Sepp Blatter to quit as president amid corruption scandal

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32982449

by spacial • 11 years ago

146 48 11 years ago

bbc.com

rilindo• 11 years ago

I guess John Oliver will be drinking Budlight Lime live.

taco_emoji2• 11 years ago

Did Budweiser have anything to do with this?

jonknee2• 11 years ago

I'm sure sponsor pressure had a lot to do with it. You can sell "It's just the Americans" about the DOJ investigations to a lot of your voters, but when the money goes away you don't have the means of control.

JibberMeTimbers• 11 years ago

Context:

https://youtu.be/qr6ar3xJL_Q?t=702

404error• 11 years ago

Not sure but he touched on something that might have struck a nerve. The ONLY people who could do something about FIFA were the sponsors. Threaten to cut down the money tree and change will come faster than you think.

cschmidt• 11 years ago

He appealed to FIFA advertisers to help him go away

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr6ar3xJL_Q&t=12m20s

number_six• 11 years ago

And telling us how delicious it tastes.

eitally• 11 years ago

Hopefully he'll be indicted on corruption/racketeering charges anyway.

siculars• 11 years ago

McDonalds paired with Lime-Rita's for John Oliver. The most powerful or prescient talking head on TV? Quite possibly.

joshstrange• 11 years ago

His show is awesome and really hit the ground running! Really makes the Colbert Report replacement (The Nightly Show) look terrible by comparison (started around the same time but to be fair LWT is once a week while TNS is 4 days/week). Looking forward to other things that John will bring into the light, I've learned quite a bit from his show (or rather his show has wetted my appetite to do more research on topics he covers).

adevine• 11 years ago

The thing I like so much about LWT is that some of the segments are a good 12-15 minutes long, which is an eternity in TV land. With that time, he can actually dig into topics with more depth to give viewers a better understanding of the background and what is happening (and still manage to be hilarious). I think back to his bit on the supplements industry as a good example of this.

I NEVER see this type of analysis on any news shows besides Frontline.

tertius• 11 years ago

Remember, it's still a comedy show and he himself does not claim otherwise. Chunks of salt.

coob• 11 years ago

Good riddance.

Hopefully the next president won't be another corrupt liar (Platini, Warner etc).

ConAntonakos• 11 years ago

Goodbye, you slithering snake. Here is to a new generation of reform in the FIFA organization.

dba7dba• 11 years ago

Will Putin come to his aid?

jodah• 11 years ago

It's funny, the parallels between Putin and Blatter. They both have tried hard to hold onto power, knowing that when they lose it the skeletons will start flying out of the closet.

dragonwriter4• 11 years ago

Will Putin come to his aid?

Putin already tried to do so [0] by painting the corruption investigation as unjust US persecution.

[0] Well, more likely tried to pre-empt any effect the investigation of FIFA corruption would have on Russia's 2018 World Cup, but it amounts to the same thing in effect.

caskance• 11 years ago

As long as the 2018 World Cup stays in Russia and attendance isn't hurt, why should he care?

1337biz• 11 years ago

Just wondering - has anyone heared any other side of the story? Whenever a story appears to be such clear cut black and white with one evil villain, my septics radar goes up.

jacquesm2• 11 years ago

Sometimes evil villains simply are evil villains. Septics? ;)

asavadatti• 11 years ago

skeptics?

foobarqux• 11 years ago

I suspect he was at least complicit. One other side of the story is this: Why does the US care? The answer is that if getting the World Cup essentially requires bribes then that makes it impossible for the US to compete, because bribery is prosecuted in the US. So this is less about justice than economic benefit.

It's FIFA regime change.

dragonwriter4• 11 years ago

Whenever a story appears to be such clear cut black and white with one evil villain

Whoever said there was one evil villain? Note that while Blatter may be implicated in the corruption investigation, one of the specific schemes already charged was an attempt to use bribes to motivate people to vote for Blatter's opponent in a previous FIFA election.

This doesn't look as much like a hierarchical conspiracy with one bad actor at the top, as a whole nest of -- sometimes cooperating, sometimes competing -- bad actors.

yk• 11 years ago

Blatter's strategy was usually too go against the UEFA, the European soccer confederation and the most powerful continental confederation. For example, he championed the South African World Cup bid for 2010. ( After the UEFA managed to get the 2006 cup for Germany.) And he presides over a remarkable increase in the importance of soccer.

So he gets reelected, because he is actually quite successful and has a clearly defined voter base. This base may or may not like the corruption, but that is simply not their main concern.

LanceH• 11 years ago

I think this translates as, "Sepp Blatter can't make travel commitments required of his position without facing extradition."

sageabilly• 11 years ago

Seems a lot like he's stepping down now to avoid being dragged down later.

justinsingh• 11 years ago

One of Taleb's tweets stated:

"From Mafia history: Feds close progressively the circle around the big fish via associates. They get him last to avoid plea bargaining."

The circle was being closed, and hopefully Blatter will still face some consequence while he attempts to run away from this mess.

wtvanhest• 11 years ago

For an interesting take on the FIFA charges, YC's Casetext had several articles published by Heather Lowe - Legal Counsel and Director of Government Affairs at Global Financial Integrity:

FIFA: The Bribery Case with No Bribery Charge https://casetext.com/posts/xyrwas9p8swf80k9-fifa-the-bribery...

Can Victims Sue for Damages? https://casetext.com/posts/pz8uyoy048izr529-can-fifa-victims...

thrillgore• 11 years ago

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing after they've tried everything else.

hsod• 11 years ago

what else did they try?

spdy• 11 years ago

Looks like they planned this before the election. There was no suitable candidate who would be able to do the job that has to be done now. Now its time to find one.

And i would be surprised if they can connect him with bribery etc. He strikes me as that kind of person who likes power over a bag of money.

pdabbadabba• 11 years ago

The problem with corruption is that, in the absence of careful enforcement, you don't have to choose. Blatter has had both power and, I'd wager, a great deal of money for quite some time now.

dragonwriter4• 11 years ago

And i would be surprised if they can connect him with bribery etc. He strikes me as that kind of person who likes power over a bag of money.

Money and power are generally fungible, and you don't have to handle a bag of money at either end to be part of a conspiracy that involves financial crimes.

The leaders of criminal conspiracies probably generally prefer power to money, with money being interesting, to the extent it is, as a means to power.

EnderMB• 11 years ago

It's convenient that he steps down now, mere days after the election that swore him into power once again. If he stepped down during the election Prince Ali would have won. This way, Blatter can call his own election and personally vouch for a new candidate to take over.

To me, Blatter was just the face of corruption. I simply cannot see someone from inside FIFA being able to resolve the corruption problems, mostly because these people are the problem. This isn't a new thing, and this isn't something that arrived with Blatter. Some journalists have been investigating corruption in FIFA for decades. Hell, most countries have been a part of it. It's only surfacing now because the bribery is so blatant, and our bribes simply weren't enough.

People will cheer and say that "we finally did it", but I cannot see anything truly changing. The only way FIFA will change is through the authorities.

makeitsuckless• 11 years ago

The "FIFA is corrupt to the core" argument misunderstands the nature of FIFA's corruption.

It's only the few decision makers that are relevant, it isn't like a government where there is something to be gained by bribery on each level, even the lowest civil servant. Unlike corruption in a nation, we are not talking about a culture of corruption that involves millions. There's no point in bribing just a lowly FIFA official or bureaucrat, most you can buy that way is easier access to the big boys.

That small group of corrupt decision makers is now rapidly diminishing, and there is not a long line of eager replacements, especially now that the feds are looking over their shoulders.

dragonwriter4• 11 years ago

That small group of corrupt decision makers is now rapidly diminishing, and there is not a long line of eager replacements, especially now that the feds are looking over their shoulders.

And not just the (US) Feds -- the Swiss are conducting a separate corruption investigation relating to the 2018 and 2022 world cups, and other governments are interested as well. Essentially, the fact that the World Cup is a big national prestige event and that past corruption has been brought into the light means there is likely going to be intense scrutiny from all sides going forward -- sure, for every beneficiary of corruption there are lots of losers, and when those losers are major nation states, they have a pretty impressive ability, if they turn their will to it, to address any problems, especially if given the convenient excuse provided by actual corruption to prosecute.

mksndz• 11 years ago

Too bad he didnt go out with a 'bang' like former FIA prez Max Mosley

http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1728032,00...

chasing• 11 years ago

Now FIFA needs to disband itself entirely.

garagemc2• 11 years ago

Thank you USA.

phantom_oracle• 11 years ago

In the infamous words from the handbook of Hydra:

=======================================

Cut off 1 head and 2 more will appear

=======================================

Hail FIFA!

Sepp Blatter to quit as president amid corruption scandal

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