As shocking and as distasteful as his re-election may seem to some, you don’t need the intelligence of a rocket scientist to understand why Sepp Blatter is getting four more years to reign unchallenged over world football, despite the corruption scandals lapping at FIFA’s doors.
A key reason can be summed up in one short phrase: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
Or, even more simply, follow the money. Mountains of money.
By turning FIFA into a giant gravy train and taking his electorate in football along for the ride, Blatter has kept friends close, enemies closer, and quashed any appetite for a change in leadership or real and heartfelt introspection into the way he runs football’s world governing body.
To quote its senior vice president Julio Grondona, FIFA was “basically penniless” when Blatter won its presidency in 1998, with no cash reserves and mere peanuts to distribute to football officials around the world.
Fast-forward 13 years during which football’s global popularity and appeal have exploded, and largely by milking the success of its flagship tournament, the World Cup, FIFA has gone from pauper to prince, so flush that it can comfortably hand out wads of money to what Blatter likes to call “the
Read More from the Article Source: Full Article
