Date
Author
Юрий Векслер; Андрей Шароградский; Андрей Шарый; Александр Гостев
Source
Preserved copy
Translated material
Blatter still leaves
FIFA President Joseph Blatter said that he would resign after the successor elections in a few months
FIFA President, 79-year-old Joseph Zepp, Blatter made an application for an emergency resignation at an emergency press conference in Zurich, convened only four days after winning the election of the head of the International Football Federation . "I will collect an extraordinary congress for the election of the new President of FIFA. I will not participate in them. I have the dear interests of FIFA. Therefore, I made this decision. Most of all, I have been worried about the organization of FIFA and world football," said Blatter, who headed the federation since 1998.
Blatter was re -elected for the fifth period two days after the arrests of high -ranking functionaries of the organization at the request of the United States and the beginning of a parallel investigation in Switzerland. The UK conducts its investigation. According to preliminary information, the emergency Congress of FIFA, at which the successor of Blatter will be elected, will be held between the December of this and March next year. All this time, Blatter will act as President FIFA. The prosecutor's office of Switzerland issued a special statement, which emphasizes that any investigation against Blatter was not excited. But, according to media reports, such an investigation is conducted by the FBI of the United States. Details are still unknown.
In his speech on June 2, Blatter called for a reduction in the number of members of the FIFA Executive Committee and the introduction of restrictions on the deadline for staying at the post of President FIFA and membership in the Executive Committee.
In the USA against FIFA functionaries, allegations of bribery were made when choosing places of world football championships, fraud with marketing and broadcast transactions, fraud, racket and laundering of money.
Corruption scandals, especially the last, on the eve of the Congress, where the next re -election of Blatter took place by the “king of the football world”, was shaken by both his reputation and the reputation of FIFA as a whole. The US Ministry of Justice reported that FIFA officials are accused of racket, fraud and money laundering. In general, the indictment consists of 47 points. The American justice estimates the total amount of bribes over the past 19 years of FIFA's activity at more than $ 100 million.
FIFA President Joseph Blatter said that he would resign after the successor elections in a few months
What could make Blatter make a decision on resignation? Moscow sports analyst Alexander Gorbunov , observer of the Sports: Day after Day, gives among the possible three reasons: growing discontent by the President of FIFA by transnational corporations - football sponsors; The actions of the American and Swiss investigators (after the re -election of Blatter to the presidential post, it became known about the possible involvement of the Secretary General Fifa Jerome Wilke in corruption schemes ; finally, the threat of UEFA from FIFA.
Indeed, the President of UEFA, the European Union of Football Associations, Michel Platini, threatened Blatter: in the event of his re -election, the UEFA will leave FIFA and will boycott the world championships. However, Platini and his supporters failed to achieve the removal of the candidacy of Blatter in the elections on May 29. Blatter categorically refused and, after his re -election, publicly accused the Frenchman of "unethical behavior." The impression was that Platini resigned to the defeat, although the situation in FIFA was to be discussed by the UEFA leadership this week - before the final of the UEFA Champions League. Now, after Blatter's announcement of an ambulance, Platini is considered the main contender for the post of head of FIFA. In the elections on May 29, Platini actively promoted the candidacy of the Jordanian prince Ali bin al-Hussein. But he refused the struggle, defeating in the first round of voting.
The most famous fan of President FIFA in the battles around Blatter was, it seems, the President of Russia. Vladimir Putin called the attempt to overthrow Blatter with a "dirty provocation of the United States" and said that "no one would take the 2018 World Cup from us." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov performed more diplomatically, slightly smooth out Putin's rhetoric. "Russia is not trying to select the 2018 World Cup. We have never seen any reasonable evidence and accusations of violations of the Russian application for the 2018 World Cup," Lavrov said.
After the FIFA Congress and the re -election of Zepp Blatter, the ball, so to speak, flew into the policy of politics, or, more precisely, politicians. Two politicians of Germany-representative of the Free Democrats Party Vice-Chairman of the European Parliament Alexander Graf Lambsdorf and co-chair of the Soyuz 90/Green Party Simone Peter openly spoke about those who love football and who are tired of putting up with the fact that their beloved by millions of sports are refueling corrupt business delights. The politicians of two very distant ones from each other in the main views of the parties called for the creation of a new football union instead of FIFA.
Alexander Graf Lambsdorf said that European football federations should draw conclusions from the re -election head of FIFA Joseph Blatter. According to the politician, the main federations presented by the best football teams of the planet could unite the World Football Association. He said this in an interview with Welt Am Sonntag. The core of such a federation should, in his opinion, become Europe:
- If the five leading football nations of Europe - Germany, England, Spain, France and Italy - will announce their readiness to become the WFA nucleus, then the United States, Japan and Australia will join them in the shortest possible time. The accession to the new Argentine and Brazil federation will mean the sports and economic end of Fifa Blatter, ”says Alexander Count Lambsdorf.
Is the FIFA alternative possible? If possible, then the path to it is not easy. We need a consensus of the very five leading football nations in Europe - Germany, England, Spain, France and Italy.
How difficult it is, it is evident in the example of the situation in Germany. Her main, but shadow football boss of an international scale is Franz Beckenbauer. On June 13, 2014, FIFA (more precisely her ethics committee) removed Beckenbauer from the activity related to football for 90 days and did not even allow him to visit the World Cup in Brazil. This was due to the refusal of Kaiser Franz, as Bekkenbauer is called in Germany, from cooperation on the internal investigation of the case related to the choice of Qatar as the venue of the 2022 World Cup. Bekkenbauer later gave the committee a testimony through his lawyer, and his case, as the press writes these days, will be about to be completely closed.
It is interesting that Zepp Blatter, clearly sensing a throne and dissatisfied with the fact that some European federations, including Germany, voted against his re-election, distributed a version in the press that Bekkenbauer talked with the president of the German football federation Wolfgang Nirsbach and literally, according to Blatter, “crushed it,” Dislike behavior during voting. However, both - Bekkenbauer and Nirsbach - refuted the version of Blatter, although the very fact of the conversation was not denied.
The organizations of the Chancellor of Germany Merkel - the organizations about the creation of alternative FIFA did not make politicians from the CDU. Sharp words addressed to FIFA were pronounced by one of the leaders of the Social Democrats, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who demanded a complete investigation about all charges against FIFA. But he did not talk about the possibility of creating an alternative association.
The German analyst Wolfram Ainberger said these days about one paradox of FIFA, which interferes with the reforms within the organization. The fact is that FIFA copes well with one of his most important missions - with support for the development of football in more and more countries, primarily in the so -called developing countries. Answering the question of what will change the departure of Blatter from the throne, Tolfram Ainberger said:
Fifa reminds me of the "farm" Orwell. The fact that there are all the inhabitants of the farm - pigs
- Fifa reminds me of the "farm" Orwell. The fact that there are all the inhabitants of the farm - pigs. FIFA is an organization that is engaged in the distribution of money. From the inside, she cannot reform herself. Therefore, the intervention of American justice seems to me the most effective. FIFA has really good intentions and good deeds in developing football in developing countries. In general, in its main mission of football support in the world, FIFA is successful and effective. And a lot of money is being pumped into this business. But the problem is that the rest of the money is always very large, and this one provokes to corruption schemes and games. That is, FIFA is effective in its mission, but the declared standard of a socially useful non -profit organization (and according to the charter it is just that) is almost impossible to realize it, ”says Tolfram Ainberger.