Sepp Blatter

Joseph 'Sepp' Blatter (born March 10, 1936 in Visp, Wallis, Switzerland) is the current president of FIFA. He was elected on June 8, 1998, succeeding Dr. João Havelange (Brazil).

Background

Born in the Swiss town of Visp, he graduated from the Sion and St. Maurice colleges in Switzerland before gaining a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Economics from the Faculty of Law at Lausanne University.

His long and varied career curriculum involves posts like Head of Public Relations of the Valaisan Tourist Board in his native Switzerland, General Secretary of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation; as Director of Sports Timing and Public Relations of Longines S.A he was involved in the organization of the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games. Since 1975 he has been working at FIFA as Technical Director (1975-1981), and General Secretary (1981-1998).

Sepp Blatter was re-elected as head of FIFA in 2002, defeating Issa Hayatou in the election.

Changes to the game made under Blatter

• The "silver goal" replaced the "golden goal" rule in extra time of play-off matches. Under the "golden goal" rule, the match ends immediately if one side scores in extra time. The "silver goal" rule, however, states that the match will end at the half-time period in extra time if one team is leading – otherwise the match will continue until the end of the extra time period. Some fans however may find that this makes the game less exciting while others felt that it makes the game fairer. In addition, the position of the Sun in the sky and the wind direction may give the side attacking a certain end of the pitch the advantage with no opportunity for the other team to do the same in the second half (although the same situation could occur under the Golden goal rule). The rule was first applied in the Euro 2004 competition, but now it has been discontinued (along with golden goal) and all competitions have reverted to the traditional extra time rules (they must play the full amount of extra time of two fifteen-minute periods no matter how many goals are scored).
• A rule change in World Cup 2002 (the 17th World Cup) which makes the current World Cup champion not automatically qualified for the next World Cup finals. Champions of all the 16 previous World Cup were automatically given a place in the next World Cup finals. The first champion forced to re-qualify was Brazil, the 2002 World Cup champion.
• National associations must now enforce immediate suspensions of all players sent off during a game, even if television replays offer compelling evidence of a player's innocence. Blatter insists that a referee's judgement must be seen as final and that mistakes are part of the game.
• Implementing rules for better morality in the game such as booking players who removed their shirts after scoring a goal starting in 2004. Blatter's rationale was that football is a global sport and thus the popular leagues must respect the sensibilities of conservative nations where their games are broadcast.

Corruption allegations

His election and victory over UEFA President Lennart Johansson were marked with controversy. His incumbency has been marked with rumors of financial irregularities and backroom dealings, culminating in 2002 with direct accusations of bribery made in the press by the Somali FA member Farra Ado of an offer of $100,000 to vote for Blatter.

Sepp Blatter's deputy at the time, Michael Zen-Ruffinen, drew up a dossier outlining allegations of financial mismanagement and corruption within FIFA. The dossier alleged that the collapse of ISL had led to negative equity and losses of up to $100m under Blatter's organisation. The allegations were backed by the head of UEFA, Lennart Johansson. The dossier was handed to the Swiss authorities but no action was taken. Zen-Ruffinen was removed from office by Blatter immediately prior to the FIFA World Cup 2002.

In May 2006 British investigative reporter Andrew Jennings' book "Foul" (Harper Collins) caused controversy within the football world by detailing an alleged international cash-for-contracts scandal following the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner ISL, and revealed how some football officials have been urged to secretly repay the sweeteners they received. The book also exposed the blatant vote-rigging that went on behind closed doors in the fight for Sepp Blatter's continued control of FIFA.

External links

• FIFA President's page on official website of FIFA
• Extract from 'Foul' by Andrew Jennings
• 2002 Observer article outlining criticism of Blatter
• TIME Europe article on Zen-Ruffinen's allegations