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Sepp Gone; What’s Next May Be No Better

June 2nd, 2015 · No Comments · Fifa, Football, soccer

It was another day of creeping Fifa revelations. (This is how Watergate felt.)

The most significant being the New York Times quoting a federal official who said the $10 million shifted from South Africa to Concacaf’s Jack Warner had gone through the hands of Jerome Valcke — president Sepp Blatter‘s No. 1 henchman.

The investigation seemed to be moving close, very close to Sepp.

Then came the announcement that Blatter would appear at a press conference in about 90 minutes, at 6 p.m. at Fifa headquarters in Zurich. Or 8 p.m. in the UAE. Topic undisclosed.

So, I hung around the office, waiting to watch the the presser via fifa.com live-streaming. Then the conference was postponed 30 minutes, and then another 15 … and after the first postponement and before the second I left for home. It was possible the unplanned event might be backed up all night.

And in the 15 minutes it took for me to get a cab home and my laptop booted up … Blatter had come into the interview room in Zurich, said he was stepping down as Fifa president, and walked out without taking questions.

Just like that, the man elected to a four-year term four days before, was out. Or will be when Blatter actually steps down and is replaced by … whom?

This is where it gets dicey. Blatter may be on his way out (December, perhaps), but will it lead to any different sort of leadership?

The Asia-Africa-Caribbean coalition of voting blocs, which accounts for about 130 of the 209 Fifa voters, will still exist.

The developing world is not suddenly going to get in line behind a Europe-based (or Europe-favored) candidate to run world soccer. Most of the rest of the world considers Europe football to be run by condescending know-it-alls not concerned with developing the game in the rest of the world.

The depressing reality is that Fifa may soon be run by another president with no interest in cleaning up the organization.

Even if Asia-Africa-Caribbean bloc runs two or more candidates, whenever this next election happens, the European choice promising good governance and transparency probably will find himself (and it almost certainly will be “he”) stuck on 70-75 votes, or well short of a majority.

And as the candidates with fewest votes fall off the ballot, the freed voters are far more likely to turn to the surviving candidates from the pro-Blatter precincts — right up until it’s one Uefa candidate versus one Blatter bloc candidate — with the latter winning easily.

Depressing. Yes. But that’s how this likely is going to go.

So, the joy and satisfaction, in much of the West, for the looming departure of Sepp Blatter … has to be muted by the realization that Fifa may not be fixed at all, just turned over to another ethics-challenged president.

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