Blatter and FIFA squeezed ahead of election

At the FIFA congress, embattled president Sepp Blatter remained as defiant as ever despite criticism over a major corruption scandal Keystone

Zurich-based FIFA and its re-elected Swiss president Sepp Blatter are facing their biggest corruption crisis in history, with one Swiss politician saying it’s time for Switzerland to crack down on world football’s governing body.

Politicians and organisations have demanded stricter Swiss laws and reforms within FIFA, which until recently was a Swiss charity for tax purposes. Blatter resisted mounting pressure to postpone FIFA’s presidential election on Friday, which the 79-year-old won for the fifth time, after seven senior FIFA officials were arrested in Zurich by Swiss police on US corruption charges.

The drama played out all week with the police raids giving way to a FIFA congress and presidential voting, amid a media circus and even a bomb scare.

“We need to regulate international sports associations. It’s not right that FIFA has the same legal status as a yodelling association in Emmental,” complained Cédric Wermuth from the left-wing Social Democratic Party, who has been an outspoken campaigner within Switzerland against corruption.

“He should resign because he is the face of FIFA, and FIFA is completely discredited,” Wermuth told swissinfo.ch about Blatter’s reign. “He should give way to a new generation.”

Blatter was tipped to extend his 17-year reign as FIFA president despite serving at the helm of a culture that American prosecutors described this week as having “rampant, systemic, deep-rooted” corruption at its core.

“I am being held accountable for current storm,” Blatter said in his campaign speech just before the vote, plugging himself as a strong and experienced leader and pledging to create a special office to help clean up the governing body. “I will accept this responsibility. … I will fix FIFA.”

“We need to recover our good name,” he added.

Voting delegates from 209 member associations have been asked to decide between Blatter and his only challenger, Jordan’s Prince Ali bin Al Hussein, who was elected FIFA vice president for Asia in 2011 and told the congress he could “restore the world’s respect” for FIFA.

“It is a historic day for FIFA,” Prince Ali said. “We cannot give up on our governing body or ignore the clamor outside our doors.”

The presidential vote is held in secret; the winner needs a two-thirds majority in the first round or a simple majority in a second round.

Ahead of the vote Blatter remained defiant in the face of growing criticism and the scrutiny from US and Swiss investigations. He shifted blame for the bribery and corruption scandal away from himself and asserted he could restore trust in world football.

The root of the crisis, he said, was FIFA’s decision to award rights to Russia to hold the 2018 World Cup and to Qatar to hold the 2022 World Cup.

“If two other countries had emerged from the envelope, I think we would not have these problems today,” Blatter told the congress earlier in the day. “But we can’t go back in time. We are not prophets.”

Swiss reputation

The Swiss have been trying in recent years to shed their reputation for secret financial dealings by cooperating with the United States and other countries trying to track down tax cheats who stash money in Swiss accounts.

Switzerland, host to FIFA and hundreds of other international organisations, also has tried to prevent further damage to its reputation by taking on new anti-corruption measures that would allow prosecutors to investigate bribery allegations without first having to obtain an official complaint. Wermuth, however, said that would only be the first step, with the next steps being added protection for whistle-blowers and more transparency required of international organisations.

“It is embarrassing. Switzerland is an international haven for corruption in sports business, for tax evasion,” he added. “This is the image that Switzerland is giving to the world, an image of complete lack of transparency and responsibility towards the international community, and FIFA is just one part of it.”

Now, Swiss investigators are working with their American counterparts to shake up Zurich-based FIFA, which has been dogged by scandals and rumours of corruption throughout the years that Blatter has presided over it.

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch and heads of the FBI and Internal Revenue Service revealed a far-reaching US investigation into racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering charges of at least $151 million (CHF143 million) in bribes. Swiss prosecutors announced a probe into whether the FIFA decisions in 2010 to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 World Cup to Qatar were rigged, and on Thursday they began interviewing ten of the current FIFA executive committee members who were part of that vote.

The timing of the dual criminal cases made public on Wednesday revolved around the gathering of top FIFA officials in Zurich this week for the presidential vote and annual congress.

At the start of FIFA’s meeting on Thursday, Blatter chaired an emergency meeting of representatives from FIFA’s six regional confederations to discuss the situation. The European football body, UEFA, called for the presidential election to be postponed by six months.

UEFA President Michel Platini demanded that Blatter resign, which Blatter refused. Platini said most of UEFA’s member associations would vote for Prince Ali, who once led the Jordan Football Association.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius urged a delay in the vote while British foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, insisted FIFA must be reformed. Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, defended Blatter and FIFA and accused the United States of interference and attempting to deprive Russia of the 2018 World Cup.

Fallout

FIFA insisted that the vote proceed as planned and ruled out a re-vote of the bids won by Russia for the 2018 tournament and by Qatar for 2022. Some of the biggest names in football said they complained for years about corruption in FIFA, which generates billions in revenue each year from television, marketing and other lucrative contracts.

One of FIFA’s sponsors, Visa, threatened to pull out if the organisation did not take “swift and immediate steps” to restore trust. “This starts with rebuilding a culture with strong ethical practices,” it said. “Should FIFA fail to do so, we have informed them that we will reassess our sponsorship.”

Nike said it was cooperating with authorities after the US indictment alleged that a global sports company paid $40 million (CHF38 million) in marketing fees in 1996 to an affiliate of the Brazilian national team’s marketing agent with a Swiss bank account.

Swiss news  media on Thursday took FIFA to task and agreed Blatter should have stepped down by now. The sentiment was similar in newspapers abroad. In Zurich, Blatter shunned public appearances until his arrival at the opening ceremony on Thursday.

Sports Minister Ueli Maurer attended as the Swiss government’s representative. Beforehand, Maurer told the Swiss Media Forum in Lucerne on Thursday that the pressure for reforms at FIFA will increase, and they must occur at all levels.

“FIFA is not credible, the organisation has gone off the rails. Pressure for reforms will increase,” he said. “Whether the world football association has the energy remains to be seen.”

Maurer, however, said Blatter should not become a scapegoat.

“It should not be forgotten that Blatter has done excellent work for football. Not least regarding initiatives for young people around the world,” he added. “Nevertheless, it is a question of changing structures of the worldwide organisation.”

FIFA had hired a former US attorney, Michael Garcia, to investigate the 2018 and 2022 bid process, but the findings were never fully released. His report was turned over to Swiss authorities in November, which led to the raid at FIFA headquarters on Wednesday.

In a statement, FIFA took credit for taking the “initiative of presenting the file” on the bid process to Swiss prosecutors.

“We are pleased to see that the investigation is being energetically pursued for the good of football and believe that it will help to reinforce measures that FIFA has already taken,” the organisation said.