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 .
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, many questions regarding his integrity remain unanswered.
Blatter has made many changes to football since he was elected president of FIFA which have been seen as detrimental to the sport and which a vast majority of fans strongly opposed. Some controversial topics revolving around Blatter include:
- His personal desire to see the World Cup finals held in an Africa n country. More than once, he has explicitly stated this preference and encouraged African countries to bid for the event. South Africa narrowly lost the 2006 event to Germany, and has now been awarded the 2010 event.
- The " Silver Goal " replaced the " Golden Goal " rule in extra time of play-off matches. Under the "golden goal" rule, the match ends immediately 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, but now it has been discontinued (along with golden goal) and all competitions have reverted to the old rules (they must play the full amount of extra time no matter how many goals are scored).
- 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 champion forced to re-qualify was Brazil , the 2002 World Cup champion.
- Blatter's role in forcing national associations to enforce immediate suspensions of all players Sent Off during a game, even if television replays offer compelling evidence of a player's innocence. Blatter insists that a referee's judgement must be seen as final and that mistakes are part of the game. Although players, team officials and fans generally respect the referee's absolute authority insofar as the 90 minutes of play are concerned and accept that referees are human and thus mistakes will occasionally happen, most fans see Blatter's dogmatic stance regarding subsequent discipline as ridiculous and incompatible with the concepts of Due Process and Fair Play .
- Blatter's role in implementing rules which have more to do with morality than with more important issues such as safety. These rules are generally seen as excessive, unnecessary, unproductive and disrespectful of footballing nations' cultural differences. In a specific example, Blatter's opposition to players removing their shirts after scoring a goal caused him to force referees to book this action as an automatic Yellow Card offence starting in 2004 . Blatter's rationale was that football is a global sport and thus the popular leagues must respect the sensibilities of conservative nations where their games are broadcast, even if it means enforcing rules that are seen as unnecessary to the locals. But to critics, this smacks of imposing one culture's morality (specifically, Islamic Culture ) upon footballers in more liberal nations, and believe that while conservative nations should be free to impose their morality on their own leagues, forcing such restrictions and justifying them with such rationale everywhere without regard to individual nations' own moral codes is only serving to cause a backlash against those who are seen as foricng their morality on the entire footballing world, specifically, Muslims .
Blatter's presidency has also earned him many critics who deplore what they see as a Dictator ial administration. Blatter has frequently imposed and/or threatened to impose harsh sanctions against players, officials, clubs and even national associations who commit what some see as very minor transgressions. For example, Blatter once intimated that Manchester United would be expelled from the game entirely if they appealed Rio Ferdinand 's drug suspension in a court of law, and has threatened to suspend national associations who do not meticulously enforce the Laws Of The Game .
On the other hand, Blatter has also earned the praise of many people who see him as a president who has stood firm against The Game's Richest Clubs and ensured that the interests of national associations and teams - especially those of poorer nations - are not compromised by commercial interests. His critics counter that in doing this he is simply returning favours to the people to whom he owes his controverial election to office, while deliberately and/or recklessly threatening the football system of the major countries which account for the strength of football as a global sport and hence for the prominence of his own post.
|
