By RYAN TOLMICH
As criticism and investigations continue to mount against FIFA, the organization’s president says he will welcome up the cleansing of the federation.
Sepp Blatter released a statement Wednesday after several of FIFA’s top officials were arrested on corruption charges. Blatter insists that Wednesday’s events were kickstarted by FIFA’s submission of a dossier to authorities last year and that the organization will continue to welcome investigations going forward.
“This is a difficult time for football, the fans and for FIFA as an organization,” Blatter said. “We understand the disappointment that many have expressed and I know that the events of today will impact the way in which many people view us.
“As unfortunate as these events are, it should be clear that we welcome the actions and the investigations by the US and Swiss authorities and believe that it will help to reinforce measures that FIFA has already taken to root out any wrongdoing in football.”
The charges against the FIFA executives stem from a series of corruption charges that saw 10 arrested early Wednesday morning.
Blatter, who was not one of those charged, is up for reelection, and could see his tenure extended to his fifth term in charge in Friday’s presidential election. The president says that, as the process continues, FIFA will continue to take action in order to regain the trust of the general public.
“Let me be clear: such misconduct has no place in football and we will ensure that those who engage in it are put out of the game,” Blatter said. “Following the events of today, the independent Ethics Committee – which is in the midst of its own proceedings regarding the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups – took swift action to provisionally ban those individuals named by the authorities from any football-related activities at the national and international level.
“We will continue to work with the relevant authorities and we will work vigorously within FIFA in order to root out any misconduct, to regain your trust and ensure that football worldwide is free from wrongdoing.”
2018 and 2022 World Cup bids are not going to be reversed. Regardless of the bribes, the FIFA exco members will not change their minds.
Where was this outrage when FIFA issued the World Cup to us USA in 1988 when England was in uproar that we didn’t have a functioning league and didn’t deserve it? Or when the Australian exco changed his vote from South Africa to Germany because he was “swayed”? I guess folks are outraged when it is convenient.
FIFA will move to Qatar. Or Russia. He and Putin seem to have developed a bromance.
Blatter for the Papacy!
Soccer for the poor.
And give me all your money……
I had no idea knowledge corruption, but have spent the last few days learning everything possible about and you’ll have to ask Blatter about it. I have no further comment.
Bob Kraft – Blatter is a good friend of mine and trust that he is not corrupt. The FBI, USA and everyone in the world will owe me, the Patriots and FIFA an apology once it’s proven that he is not corrupt!
Hahaha…. The patriots and all their tainted pointy ball trophies need to be put in an island with Blatter and his cronies so they can all have a go at it and see whom comes out on top.!..
(If only the Patriots can take Aaron Hernandez with them too…. I’d pay Paquiao/Mayweather money to see that…. J/K)
You spent all that time thinking that through – only for it to be so lame. And also while displaying boatloads of ignorance and naivety. Well done….J/K!
For FIFA to be taken seriously again, Blatter has to go. This happened under his watch. He shouldn’t have a free ride.
I feel so much better now about FIFA. Thank you Mr. Blatter for your reassuring words. I believe you believe you really mean it.
Am I the only one that finds it ironic that many of us here in America have been clamoring for the World Cup to be taken away from Qatar due to corruption (deservedly so), but then all these arrests by the DOJ happen for corruption dealing with the 2016 Copa America in the United States?
Uh Oh.
Who/What the hell were the bribes for? Didn’t everyone think 2016 Copa America would be a fantastic idea???? $110 million for this must be couch change compared to some of the previous World Cups…dare I say including 1994.
I agree with your concerns Bruin. The indictments are related to our region with some South America thrown in. It doesn’t do anything to FIFA.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/may/27/the-fbi-may-have-struck-at-fifa-but-soccer-in-the-us-has-been-tarnished
My sources tell me that Olivia Pope is on her way to Zurich.
My sources tell me that Sepp Blatter is, in fact, Frank Underwood.
…..the Peachoid is actually a representation of a soccer ball, disguised as a peach, UPSIDE DOWN. Errrr, ohhhh, ummm, wait a minute, soccer balls don’t have an upside down……….
If only the US National Teams (all of them) were as stern and unbending in defense.
All I know is the FBI does not go after people or organizations unless they have overwhelming evidence. They know PR as well. The fact that the Swiss arrested and extradited to the USA tells me that FIFA will go down hard on this one
True. And where do you suppose the FBI acquired this “overwhelming evidence”? And how is it that they knew exactly where to find find and apprehend these parties in a country (Switzerland) that is hardly known for divulging this sort of information, let alone extraditing people.
I am struggling to understand why we all think Blatter was somehow “ambushed” here. I’d say it’s more logical that he helped set the whole thing up. Do we really thing US authorities would nip into Zurich unannounced and apprehend the exact right people without the knowledge of one of the most powerful people in Switzerland?
Why do we continue to think we are so much smarter than Sepp Blatter? What battles have we ever won against him?
As for knowing the location, it was a known scheduled Fifa congress in anticipation of the presidential elections, so everyone knew that the Fifa execs and other underlings would be there. It wouldn’t surprise me if Blatter cooperated so as to not be named in the indictments, but the location of the all of these people was pretty clearly known by the public.
Is it possible that he didn’t take any bribes? The head of the NFL is making obscene amounts of money, he might be too.
He keeps his job by handing out money while looking the other way as he hands it out.
I don’t think he will go down for this. Just makes it harder for him to get re-elected, if the money he hands out goes to soccer rather than new cars, houses and diamond tennis bracelets.
Blatter clearly makes more than enough money . . . he doesn’t need to take bribes. and he is smart enough not to take them.
Kind of like Calipari now that he is at Kentucky. He doesn’t need to pay the players to play basketball at kentucky. He did at Memphis. he did at UMass. He didn’t get caught there. He isn’t paying players now. He will never get caught.
Blatter will be forced out only if enough countries say that he knew of what was going on and did nothing to stop it.
Except that he bribed many people to become elected in 1998, and it’s possible that some of the people he bribed are stupid enough to still have a record of it.
Bribery is two sided. You don’t have to take payouts to be convicted.
Although I’m sure Mr. Blatter is well acquainted with both sides.
Bribery also doesn’t have to have money be the commodity. I can guarantee that there has been plenty of power subversion going on. Just take a look at how well all of Blatter’s rivals have done over the ages – ‘scandals’ which run officials out of office tend to happen at very opportune times for Mr. Blatter.
Expected that the US is behind the charges, We don’t like the FIFA model, as players are free to sign with any club they choose, as opposed to the USSF/MLS model which assigns players rights to certain teams as designed in the dark corners of New York City. Players are not free to bargain in the US. Additionally, the US refuses to pay Annex 4 youth development fees. The Swiss could have brought any appropriate charges, but as usual, the US soccer interests want to control everything relating to the game. The chief US investigator appears to have been miffed by the rejection of part of his reports by FIFA, so instead of working within FIFA he sought out the offices of the US Attorney.
Go home, you’re drunk.
Wow. Just . . . wow.
Haha! Good one, DirBru. I love comedy.
I have a fine assortment of tinfoil hats. You seem like you might be in the market.
Let’s be clear here on hierarchy: the FBI, I suspect, does not even know the USSF exists, much less take their marching orders from them. In the vast ocean of sports in the USA, soccer, regrettably, still barely rates…and the FBI is an old-time, old-school bastion of conservatism. Soccer for the overwhelming majority of Feds is something they pick their eight-year-olds up from.
They do tend to get all exciteable-like, though, when people launder millions of dollars through the US.
This guy is right. It is nothing more than a tantrum by the US.
Give us what we want or we’ll invade you.
NASCAR
So the US brought to bare the FBI, IRS and DOJ against a foreign soccer government based in neutral Switzerland as a favor to a disgruntled consultant?!?
This is so dumb.
Your F*ck with the Hornet’s Nest you pay the price.
They should’ve given them either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup and played ball.
There are truths to this point. No tin foil hats required
Would Gitmo be an overreaction?
Nah.
why gizmo when we have drones.
Says the guy whose own ethics chief basically buried and ignored the independent investigation that FIFA authorized.
*cough* bull sh*t! *cough*
*cough* bull shit! *cough*
Not a shock at all. He still thinks he is a head of state. These people will turn on him or people closer to him and so forth. The whole house of cards is slowly starting to crumble. Now it needs to be replaced with people who can guide with transparency. But who exactly should they be transparent to???
No one will turn on him unless they fear their cash supply is in jeopardy – they’re only driven by the $$. For UEFA to say they’re shocked by this is complete garbage – same with VISA. They’re all just covering their asses, and now everyone will test the waters to determine when it’s in their best interests to jump ship.
Only when FIFA loses its non-profit status and has to open their books will true reform have even a glimmer of hope.
I mean, what else did we expect him to say? This had to be his response, regardless of his involvement (or lack thereof).
I’m sure the investigation found it was more probable than not that Blatter was aware…
well done maam
haha
And if any further investigation is required, lets make sure Blatter gets to make the final decision to determine if FIFA is corrupt,
Awesome post,
He’ll get reelected and it’s more likely he won’t be implicated, so I actually expected him to say it feels good to be a gangster.
in other words US, you can kiss that copa america centenario goodbye
It’s possible, but if this is how we got the Copa, then I want our football to do nothing with them and their bribe money.