FIFA Chief Sepp Blatter Resigns as U.S. Investigation Closes In

With the U.S. Justice Department’s noose tightening around FIFA, the organization’s embattled and controversial president, Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, is abandoning what appears to be a rapidly sinking ship.

Four days after being elected to a fifth term at the helm of the organization governing international soccer — despite strong objections from the United States and much of Europe — Blatter announced Tuesday that he would step down as soon as a new president is elected. The move comes after the Justice Department accused nine current and former FIFA officials and five business executives with ties to the organization of taking $150 million in illicit payments.

The growing scandal crept closer to Blatter Tuesday after the New York Times reported that his deputy, FIFA’s secretary general Jérôme Valcke, was tied to a 2008 transfer of $10 million to accounts controlled by Jack Warner. Warner is a Trinidad and Tobago FIFA official charged by the Justice Department with receiving illicit payments from Valcke. In a surreal twist to the saga, Warner tried to defend his behavior by citing a fake article from the satirical news site the Onion that said U.S. charges were part of a conspiracy to get the World Cup on American soil.

Blatter’s resignation is a stunning fall from the highest perch of international sports. After securing control of the governing body after his challenger, Jordan’s Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, dropped out, the Swiss national defiantly told FIFA members Friday he was “now the president of everybody.”

He’s now the president of no body. Sepp’s term will formally end once FIFA’s congress convenes to elect a new leader, but the timing of the election is not yet known.

“I do not feel that I have a mandate from the entire world of football,” Blatter said at a hastily-arranged press conference in Zurich.

“Since I shall not be a candidate, and am therefore now free from the constraints that elections inevitably impose, I shall be able to focus on driving far-reaching, fundamental reforms that transcend our previous efforts,” he said.

Blatter has been under fire for years but has skirted rumors of graft, match-fixing, and the exploitation of poor nations like South Africa and Brazil, the home to the last two World Cups. But allegations of bribes connected to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, combined with the mob-style Justice Department probe, have proven to be his undoing.

The awarding of the 2022 World Cup has been especially troubling to many inside the global soccer and human rights communities. Summer temperatures in the small Middle Eastern nation raised concerns about player safety. Blatter responded to these concerns by declaring the tournament would be played in the winter, despite protests from European soccer leagues, whose seasons would be interrupted.

Documented human rights violations for foreign workers brought into the country to build World Cup facilities have included slave labor and horribly unsafe working conditions. The International Trade Union Confederation estimates 4,000 workers will die in Qatar before a ball is kicked in 2022.

It’s not yet clear whether FIFA will revisit the Russia and Qatar World Cups, although one key British football official wants them on the table.

“He’s gone…. At long last we can sort out FIFA. We can go back to looking at those two World Cups,” Greg Dyke, chairman of the English Football Association, said Tuesday. “If I were Qatar right now I wouldn’t be feeling very comfortable.”

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