What kind of president was Joseph Blatter? Joseph (Sepp) Blatter: biography. Conquering the top of FIFA
He studied at the colleges of Sion and St. Moritz. In 1959 he received a bachelor's degree in business administration and economics at Faculty of Law University of Lausanne.
In 1948-71. played for various Swiss amateur football clubs.
Since 1956 he has been a member of the Swiss Association of Writing Journalists.
In 1959-64. worked as head of public relations in the tourism organization of the canton of Valais.
In 1964-66. served as Secretary General of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation.
In 1968-75. worked for the Swiss watch company Longines, worked as director of public relations and sports timing, in connection with this position he took part in the preparation Olympic Games 1972 and 1976
In 1970-75 was a member of the board of the Xamax football club (Neuchâtel, Switzerland).
In 1975, Blatter was appointed sporting director of the International Football Federation (FIFA). In 1981, the FIFA executive committee elected him general secretary, and in 1990 he was promoted to chief executive officer of the organization. Blatter's main activity during this period was negotiating and concluding television and marketing contracts to commercialize FIFA.
Since 1991, he worked on the International Olympic Committee's commission on the Olympic movement. In 1999-2015 was a member of the IOC.
At the end of March 1998, he replaced the Brazilian Joao Havelange as FIFA President. Re-elected in 2002, 2007, 2011 and 2015. The FIFA presidential elections in May 2015 took place against the backdrop of a corruption scandal. On June 2, 2015, Blatter announced that he was going to leave his post after the election of a new head of the organization. In October of the same year, Blatter was temporarily suspended from office in connection with an investigation into corruption, and. O. Cameroonian Issa Hayatou became president.
On December 21, 2015, the FIFA ethics committee suspended Blatter from football activities for eight years. The punishment was imposed as a result of an investigation, the object of which was a large remittance to Michel Platini, former adviser to Blatter, UEFA President from 2007-2015. In February, the appeal committee reduced the period of disqualification to six years.
On February 26, 2016, at an extraordinary FIFA congress, Gianni Infantino was elected as the new president of the organization.
December 5, 2016 Sports arbitration court(Lausanne, Switzerland) rejected Joseph Blatter's appeal and upheld his six-year ban from football activities.
He was repeatedly included in the list of the hundred most influential people in the world according to Forbes.
Knight of the Olympic Order, has state awards in more than 20 countries.
Honorary member of the Swiss Olympic Association, German and Swiss football associations, Real Madrid club. Honorary citizen of East Timor and several cities, including his own hometown Fisp.
In addition to German, he speaks French, English, Spanish and Italian.
Divorced. Married three times, daughter Corinne, granddaughter Serena.
In addition to football, he was involved in athletics and tennis.
Has been in office since 1998
Biography
In 1975 he became technical director of FIFA. In 1981, he was appointed to the post of Secretary General of this organization by its President Joao Havelange. In 1998, in the race for the presidency of FIFA, he won the elections against UEFA President Lennart Johansson. In 1999, he became a member of the International Olympic Committee. In 2001, his name was at the center of a scandal related to the bankruptcy of FIFA's partner company ISL/ISMM.
Compromising evidence
A loud scandal is breaking out in world football. It was provoked by the authoritative French publication France Football, which accused Qatar of buying the right to host the 2022 World Cup. The publication announced that it would transfer the collected data to the International Football Federation (FIFA), which could theoretically give the championship to another country. However, the chances of this are not great.
The print version of France Football came out with the headline "Catargate". It occupies 22 pages and contains a number of very entertaining statements. Not all of them, however, can be considered fresh. Thus, the publication recalls that two former members of the FIFA executive committee were bribed by the Qataris. We are talking about Issa Hayatou (Cameroon) and Jacques Anuma (Côte d'Ivoire), each of whom allegedly received $1.5 million from the Qataris. They even named the informant who shared the data - Fedra al-Majid, who headed the press service Qatari application committee Later, however, Mrs. al-Majid stated that she had made it all up, thus wanting to take revenge for her dismissal from the post she occupied.
Joseph "Sepp" Blatter was born on March 10, 1936 in the Swiss town of Visp, canton of Valais. He studied at the colleges of Sion and St. Moritz. In 1959 he received a bachelor's degree in business administration and economics from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lausanne. Became a member of the Swiss Sports Journalists Association.
From 1948 to 1971, Joseph Blatter played for one of the amateur Swiss football clubs. In 1962 he began his career in a Swiss travel company. In 1964 he became general secretary of the Swiss Hockey Association. In 1972, as a representative of Longines, he took part in the preparation of the Olympic Games in Munich.
Joseph Blatter became FIFA's technical director in 1975. In 1981, he was appointed to the post of Secretary General of this organization by its President Joao Havelange. In 1998, in the fight for the presidency of FIFA, he won the elections against UEFA President Lennart Johansson. Blatter is the eighth president of FIFA. He was re-elected to office in 2002, 2007, 2011 and 2015.
Blatter has been repeatedly included in the list of the hundred most influential people in the world according to Forbes magazine. He is a Knight of the Olympic Order and has state awards from more than 20 countries. In addition to German, he speaks French, English, Spanish and Italian.
Joseph Blatter: FIFA scandal
At the end of May 2015, on the eve of the FIFA presidential elections, Joseph Blatter was attacked by a number of media outlets in connection with the leadership of the federation. Eat different opinions about the reasons behind the FIFA scandal. There are three main ones: strengthening the fight against corruption in sports, the desire to divert the attention of the world community from other issues, and an attempt to cancel the World Championships in 2018 in Russia and in 2022 in Qatar, moving them to other countries.
The desire to move the 2018 World Cup from Russia, according to some experts, is due to the worsening relations between the United States and Russia. Some sources say Blatter opposed this. In favor latest version it says that the corruption scandal is being investigated by the American justice system, and the arrests of a number of FIFA officials were carried out by the FBI.
Joseph Blatter himself also explains the scandal surrounding corruption in his organization by saying that FIFA would have avoided the current problems if the Russian Federation and Qatar had not been chosen as hosts of the World Cup. " I won't use the word "coincidence" but I have small sign question", Blatter is quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
On May 29, 2015, Joseph Blatter was re-elected as FIFA President for a fifth term after Ali bin al-Hussein withdrew his candidacy after the first round. Moreover, Blatter lacked 7 votes for an instant victory. But on June 2, 2015, just 4 days after being re-elected, from the post of FIFA President. He will remain acting until new elections.
Joseph Blatter: personal life
The personal life of Joseph Blatter has always been of interest to the press. The official himself provided rich food for gossip and rumors. Blatter, 79, is 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. His companion was 49-year-old Linda Barras, who has Armenian roots. Barras lives in Switzerland.
The FIFA President has been married three times, but has not been in an official relationship for the past 6 years.
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 reporter 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 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 Football Teams of Germany, and Wolfgang Niersbach, the 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. It's been since then more than a year, and Tognoni seemed 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.
The name of Joseph Blatter, who headed FIFA for many years in a row, was recognized even by people very far from sports in May-June 2015. The whole world started talking about him, and the reason for this, as usual, was a scandal. What else, besides appearing in international disputes, is this man’s personality remarkable?
Childhood and youth of the future FIFA president
Joseph (Sepp) Blatter was born shortly before the outbreak of World War II in one of the most reliable and prosperous countries in Europe. The birthday of the son of an auto mechanic and his wife from the Swiss town of Visp (which was a commune at that time) fell on March 10, 1936.
The boy’s parents had nothing to do with sports, but Blatter’s love for football appeared quite early.
Josef's passion came into his life during his studies. Which, by the way, first took place in one of the local schools, and then in schools in Sion and St. Moritz. At the age of twelve, the boy became a member of one of the amateur football clubs and played for him for 23 years - until 1971.
But most likely, Joseph Sepp Blatter in his youth did not think that football would become the basis of his career. Because after school he chose the University of Lausanne, where he studied law. The studies were successful, and already in 1956, young Sepp Blatter became the proud owner of a diploma. Which, however, was never fully used by him...
The first steps of a career in sports
Immediately after graduating from university, Blatter was accepted into the Association of Sports Journalists. And three years later he gets a job at the Tourism Council of the canton of Valais, where he heads the public relations department. Sepp Blatter spent five years of his life in this position (from 59 to 64), and then plunged headlong into sports and never “resurfaced.”
The first serious step on the ladder of a sports career for Blatter was his work at the Swiss Hockey Federation, which began in 1964. Here he made his debut as a manager, performing the duties of general secretary.
From 1970 to 1975, the future FIFA president was on the Board of Directors of the Xamax football club (Switzerland).
As an employee of one of the Swiss watch companies, Sepp Blatter accepted Active participation in preparation for the year in Munich and 1976 in Montreal, which gave him invaluable experience and became a springboard for his next achievements.
By the way, there is information that it was Blatter who refereed the scandalous match between the basketball teams of the USSR and the USA in 1972 (took place as part of the Munich Summer Olympics). Sports fans remember that the referee then insisted on three unplayed seconds. And it was they who determined the fate of the match, allowing the Soviet basketball players to win.
Conquering the top of FIFA
In 1975, Blatter first “opened the doors” to the International Football Federation. And he immediately received the position of technical director of FIFA. And in 1981 he “jumped” even higher, becoming the secretary general of this most prestigious organization. And he remained so until 1998.
In 1998, the next (51st) FIFA congress took place in Paris, during which Joseph Blatter was elected as the new president of the federation. In this post, he replaced the Brazilian Joao Havelange, defeating the Swede Lennart Johannson, who headed UEFA at that time, in the election fight.
Sepp Blatter served as FIFA president for 17 years, until the summer of 2015.
Historical decisions
Sepp Blatter, whose biography is inextricably linked with the International Football Federation, managed to do a lot in almost 40 years of work in it. And he even went down in history as the author of important innovations.
For example, while still in office, Blatter began to implement serious educational programs in the football field and laid the foundation for holding world championships among players whose age does not exceed twenty and seventeen years. Also, with his light hand, women's mini-football championships began to be held around the world.
When Joseph Blatter was president of FIFA, the World Cup was held simultaneously in two countries for the first time in football history. This happened in 2002, and the hosts who hosted the competition were then South Korea and Japan.
The Swiss has always been against major transformations of football rules. In particular, he did not support the introduction of video replays. But it was this man who introduced the automatic goal recording system, which was tested during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Scandals
FIFA President Sepp Blatter has been in the center more than once high-profile scandals of different nature.
Thus, almost at the very beginning of Blatter’s presidency - in 2001 - his name was involved in a scandal related to the bankruptcy of one of the companies that was a partner of the federation.
In 2010, the head of FIFA made an unfortunate joke about the World Cup in Qatar and homosexual fans who, they say, would have to give up sex in this country. After the wave of indignation that swept across the world, Blatter had to apologize and make excuses. He stated that he did not want to offend gays, and from the Qatari authorities with his taboo on gay intends to demand tolerance.
And just a year later - in 2011 - a new scandal broke out, now related to money. Everything happened on the eve of the next FIFA presidential election, and Sepp Blatter’s rival Mohammed bin Hammam accused him of involvement in corruption schemes. The plan didn't work. The rival remained out of work, and the Swiss was re-elected for a new term.
But perhaps the loudest conflict was in 2015, when a certain circle of people had doubts about the legality of the choice of Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. respectively. The main initiators of the proceedings were the Americans.
They accused the top of FIFA (in particular, Blatter's deputies) of many years of corrupt policies and dishonesty in choosing venues for championships. More than a dozen federation employees were arrested. And all this again on the eve of the elections for the post of FIFA President.
As a result, a special commission of the International Football Federation conducted an investigation and found no alleged violations regarding Russia and Qatar. And 80-year-old Sepp Blatter still won the election - his competitor Ali bin Al-Hussein unexpectedly withdrew his candidacy at the last moment.
The elections took place on May 29, and on June 2, the re-elected president resigned... And two days later, the Americans brought charges against him personally.
Sepp Blatter prefers not to speak out much about the United States and the claims against himself. The only thing I allowed myself to do was express bewilderment and shock at the accusations.
Blatter Awards
But not only scandals “grew up” in Blatter’s work field. He has many awards in his collection different countries world, as well as at the international level. Main Order- of course, Olympic. And besides him - orders and crosses of France, Venezuela, Djibouti, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, South Africa, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Catalonia and Ukraine.
Personal life
In his personal life, Sepp Blatter was not nearly as constant as in his work. He has three marriages and three divorces behind him. He has a daughter from his first wife. And the second wife was 41 years younger than Joseph!
