Blatter cites lack of support in resignation

Associated Press

GENEVA

Sepp Blatter governed the biggest sport on Earth for nearly two decades, for years untouched personally by allegations of corruption, but never sharing the game’s popularity.

He joked about his “Dr. Evil” image, like a James Bond villain manipulating soccer from his Swiss headquarters and never responding to public outcry. He surrounded himself with loyal lieutenants, many of whom he raised from obscurity to lead powerful national and regional federations. He put them in control of billions of dollars for TV contracts, endorsements of national teams and where the biggest tournaments were held.

Even over the last few years, as many of those deputies were torched by scandal, he replaced them without making huge changes and took credit for helping clean up the game.

After 17 years in charge and bringing the game’s marquee events to new heights, the pressure became too much. The world’s largest soccer nations were in open rebellion and discussing an alternate tournament to the World Cup. Sponsors from the world’s most-popular soft drink to best-selling video game questioned their ties to FIFA.

At a hastily arranged announcement Tuesday, Blatter said he plans to resign and admitted he had lost too much support to remain in office.

But even on his way out, he didn’t take responsibility for the problems under his watch. He declared he was now free from constraints and could clean up the game the way he has wanted to, seemingly tone deaf to the idea that that might sound insincere.

As FIFA thrived through allegations of bribery, vote-buying and World Cup ticket scams, the 79-year-old Blatter built a base of support by bolstering the sport in developing countries and brought the first World Cup to Africa.

On May 27, U.S. prosecutors issued indictments against 14 current or former soccer officials — including seven arrested in raids at a luxury Zurich hotel. The Swiss also opened a criminal investigation into the votes awarding the World Cup tournaments to Russia in 2018 and to Qatar in 2022.

Even though he was not implicated in those investigations, Blatter faced calls for his resignation that came from some of his harshest critics in the game as well as from political leaders.

His re-election to a fifth, four-year term Friday was a reflection of the support he enjoyed by giving each of FIFA’s 209 member federations a basic yearly sum of $250,000, plus bonuses and project funds from World Cup profits.