, President of FIFA (April 1982) From 1975 onwards, Blatter worked at FIFA, first as technical director (1975–1981), then general secretary (1981–1998), before his election as
FIFA president in 1998. He was re-elected as head of FIFA in 2002, and was re-elected unopposed for another four years on 31 May 2007, even though only 66 of 207 FIFA members nominated him. Blatter and FIFA were often dogged by controversy and allegations of corruption. His tenure saw controversy over allegations of financial mismanagement and the acceptance of bribes resulting in Qatar's successful
2022 World Cup bid. Blatter has attracted criticism from the media, senior football figures and players, due to controversial statements. These include the claim that
Latin American countries would applaud
John Terry for having an extramarital affair, and that on-field racism could be corrected with a handshake, among others. He also drew criticism at the
2014 FIFA World Cup seeding, when he interrupted a "one-minute silence" for former South-African president
Nelson Mandela, who died the day before, after eleven seconds.
Michael van Praag, the chairman of the
Royal Dutch Football Association, called his behavior "preposterous" and expressed the hope Blatter would not be reelected in 2015. Blatter has been publicly heckled, at the World Cup in Seoul and the Confederations Cup in Frankfurt, both in 2002 and 2005, in his home town of Visp in 2011, at the 2012 Women's Olympic Football Final Medal Ceremony, and at the opening of Confederations Cup match in 2013. In order to avoid protest, no speeches were given at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
1998 election Blatter's 1998 election to the presidency of FIFA over
UEFA President
Lennart Johansson occurred amidst much controversy. Blatter's 2002 candidacy was marked with rumours of financial irregularities and backroom dealings, culminating with direct accusations of bribery, by a third party, made in the British press by Farra Ado, vice-president of the
Confederation of African Football and president of the
Somali Football Federation, who claimed to have been offered $100,000 to vote for Blatter in 1998.
2004 Comments on women's football In 2004, Blatter said during an interview in the Swiss newspaper
Sonntagsblick, when asked how to increase the popularity of women's football, "Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball. They could, for example, have tighter shorts. Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men - such as playing with a lighter ball. That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?" His comments resulted in heated responses.
2006 FIFA World Cup In the
2006 FIFA World Cup, after
a controversial second-round match between Portugal and the Netherlands, which saw
referee Valentin Ivanov issue a record 16
yellow cards and four
red cards, Blatter was said to have lambasted the officiating referee, and said that Ivanov should have given himself a yellow card for his poor performance as a referee. He later said he regretted his words and promised to officially apologise to Ivanov. The apology was never given, and the referee was removed from further officiating.
World Cup's chosen sites and
Jack Warner. In the vote for the
2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups, U.S. President Obama said that FIFA made "the wrong decision" in awarding Qatar the tournament in 2022. It was reported that Blatter had "cut an unofficial deal with UEFA head
Michel Platini" to ensure Europe would receive the 2018 World Cup, such that if the non-European bids did not withdraw from 2018 "they will find themselves frozen out and not given any backing by the FIFA High Command, damaging their chances of being serious contenders for the second tournament." Eleven bids were submitted in March 2009 covering 13 nations. Mexico and Indonesia withdrew. Five of the remaining nine bids—South Korea, Qatar, Japan, Australia and the United States—were only for the 2022 World Cup, while all the others were bidding for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Because all of the bids for the 2018 World Cup were from European nations, and FIFA's rules dictate that countries belonging to confederations that hosted either of the two preceding tournaments are not eligible to host, the bids of England, Russia, Netherlands/Belgium and Spain/Portugal were forced to be for 2018 only.
Technological assistance The criticism attracted by Blatter's refusal to allow
goal-line technology or
video replays intensified following the controversial
Frank Lampard disallowed goal in the match between
England and
Germany on 27 June 2010. Two days later, Blatter stated that he deplored the "evident referee mistakes" in the England v Germany and Mexico v Argentina matches, and apologised to the English
Football Association and the
Mexican Football Federation (the two organizations directly concerned by the referees' mistakes), acknowledging that Lampard had indeed scored against Germany and that Tévez's goal against Mexico had been scored from an offside position. He added: "It is obvious that after the experiences so far at this World Cup it would be a nonsense not to re-open the file on goal-line technology. […] We will come out with a new model in November on how to improve high level referees. […] I cannot disclose more of what we are doing but something has to be changed."
2011 FIFA presidential election , the Player of the Tournament of the
2011 Copa América In 2011, elections were scheduled for the FIFA presidency, in which Blatter was again the incumbent candidate, running for a fourth consecutive term. The
ChangeFIFA organisation, on 29 March 2011, endorsed former
Chilean defender and for three years running
South American Footballer of the Year Elías Figueroa as candidate for the presidency, urging national federations to nominate him, but, subsequently, Figueroa decided not to accept the nomination, stating that "in such a short period of time" he could not develop a case "worthy of the magnitude and importance of such a distinguished job" The only other candidate,
Mohammed bin Hammam of
Qatar, withdrew from the presidential race on 28 May, just before the vote. The FIFA ethics committee that investigated bribery claims against Bin Hammam and
CONCACAF head
Jack Warner announced that Blatter will not face an investigation into claims that he knew of the bribery and did nothing about it, because of a lack of evidence. Blatter criticised the
International Olympic Committee (IOC), stating FIFA manage their finances "like a housewife", after the IOC announced it would look into allegations of corruption against
Issa Hayatou, president of the Confederation of African Football. There being no other nominations, Blatter ran unopposed in the ensuing presidential election and was re-elected for a fourth term, with 186 of the 203 votes cast. In his campaign, Blatter had stipulated that, if re-elected in 2011, he would not run again for president. Blatter received criticism for not postponing his 2011 election in which his term as FIFA President was extended through 2015, despite the fact that all other candidates for the role had been suspended or withdrew.
Allegations of financial mismanagement Amidst internal divisions, FIFA's secretary-general Blatter's deputy and former protégé Michel Zen-Ruffinen drew up a 30-page dossier outlining allegations of financial mismanagement within the organisation. The dossier alleged that the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner ISL had led to losses of up to 100 million US dollars under Blatter's management. The allegations were backed by Johansson, and the dossier was handed to the Swiss authorities, but they cleared Blatter of any wrongdoing and FIFA had to pay all the costs. An internal investigation within FIFA was halted by Blatter because members of it broke confidentiality agreements. This questionable behaviour led him to remove Zen-Ruffinen from office immediately before the
2002 FIFA World Cup. In April 2012 the Council of Europe published a report which stated it would be "difficult to imagine" that Blatter would have been unaware of "significant sums" paid to unnamed FIFA officials by ISSM/ISL in connection with lucrative contracts for World Cup television rights and the subsequent bankruptcy and collapse of ISL in 2001. The Council of Europe report will be considered by over 300 parliamentarians from the 47 Council of Europe member states in Strasbourg.
Awarding of 2018 and 2022 World Cup Controversy came in the British press when
Russia was awarded the 2018 event, with England receiving just two of their "promised" votes; this controversy was dismissed by Blatter as the English showing themselves to be "bad losers". The awarding of the 2022 games to Qatar was also controversial. The
illegality of homosexuality in the nation caused Blatter to joke that "I would say they [gay fans] should refrain from any sexual activities", which brought criticism from retired basketball player
John Amaechi and
gay rights groups.
2013 FIFA Ethics Committee investigation On 29 April 2013, FIFA's Ethics Committee concluded its investigation into allegations of illegal payments to FIFA officials from the organisation's former marketing partner
International Sports and Leisure (ISL), which went bankrupt in 2001, and published its report. FIFA president Sepp Blatter was cleared of any misconduct, but his predecessor, Brazilian
João Havelange, resigned as FIFA's honorary president over his part in the scandal, since Havelange along with former FIFA Executive Committee members
Ricardo Teixeira and Dr.
Nicolás Leoz were found to have accepted illegal payments between 1992 and May 2000. A week before FIFA's ethics committee announced its findings, 84-year-old Leoz had resigned from his post as president of the
South American Football Confederation, citing "health reasons". Blatter, in a statement, "note[d] with satisfaction" that the report "confirms that 'President Blatter's conduct could not be classified in any way as misconduct with regard to any ethics rules'." He added he has "no doubt that FIFA, thanks to the governance reform process that [Blatter] proposed now has the mechanisms and means to ensure that such an issue does not happen again", though admitting that the scandal "has caused untold damage to the reputation of [FIFA]."
2015 FIFA presidential election, controversy and resignation Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa and
Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran Ali Kafashian in
Tehran In 2015, elections were scheduled for the FIFA presidency, in which Blatter was again the incumbent candidate, running for a fifth consecutive term.
Prince Ali bin Hussein was his opponent in the election. The vote took place at the
65th FIFA Congress in Zürich on 29 May 2015. Neither party received the necessary two-thirds majority of votes from the first round with Blatter receiving 133 to Prince Ali's 73. According to FIFA rules, a second round should have been held for the two candidates, with a simple majority being sufficient for victory. However, before the second round of voting commenced, Prince Ali announced his withdrawal, handing Blatter victory by default. On 2 June 2015, FIFA abruptly called a press conference at their Zürich headquarters, where Blatter announced that he would resign from the post of FIFA president amid the
ongoing corruption scandal. During the news conference he said: "My mandate does not appear to be supported by everybody" and announced an extraordinary congress scheduled "as soon as possible" to elect his successor. Blatter announced that he would remain in office until his successor could be elected at the extraordinary congress, likely to be held some time between December 2015 and March 2016. He continued with the words: "While I have a mandate from the membership of FIFA, I do not feel that I have a mandate from the entire world of football—the fans, the players, the clubs, the people who live, breathe, and love football as much as we all do at FIFA". Subsequently, on 26 June Blatter prompted speculation that he might be preparing to renege on this resignation, when he was quoted as saying that "I have not resigned, I put my mandate in the hands of an extraordinary congress". This seemed to contradict his comments from 2 June 2015. He was further quoted as saying that he resigned "to take away the pressure from FIFA and my employees, including [pressure] from the sponsors". Reports speculated that it appears that Blatter will step down at the "extraordinary congress" though the situation remains vague. On 25 September, Swiss investigators announced that they were investigating Blatter in relation to payments made to UEFA president Michel Platini. While Blatter and Platini denied any impropriety around the payments, major FIFA
sponsors Coca-Cola,
Visa Inc.,
McDonald's, and
Budweiser issued public statements requesting that he resign for the good of FIFA. On 8 October 2015, he was suspended from FIFA for 90 days while investigations into payments made to Michel Platini were conducted. FIFA said in a statement: "The grounds for these decisions are the investigations that are being carried out by the investigatory chamber of the ethics committee." On 21 December, FIFA's ethics committee banned both Blatter and Platini from football for eight years. In February 2016, a FIFA appeals committee upheld the suspension but reduced it from eight years to six. On 22 December 2020, FIFA filed a criminal complaint against Blatter relating to his role in the FIFA Museum project. On 24 March 2021, he received a second ban for six years and was fined the amount of CHF 1,000,000 by the body's Ethics Committee after a probe into massive bonus payments. Blatter and Platini were cleared of the charges eight months later. Despite the verdict having been appealed by Swiss federal prosecutors, Blatter and Platini were acquitted a second time in March 2025.
Post FIFA Blatter has been critical of football's leadership since his departure from FIFA, specifically criticising FIFA president
Gianni Infantino and
UEFA president
Aleksander Čeferin. Blatter noted that when he had started working in FIFA, the organization was poor and was not the powerhouse it is today and admits he played a major role in the commercialisation of football, which has led to an increase in non-sports sponsors. Blatter stated that awarding the
2022 FIFA World Cup to
Qatar was a mistake. Blatter has been critical of the expansion and creation of tournaments like the
FIFA World Cup,
UEFA Champions League,
UEFA Europa League,
UEFA Conference League,
FIFA Club World Cup, and
UEFA Nations League and has warned that oversaturation, rising costs, and fan violence could cause interest in football to drop. Blatter also criticised the awarding of the
2030 FIFA World Cup to six countries in three continents (
Argentina,
Morocco,
Paraguay,
Portugal,
Spain, and
Uruguay), stating the tournament would lose its identity. Blatter also criticised the
2034 FIFA World Cup in
Saudi Arabia, saying that it would go against the human rights and democracy that make up FIFA's values while giving Saudi Arabia increasing influence in football as well as the bidding process for both 2030 and 2034 that was designed to favor Saudi Arabia. Blatter also supported a boycott of the
2026 FIFA World Cup matches in
United States due to tensions between the Trump administration and the rest of the world. He cited concerns over the
Trump administration's restrictive immigration policies and the treatment of protesters and migrants as reasons fans should avoid travelling to the tournament and raised questions about the suitability of the United States as a host nation. ==Sexual assault allegation==