said. “For the moment there is no alternative to the eternal Sepp. But he too knows that the terrible news won’t stop. The US authorities won’t let themselves be simply shaken off like FIFA’s ethics commission,” it wrote.

“The shambles is plain to see, even if the critics were unable to rock Blatter. In the medium term FIFA needs a new system, moving from a simple association to a transparent organisation. And for a carefree new start it needs a new man at the top. Not in just four years.”

The Tages-Anzeiger in Zurich also pointed to FIFA being on a collision course with UEFA. “The conditions threaten to resemble those in boxing, where multiple associations each deny the others’ legitimacy.”

But Blatter’s greater immediate challenge, the paper reckoned, would come from across the Atlantic. “The opponent there is of a different calibre to his Jordanian challenger Prince Ali bin Al Hussein yesterday and the traditionally critical European delegates: it is the American Department of Justice, working closely with the FBI, which is uncovering systematic corruption within FIFA.”
UEFA ‘hate’

For his part, Sepp Blatter told Swiss Public Television, RTS, that the events in the run-up to his re-election “do not smell right” and he was the victim of UEFA “hate”.

“The Americans, if they have a financial crime that regards American citizens, must arrest these people there and not in Zurich in the moment we have a congress,” he said.

Despite his re-election, the scandal surrounding the investigations into corruption looks set to rumble on. UEFA president Michel Platini, who called on Blatter to step down, has raised the possibility, albeit slim, of Europe boycotting the World Cup, set to be held next in Russia in 2018. There has also been talk of UEFA breaking away from FIFA.

“It is a hate not only by one person of UEFA but by the organisation of UEFA that has not understood that I have been president since 1998,” Blatter said.

“I forgive everyone but I don't forget.”

Thomas Stephens
#437139
Bye Bye Blatter:wavey-finger:


At a hastily called press conference Tuesday night at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Sepp Blatter, president of the world football body FIFA, announced plans to step down once a successor is found.

The decision was taken in the face of the past week’s investigations by US and Swiss authorities into corruption in connection with the international organisation. As recently as Tuesday morning, FIFA had issued a statement denying the involvement of its Secretary General, Jerome Valcke, in a $10 million (CHF9.4 million) bank transaction under investigation by US authorities.

Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president for the past 17 years, had at first made light of the numerous calls for his resignation in newspaper editorials and by influential members such as the head of Europe’s regional football body, UEFA.

Following Blatter’s re-election to the post of FIFA President on Friday, Michel Platini, who heads UEFA, had stated: “Change in my opinion is crucial if this organisation is to regain its credibility.”

Sepp Blatter finally conceded on Tuesday, saying it had become obvious that “we need a structural change of a profound nature”.
Next moves

Domenico Scala, Chairman of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee, will head the search for Blatter’s successor.

Speaking at the press conference, Scala called Blatter’s decision “difficult and courageous”, saying that “in the current circumstances, this is the most responsible way to insure a smooth transition”.

“I have a great amount of respect for the president and the role he has played in championing reform in FIFA,” said Scala. “We have worked hard, but this is not enough.”

According to Scala, under the rules governing FIFA the election of the president and reforms to the statutes must be voted on by the members at the FIFA congress. Waiting until the next congress, to be held in May 2016 in Mexico city, “would be an unnecessary delay”, said Scala. Thus the president will ask the executive committee to call an extraordinary congress.

Because four months’ notice is required for any presidential election to be held, and there must be enough time to vet candidates, elections could be held any time from December 2015 to March 2016, Scala said.
“Deep-rooted structural changes”

In addition to electing a new president, the organisation plans to re-examine the way it is structured. “Nothing will be off the table,” said Scala, including the structure of the executive committee and way members are elected.

One major change planned is the institution of term limits for both the president and the members of the executive committee.

“Many have questioned the transparency by which FIFA operates,” said Scala. FIFA also plans to institute background checks of potential committee members, “in order to ensure that those who represent FIFA are of the highest integrity”.

Sepp Blatter communicated his decision to FIFA’s members on Tuesday, before making it public at the press conference in Zurich.

“The interests of FIFA are very dear to me,” said Blatter. “I repeat: what counts most to me is the institution FIFA and football around the world.”
Further investigation

In a statement on Tuesday evening, the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s office said it had duly noted the announcement of Blatter’s plans to step down as FIFA president. In its investigation into “persons unknown on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and of money laundering”, Joseph S. Blatter has not been accused, it said, and his decision has no bearing on the criminal case. The office had no further comment.

A closer look at corruption in sport was planned by some of the members of Parliament, however. In an interview with Swiss Public Television, SRF, Representative Hans-Peter Portmann of the centre-right Radical Party said that all of the accusations of corruption in connection with FIFA have damaged Switzerland’s image, and it’s time for a Parliamentary committee to ask some questions.

A paper written by Portmann − titled ‘Corruption in Connection with Major Events and Sport’ − will be discussed on June 29 in the Committee for Science, Education and Culture. The president of the committee, Matthias Aebeischer of the leftwing Social Democratic Party, told SRF that “the time is ripe for major organisations to question their activities, and for sponsors and politicians to apply some pressure.”

swissinfo.ch
#437148
[size=150]...Sepp Blatter finally conceded on Tuesday, saying it had become obvious that “we need a structural change of a profound nature”...


So... he ran just to show that he could be re-elected??
Or...

[size=150]...the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s office said it had duly noted the announcement of Blatter’s plans to step down as FIFA president. In its investigation into “persons unknown on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and of money laundering”, Joseph S. Blatter has not been accused, it said, and his decision has no bearing on the criminal case. The office had no further comment...


Or... is about immunity / giving evidence? :confused:

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