Kommersant FM sports columnist Vladimir Osipov on Sepp Blatter’s resignation

FIFA President Sepp Blatter has announced his intention to leave his post. An emergency congress of the International Federation of Association Football, at which a new leader will be elected, will take place between December 2015 and March 2016. Kommersant FM presenter Anatoly Kuzichev discussed the topic with radio news sports commentator Vladimir Osipov.

— Blatter has already announced unequivocally that he will resign from the post of FIFA president at an emergency congress. It is clear that the congress will not be held tomorrow, but from December 2015 to March 2016, but nevertheless, what does this statement mean?

“There have already been comments from such monsters of the football world as Vyacheslav Koloskov, I’ll even quote, he says: “Obviously, some new factors or facts have appeared that we don’t know about yet, and they led to this decision.” Koloskov says: “Honestly, he fought so hard, it’s difficult for them to say in this situation, given the arrest of some members of the FIFA executive committee, what this means.” But it seemed to me that the situation was developing as follows: when it became clear that resignation was inevitable, Sepp Blatter decided to buy time.

- Why is it inevitable? Because for some reason both UEFA and the United States got involved - so it’s inevitable?

“That’s absolutely right, that is, this morning, when it became known that Blatter’s right-hand man Jerome Valcke was charged with transferring $10 million to Jack Warner, but Jerome Valcke has not yet been arrested, the possibility cannot be ruled out that negotiations with Blatter are in progress: “ “Either we will now begin a big process that will involve absolutely everyone, including you, Mr. Blatter, or you resign.” But, again, this is fantasy, this is not a fact, but this is a very likely development of events, and I do not exclude the possibility that this was exactly the case.

That is why Blatter is trying to buy time. The chairman of the special commission for the election of the FIFA President, Dominic Scala, announced that the election of a new head could take place from December to March next year. This means that until then Blatter will be at the helm, which means he has another 10 months. We understand that the closer we get to 2018, the less likely it is that the World Cup will be taken away from Russia. And let's face it now: Blatter has the majority of votes, and in 10 months you can spend enough time nominating your successor, transferring powers to him, or at least recommending him as a reliable, serious person. It is possible that in this case, again, the majority of votes will be for the person whom Blatter recommends, no matter how strange it may sound.

10 months is a very long time to work with an audience, to work with FIFA members, to talk, explain, prove. And the loud scandal is that he’s done, he resigned, which means everyone has won. And I think that everyone will now throw their caps in the air and say that they have achieved what they wanted, including the FBI, including the Swiss authorities, including UEFA led by Michel Platini. But it seems to me that this is not so. This is just a wise move.

- Trying to gain time.

— Now it’s online on many sites about what’s happening in Zurich, and, of course, Blatter speaks, of course, he says that he cannot remain at the helm, but the fact that this decision is also a balanced one, no matter what, I don't doubt it at all. We will now be waiting for a long time to see who will run for the post of FIFA President and who Sepp Blatter himself will recommend.

I do not exclude that all these people who voted for Blatter, and this, for a moment, is 137 votes there, in my opinion, that is, this is 2/3 of all FIFA members.

— That is, on Blatter’s part this is not a surrender, but a maneuver, did I understand correctly?

- Maneuver, yes, because you need to understand that it is better to lose a battle than to lose a war.

"It's better to lose a battle than to lose a war"