Sepp Blatter
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Joseph 'Sepp' Blatter (born March 10, 1936, Visp, Wallis, Switzerland) was elected president of FIFA on June 8, 1998, succeeding Dr. Joćo Havelange (Brazil).
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Education
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.
Career
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).
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. Although Blatter was re-elected in 2002 and remains in his post (as of May 2004), many questions regarding his integrity remain unanswered.
Criticism
Blatter has made many changs to football which fans of the sport do not always want to see since he was voted the president of FIFA. Some controversial topics revole Blatter include:
- His personal desire to see the World Cup finals held at an African country. More than once, he has explicitly stated this preference and encourage African countries to bid for the event. Although his dream remains unmaterialized, this sparks worries among members of FIFA that inequities may happen.
- The "silver goal" replaced the "golden gold" rule in extra time of play-off matches. Under the "golden goal" rule, the match ends immidiately if one side scores in extra time. The "silver goal" rule, however, states that the match will go on until the end of the extra time period. Many fans opposed the new rule, arguing that this makes the match less exciting. The rule was first applied in the Euro 2004 competition, and to be applied in the World Cup 2006.
- 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 excempted team was Brazil, the World Cup 2002 champion.
External Links
- FIFA President's page on official website of FIFA (http://www.fifa.com/en/organisation/presidentsection/0,1525,1,00.html)
| Preceded by: Joćo Havelange | Presidents of FIFA 1998– | Succeeded by: Incumbent de:Sepp Blatter |