The President of the International Football Federation (FIFA) Joseph Blatter fell out not only with England, but also with Germany. An experienced sports functionary, who feels like a duck to water in various behind-the-scenes intrigues, usually behaves very carefully. However, during his last term as head of FIFA, he decided to discard all diplomacy and made a number of sensational accusations.
In world football, it seems, a new wave of high-profile revelations of high-ranking officials has begun. This time, accusations of corruption fell on Joseph Blatter's predecessor as FIFA president, Brazilian João Havelange. Blatter himself was also suspected of knowing about everything, but for some reason remained silent. The 76-year-old Swiss, in turn, accused the Germans of foul play. In an interview with Swiss publication Blick on Sunday, he hinted that Germany could well buy the rights to host the 2006 FIFA World Cup. When asked by a newspaper correspondent about rumors that the rights to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were bought by Russia and Qatar, respectively, Blatter replied: “Yes, the World Cups were bought... I remember the vote on the host of the 2006 World Cup, when someone in At the last moment he stood up and left the room. And instead of 10:10, the vote brought the result 10:9 in favor of Germany. Perhaps in that situation I was too benevolent and naive.”
The reaction to these words from Germany followed immediately. “I am unable to understand Sepp Blatter’s statements and insinuations,” legendary German footballer Franz Beckenbauer said in an interview with the Bild tabloid. “I don’t know of a single fact that something was done that was not according to the law,” Sport Bild Online quotes Theo Zwanziger, the former head of the German Football Association. “Sepp Blatter was there all the time,” Guido Tognoni, the former head of FIFA’s marketing department, couldn’t contain his anger. – Now he accuses the Germans of something, but the same accusations apply to himself. If something was wrong, he could stop everything. Throughout his tenure as FIFA President, events have been occurring in the organization that should not happen.”
Tognoni alludes in this case to statements by Sepp Blatter that he knew about bribes taken in the 90s of the last century by João Havelange and his former son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira (ex-president of the Brazilian Football Confederation). According to documents from Swiss prosecutors released last week, the "sweet couple" received 41 million Swiss francs (34 million euros) from marketing agency ISL in exchange for television rights to the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. The documents say that a certain “P1” knew about the payments. Sepp Blatter admitted that “P1” is him. In response to another wave of calls to resign, he said the payments were legal at the time. However, just three days later, the president began to say something completely different. He allegedly learned about the illegal payments only in 2001, when the ISL went bankrupt, and FIFA, under his leadership, immediately took measures to correct the situation. Recently, Blatter even demanded that the 96-year-old Havelange be stripped of the title of honorary president of FIFA.
However, documents from the Swiss prosecutor's office refute the words of the Swiss functionary. They claim that FIFA went to great lengths to hide the bribes. This point of view is shared by the international organization Transparency International (TI), which, at Blatter’s request, tried to reform FIFA. “If the president of the International Football Federation did nothing for years, knowing about illegal payments to senior officials and trying to hide them for as long as possible, it is difficult to believe that he will reform FIFA in the future,” Sylvia Schenk, an adviser to TI, told the Guardian.
Interestingly, Blatter accused the German Football Association of buying the World Cup immediately after he was called to resign by Reinhard Raubal, head of the Association of Professional Footballers. football teams Germany, and Wolfgang Niersbach, current head of the German Football Association. Moreover, the latter called the behavior of the FIFA president “shocking.” True, Joseph Blatter was by no means the first person to accuse the Germans of buying the World Cup. Guido Tognoni said almost the same thing in an interview with German radio station ZDF in December 2010. Then he also mentioned the last-minute departure of one of the members of the FIFA executive committee and said that the vote was “organized.” Two months later, Tognoni went even further and, at a sports congress in Düsseldorf, said that the German government, in order to buy the vote of one delegate from Saudi Arabia, even lifted the arms embargo on this Arab state. More than a year has passed since then, and Tognoni seems to have forgotten his words. On Monday he said that by pointing the finger at Germany, Sepp Blatter had “shot himself in the foot.”
However, anti-corruption proceedings are just beginning. On Monday it became known that FIFA has appointed former US prosecutor Michael Garcia to lead an investigation into corruption in world football. Garcia's responsibilities will also include the proceedings surrounding the competition for the right to receive the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Joseph Blatter is a former FIFA president who held the post for 17 years. The Swiss, a big football fan, did everything possible for him. Thanks to the efforts and work of the organization he heads, today football is considered the No. 1 sport in the whole world; there are about 3 million registered football players alone. It is played on all continents and receives wide media coverage.
Childhood and youth
Joseph Sepp Blatter, of Swiss nationality, was born on March 10, 1936 in the town of Visp, canton of Valais. The boy was born ahead of schedule, at 7 months. The baby's weight was no more than 1.5 kg. But Josef survived, despite not receiving medical care. He studied at the colleges of Sion and St. Moritz. From the age of 12, every summer and during the winter holidays the guy worked part-time in hotels.
Original of this materialPersonal life
The personal life of Joseph Blatter aroused interest in the press. The official himself provided rich food for gossip and rumors. The FIFA president has been married three times, but is now divorced. From his first marriage he has a daughter, Corinne, and a granddaughter, Serena. The second wife was 41 years younger than Blatter; their marriage lasted 12 months.
FIFA President Joseph Blatter came to the 2013 Ballon d'Or ceremony with his new girlfriend, 49-year-old Linda Barras (Gabrielyan), who has Armenian roots. Barras was born in Tehran and lives in Switzerland.
View this post on Instagram
2 years later, the Spanish publication El Mundo published a list of women with whom Blatter had relationships. The penultimate one on this list was the Russian model Irina Shayk. The beauty herself denied an affair with the FIFA president. The paparazzi did not have any photos of the couple together confirming their connection.
© "RBC daily", 07/13/2010, FIFA breaks records, Photo: EPA
Alexander Polotsky
The final game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa was the roughest in history, but the 74-year-old head of the International Football Federation (FIFA), Joseph Blatter, apparently does not care. For him, an economist by training, the score with which Spain defeated the Netherlands is apparently not important. All this is of only secondary importance, because in any case FIFA was the winner, and this happened even before the final was over. The financial results of the 2010 World Cup are as follows: advertising revenues at the FIFA box office amounted to $3.2 billion.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter himself should be “thanked” for this, notes journalist Luke O’Brien, calling the disruptions unprecedented, and Blatter himself “a Swiss money bag who attracts accusations of corruption like a Chicago politician.”
Blatter's decisions, such as the ticketing policy and the hotel booking contract, deprived South Africa of millions of dollars that could have been spent foreign guests, the author believes. […]
Svyatoslav Vasylyk
“The newspaper...” found out who he really is - FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who undeservedly found himself at the center of a holiday called the 2010 World Cup, how he is trying to change football and why he is against video replays.
Having turned the main football organization into a powerful transnational corporation, and the world championships into a profitable business project, Blatter was never able to get rid of the image of a layman in football and a dubious businessman. And the 2010 World Cup only confirmed such guesses. Yet, once dubbed in the British press as “the Swiss moneybag who attracts corruption charges like a Chicago politician,” he has headed FIFA for 12 years and expects to rule for at least another five years. The only thing that can prevent Blatter from remaining in power is his stubborn reluctance to use video replays to resolve controversial situations during the game.
Schemer and financial genius
Sepp Blatter began his vigorous activity as FIFA President in 1998. Then, during the elections, the Swiss was ahead of the main man in European football - the Swede Lennart Johansson. Later, information appeared that Blatter allegedly “materially influenced” the voting results, but the accusations remained unproven. He got away unscathed in 2001, when FIFA’s commercial partner, ISL/ISMM, went bankrupt due to bribes and ill-conceived marketing policies. Blatter hushed up that scandal and quickly improved the financial affairs of his organization, despite the loss of $300 million. In 2002 and 2007, the Swiss was successfully re-elected to a new term as FIFA boss, although there was always plenty of criticism against him.Blatter was instilled with a passion for organizational work by his predecessor, Joao Havelange. The Brazilian “threw” the energetic Sepp into different areas of work - holding draws, children's and women's football, futsal, and the Club World Cup. He burst out with new ideas everywhere and at the same time achieved results. Already as president, Blatter turned out to be an extraordinary financier. Under him, FIFA's turnover reached $1 billion, and annual profits grew to $600 million. For $200 million, Blatter built a new FIFA headquarters in Zurich, and he allocates $300 million a year for the maintenance of the bureaucracy. True, the Swiss achieved little with the reforms. Attempts to limit the number of foreign players in clubs encountered opposition from UEFA and the EU, and the idea of salary ceilings for football players also failed. As for Blatter's proposals to improve the rules of the game (increasing the size of the goal, reducing the number of players, abolishing offsides and post-match penalties), no one took them seriously.
What does the spirit of football have to do with it?
Until recently, Sepp Blatter was against the introduction of modern technologies to resolve controversial situations on the field. “There are no optimal devices yet, it is technically and materially difficult, and it cannot be applied at the global level,” he said. But a couple of high-profile scandals at the 2010 World Cup (Lampard's canceled goal, Tevez and Fabiano's illegal goals) forced the FIFA boss, if not to change his point of view, then at least to hint at reforms. “There is a need to change the rules,” Blatter said in South Africa. - In July we will discuss the topic of introducing video replays. It would be wrong not to discuss possible changes.” However, people who know Blatter are sure that this is just a ploy by the president to relieve tension. In fact, FIFA is not ready for reforms. Blatter they are simply not profitable...“Blatter is 74 years old and is already too old for revolutions. It will be enough for him to talk about technology on the eve of the elections, but, having received a new term as president in 2011, the Swiss will immediately find many excuses,” writes the British The Times. According to analysts, Blatter is confused by three things. The first is financial. He doesn't want to quarrel with television and sponsors. It is TV that is not profitable to introduce video replays, because the time of matches will be extended and advertising breaks will be out of schedule. The second is political. It is no secret that referees have always been FIFA’s administrative resource; with their help, it was possible to “pull out” teams that were more financially attractive. And with the advent of video replays, there will be no “profitable” mistakes. Finally, the third point is organizational. FIFA has little idea what all this will look like. Which and how many episodes should be reviewed, how much time should be given for a break, who will make the final decision - a judge or a supervisor? Some moments in the game are so controversial that watching them can turn into a crush or even a brawl at the monitor. Any decision by FIFA on each of these issues will likely cause dissent, which is another blow to Blatter's position.
In short, it is easier for the “owner of football” to survive current criticism than to run into new ones. Moreover, if such authorities as Platini (by the way, “Blatter’s man”), Pele, Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Colina and others are against technology. All their arguments boil down to the fact that technology will “kill the spirit of football.” I’m tempted to ask: what about the spirit of hockey, basketball, baseball and many other sports? modern technologies did they kill? “All Blatter needs to do is replace the mythical spirit of football with the spirit of justice, stripping the game of corruption and resentment,” writes The Times. “For now, he remains football’s number one enemy...”
Information desk "Newspapers..."
Joseph (Sepp) BLATTER. Born on March 10, 1936 in Visp (Switzerland). He played football at the amateur level and was engaged in sports journalism. In 1956 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lausanne. He worked in a travel agency, a representative office of the watch company Longines. In 1964 he became general secretary of the Swiss Hockey Association.Appointed in 1975 technical director FIFA, in 1981 became Secretary General of the International Federation of Association Football. Since 1998 - President of FIFA. In 2002 and 2007 was successfully re-elected.
Blatter's salary is $1.7 million per year. He has a service apartment in the center of Zurich (rent $4,000 per month). Travel allowance is $500 per day.
Blatter is twice divorced. Has a daughter from his first marriage. The second wife was 41 years younger than Blatter; their marriage lasted 12 months. In 2008, he got into a serious accident, crashing a company Mercedes worth $186 thousand, but did not receive any injuries.
Fifa's marketing efforts under Blatter 'crosses boundaries'
This corporation is registered in Switzerland as a non-profit organization, pays minimal taxes and does not disclose executive compensation.
Original of this material© "Results", 07/23/2007, Blatter's Dungeon
Sergey Pankratov
The FIFA headquarters in Zurich, from where the Swiss Sepp Blatter rules world football, is set up like any local bank: everything important is underground, luxury is unobtrusive, the secrecy of deposits is guaranteed.
Finding the new headquarters of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) in Zurich is not difficult. It is located on a cozy street called FIFA Strasse. From the outside, the FIFA House resembles an alien ship. Silver solar panels give this architectural work lightness and grace. The interior of the building makes an even stronger impression. The huge foyer is stunning in scale. There is a complete feeling that you are in a temple - the temple of football. Here is the altar - a large exhibition of cups. Among them, the most important one is for winning the World Championship.
Football today is more than a game. This is both politics and business. Therefore, FIFA is not a club of special interests at all. It is one of the largest corporations with annual revenues of approximately a billion dollars. Sepp Blatter's empire has 270 million subjects - this is the number of officially registered football players, referees and coaches in the world. And all the threads of managing this complex combination of sports, money and politics lead... to the underground.
Labyrinth
 |
| FIFA headquarters
|
There are only two floors here, did you bury the money in the ground?
Exactly, two floors are on the surface,” the guide smiles, “and five go underground.
Associations involuntarily arise with “Swiss gnomes” (as Swiss bankers are called). But everything turned out to be more prosaic. Buildings higher than two floors cannot be built in Zurich's parkland. So we had to dig in five levels. However, don't think that FIFA's 290 employees work in underground labyrinths. Much more comfortable conditions have been created for functionaries. Two ground floors of glass and steel were dedicated to offices, and every employee was given a window seat. Technical structures, a documentation center, a garage and the holy of holies - the conference hall of the FIFA executive committee - went underground.
We go downstairs in a high-speed elevator. The question inevitably arises: why is the meeting place of world football leaders located underground? Andreas seems to read my thoughts:
This was the idea of the architect Tilla Theus. Important decisions should be made away from the bustle of the world.
The elevator stopped, and in complete darkness a fantastic sight opened up - a huge luminous triangle made of onyx. Meditation hall. Here, representatives of all religions can pray to their gods for victory on the football fields. We move further along the corridors, decorated with chromed metal and Brazilian marble. Andreas Herren keeps rattling off numbers, describing the virtues of the underworld, until I interrupt him:
Where is your dining room?
The attendant shrugs in surprise. It turns out that the architect, having provided for thousands of everyday details, decisively rejected the idea of a food processing plant. A building that claims to be a temple where the sacraments are performed cannot be filled with the smell of fried sausages. It only has a small cafeteria. Mrs. Theus should have heard what the FIFA functionaries, who have to trudge to the restaurant of the nearby zoo for lunch, have to say about this. But this is the only inconvenience in the FIFA House. Considering that the starting salary of a headquarters employee is five thousand euros per month, then this trouble can be considered tolerable. By the way, the salaries of top FIFA officials are a trade secret.
Finally, through long underground labyrinths, we reached our final goal - the meeting room of the FIFA executive committee. In dim light, the first impression is more than strange. When a huge chandelier made of Swarovski crystals is turned on, this room is transformed, but in the twilight it looks more like the habitat of the already mentioned “Swiss gnomes”. Near the chairman's seat, I could not resist the temptation and asked permission to sit in the chair of the FIFA President. The chair is like a chair. Slightly lower than usual, matching the current president’s short stature.
Who's the boss
Sepp Blatter is, to put it mildly, a controversial figure. Today this German-speaking Swiss is the unchallenged autocrat of world football. Neither high-profile corruption scandals nor open confrontation with former president Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) by Lennart Johansson. The Swede became famous for organizing the extremely profitable Champions League. |
What do you think of Andrew Jennings' book? - I asked one of the FIFA leaders.
This is an absolute lie! - the football official got nervous. - Jennings is persona non grata. We have removed it from the accreditation lists of all FIFA events.
The war of incriminating evidence has been going on for years. In the end, it turned out that Blatter's opponents had not taken one thing into account. Sepp is strong at “working among the masses.” For seventeen years, Blatter held the key position of FIFA Secretary General; he personally distributed subsidies to football federations in Asia and Africa, where he has many allies. Neither the authority of UEFA nor the influence of the strongest European football clubs helped Lennart Johansson. First, he lost the FIFA presidential election to Blatter. Then he lost his European post. Blatter took an active part in the UEFA presidential elections held in January this year, which, by the way, was a violation ethical standards. Johansson's opponent was Michel Platini. A legendary football player, three-time Ballon d'Or winner, European champion in 1984 - but even he would hardly have been able to defeat Johansson if Sepp Blatter had not been behind him. The FIFA President accompanied Michel Platini like a shadow on all his campaign trips. And when Platini was literally ahead of Johansson at the finish line, Blatter, beaming with happiness, said: “I had no doubt about Michel’s victory.”
Blatter's unsinkability is explained in different ways. Some believe that he is a master of combinational play off the field. During the years of undivided rule of world football, he skillfully removed all his obvious and hidden opponents from FIFA. But there is another point of view, voiced by Andreas Herren, who, by the way, worked with Blatter for more than twenty years:
All these accusations are nothing more than black PR. Sepp has a very prominent position, and many would like to sit in his chair. Football is a game where every fan considers himself an expert, and every sponsor, and especially the club owner, considers himself a strategist. Offer someone from the moneybags to lead a classical orchestra, it is unlikely that he will agree. But the football club - please.
According to Herren, the situation is the same with FIFA: anyone slightly knowledgeable in football affairs is confident that they know how to run this organization.
Congress of Winners
The last FIFA congress, held in May this year in Zurich, resembled a congress of winners. Sepp Blatter was the only candidate for the presidency. And he was elected almost unanimously. In his "speech from the throne" he spoke a lot about the successes achieved by the federation under his leadership. At the same time, he called the construction of the new FIFA headquarters his main merit. "Some people call this building a palace. It is so large, full of strength and energy. It is both massive and intimate for every visitor," Blatter said. The audience greeted these words of the president with a stormy ovation.On the day of my visit to the FIFA headquarters, Bolivian President Evo Morales was received there. He tried to convince Sepp Blatter to lift the ban on international matches in regions located above 2,500 meters above sea level (almost all of Bolivia is in the highlands). Convinced. Immediately after the meeting, Blatter and Morales went out onto the football field located at the entrance to the headquarters and demonstrated their ability to handle the ball to reporters. Blatter did it better. Apparently, he was more accustomed to juggling a ball in a suit and tie.
If Blatter survives to the end of his third term, then in total, as Secretary General and President, he will lead FIFA for thirty years. This is a whole era. The answer to the question of what she was like is ambiguous. At first glance, Sepp Blatter supports the ideas of Platini, who intends to sharply limit the influence of big business on football. However, as one former FIFA functionary told Itogi: “Michel Platini is a football romantic, and Sepp simply used him to settle scores with Johansson. How can Blatter oppose big business when FIFA itself is today a large corporation?”
Indeed, the amounts with which the International Football Federation operates place it in a row large companies. For example, FIFA’s income from the last World Cup in Germany amounted to about 1.86 billion euros - this is the amount received from the sale of tickets and television rights, advertising, souvenirs, etc. If we talk about the costs of holding the World Championship , then they amounted to 755 million euros. Plus contributions to football associations of developing countries. As a result, FIFA's profit, according to various estimates, ranged from 400 to 600 million euros. But that's not all.
Recently, former US women's soccer team goalkeeper Mary Harvey took over the leadership of FIFA's development division. The lady literally turned the entire marketing policy of the organization upside down. She became thoughtful and aggressive in an American way. Today, not a single souvenir, not a single badge, even from the World Cup for seventeen-year-olds, can be sold without payments from FIFA. Before the World Cup in Germany, Harvey took all measures to prevent outsiders from making money on advertising. Its employees have patented more than 800 synonyms for the phrases “World Cup”, “World Championship”, “Mundial” and so on in different languages.
And with such income, FIFA pays only 4.25 percent in taxes! Because in Switzerland this transnational corporation is registered as a non-profit organization.
Meanwhile, FIFA's noticeably increased business activity is increasingly subject to harsh criticism. Thus, the President of the German Football Association Theo Zwanziger noted that during the preparation of the 2006 World Cup, marketing crossed the boundaries of what was acceptable.
At the championship there were some funny things. For example, employees of a brewing company - the official supplier of the championship - forced Dutch fans to take off their pants. Only under this condition did they get the opportunity to watch a football match between their national team and the Ivory Coast team. The fact is that one well-known brewery in the Netherlands dressed several thousand Dutch fans in lederhosen (traditional leather shorts), of course, placing its logo on them And when at the stadium in Stuttgart representatives of the official supplier saw thousands of fans in the ill-fated shorts, the question arose: either the Dutch were taking them off, or they were not allowed to enter the stadium. And then the male fans had to take off these items of national costume and watch the game. in only underwear. Fortunately, many of them turned out to be the national color, orange.
It's clear that the world's most popular game is at a crossroads. Today in football the question is more acute than ever whether the financial viability of a club should influence the result more than the skill and willpower of the players. The answer to this depends on what mood will prevail at FIFA headquarters. If it increasingly turns into a political-commercial organization, then the romantics will definitely lose to the “Swiss gnomes.”
Our man in Zurich
In addition to Sepp Blatter, there is another long-liver in the FIFA leadership. This is the representative of Russia in the executive committee Vyacheslav Koloskov. He has a long-standing friendship with Blatter and plays tennis together. In an interview with Itogi, Vyacheslav Ivanovich shared some secrets of the “cuisine” of world football.They say that it is impossible to get a job at FIFA headquarters without cronyism.
In my opinion, staff turnover still occurs and it is possible to get a job there. But you need to take into account that you must at least be fluent in three languages and plus be a first-class professional in your field - for example, marketing, accounting, PR. And, of course, to know football thoroughly. If you have such candidates, let them contact me for help, I will try to help.
How much do federation leaders earn?
Even we, members of the executive committee, don’t know what the salaries of top FIFA functionaries, and especially Blatter, are.
You have known Blatter for a long time, please evaluate his activities.
He is a strong leader. Otherwise, I would not have pulled FIFA out of the abyss in which this organization found itself eight years ago. And today it is a successful company.
Exactly the company?
I’m not afraid of this comparison; today FIFA is inherently closer to a successful corporation.
They say that there is almost a cult of Blatter's personality in FIFA. Open the official website, there are more than thirty portraits of the president.
I don't think Blatter has usurped power in FIFA. He, of course, cannot be called a democrat, but, on the other hand, someone would try to manage an organization that includes 208 national football federations. Here it is simply impossible without a certain rigidity.
