--- title: Sepp Blatter, FIFA President, Must Go for There to Be Reform description: If FIFA is going to reform itself, its president must go, writes TIME's Sean Gregory. canonical: https://time.com/3899243/sepp-blatter-fifa-president-soccer-scandal/ author: Sean Gregory article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-28T00:23:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:08:10.625Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Beginning of the End for Sepp Blatter og:description: If FIFA is going to reform itself, its president must go, writes Sean Gregory og:url: https://time.com/3899243/sepp-blatter-fifa-president-soccer-scandal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfbdb4f4a35513ce4/698851f855a859661da8c385/seth-blatter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3416 og:image:height: 1922 og:image:alt: FIFA president Sepp Blatter attends the 2015 African Cup of Nations final football match between Ivory Coast and Ghana in Bata on Febr. 8, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Beginning of the End for Sepp Blatter twitter:description: If FIFA is going to reform itself, its president must go, writes Sean Gregory twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfbdb4f4a35513ce4/698851f855a859661da8c385/seth-blatter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Beginning of the End for Sepp Blatter > Sponsored content. 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There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=445fc64d-d9ac-42f4-ae23-6462bc5685e4&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: FIFA Officials Arrested [Watch (HLS stream): FIFA Officials Arrested](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Gc8jGuxJ.m3u8) (1:03)  _Published 2015-05-27. 14 people were arrested at FIFA's annual meeting in connection with a corruption investigation into soccer officials and business partners._  by [Sean Gregory](https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/)  ## Sean Gregory Senior Correspondent May 28, 2015 12:23 AM UTC 14 people were arrested at FIFA's annual meeting in connection with a corruption investigation into soccer officials and business partners.  by [Sean Gregory](https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/)  ## Sean Gregory Senior Correspondent May 28, 2015 12:23 AM UTC Yes, Sepp Blatter was not one of soccer officials [nabbed](http://time.com/3897538/fifa-corruption-charges/) by the authorities in Zurich on May 27, as part of the U.S. government’s indictment of 14 people—including top FIFA brass—charged with money laundering, racketeering and wire fraud. Public opinion, however, will cast the FIFA president’s escape as a mere technicality. According to the laws of Nixonian physics, this scandal points right to the top. Kickback allegations have shadowed Blatter and his organization since he took over as FIFA president in 1998\. Blatter plays big-league pork politics, using his substantial war chest—FIFA has more than $1.5 billion in reserves—to dole out funds to officials of tiny soccer federations, who sometimes keep the money. In November, for example, Nepal’s top soccer official temporarily stepped down after he was accused of stealing more than $5 million. These rich grants buy loyalty: in FIFA presidential elections, the votes of Nepal and Montserrat count just as much as those of America and Brazil. Will Blatter even survive the presidential election on May 29 that UEFA, Europe’s governing soccer body, [insists](http://www.uefa.org/about-uefa/executive-committee/news/newsid=2252026.html) should be delayed? He was supposed to win his fifth term with ease. Now, it’s no longer a coronation. “If he’s not detained, he’ll probably win,” says Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist from Smith College and author of the book _Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup_. “FIFA’s propaganda machine strong, and is already distancing Blatter from the charges.” In a [statement](http://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/news/y=2015/m=5/news=statement-by-fifa-president-blatter-2609360.html?intcmp=fifacom%5Fhp%5Fmodule%5Fnews%5Ftop) released on FIFA.com, Blatter said: “Let me be clear: such misconduct has no place in football and we will ensure that those who engage in it are put out of the game.” Even if Blatter somehow survives Friday’s election, Zimbalist believes this scandal will be too tough for him to overcome long-term: “FIFA is an international monopoly with control over a very popular product.” In 2014, a World Cup year, FIFA generated $2 billion in revenues. “If the power is in control of the wrong people,” Zimbalist adds, “things get out of hand.” For FIFA to change, and win back the constituents its supposed to serve—players and fans of the beautiful game—Blatter has to go. Because, as Zimablist puts it, “I don’t think there is any hope of reforming Sepp Blatter.” _Read next:_ [_U.S. Accuses Soccer Officials of Decades of ‘Rampant, Systemic and Deep-Rooted’ Corruption_](http://time.com/3897538/fifa-corruption-charges/) ## Transcript [00:02] Swiss police crashed FIFA's annual meeting in Zurich on [00:05] Wednesday, arresting 14 people on charges stemming [00:08] from an FBI investigation into the international soccer [00:11] organization. A 47- count indictment names nine FIFA [00:15] officials and five sports executives involved in an alleged [00:19] 24- year scheme involving racketeering, Wire fraud and [00:22] money laundering as well as more than a 150 million [00:26] dollars in bribes and kickbacks. FIFA head Sepp Blatter, [00:29] long accused of corruption was not named in the [00:32] indictment and a FIFA spokesperson insists Blatter had [00:35] nothing to do with the alleged corruption. Bids for the 2018 [00:39] World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar [00:42] were part of the investigation. But it's unclear whether [00:45] those bids are in jeopardy. Wednesday morning, FIFA [00:48] released a statement saying quote We are pleased to see [00:51] that the investigation is being energetically pursued for the [00:54] good of football and belive that it will help reinforce [00:57] measures that FIFA has already taken. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3899243/sepp-blatter-fifa-president-soccer-scandal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3899243/sepp-blatter-fifa-president-soccer-scandal/"},"headline":"The Beginning of the End for Sepp Blatter","datePublished":"2015-05-28T00:23:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T09:08:10.625Z","description":"If FIFA is going to reform itself, its president must go","url":"https://time.com/3899243/sepp-blatter-fifa-president-soccer-scandal/","keywords":["Sports topic","Soccer","World Cup","FIFA","Sepp Blatter"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfbdb4f4a35513ce4/698851f855a859661da8c385/seth-blatter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sean Gregory","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfbdb4f4a35513ce4/698851f855a859661da8c385/seth-blatter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FIFA president Sepp Blatter attends the 2015 African Cup of Nations final football match between Ivory Coast and Ghana in Bata on Febr. 8, 2015.","caption":"FIFA president Sepp Blatter attends the 2015 African Cup of Nations final football match between Ivory Coast and Ghana in Bata on Febr. 8, 2015.","creditText":"Carl De Souza—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3899243/sepp-blatter-fifa-president-soccer-scandal/","name":"The Beginning of the End for Sepp Blatter"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"FIFA Officials Arrested","description":"14 people were arrested at FIFA's annual meeting in connection with a corruption investigation into soccer officials and business partners.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Gc8jGuxJ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-05-27T12:33:20.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Gc8jGuxJ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3899243/sepp-blatter-fifa-president-soccer-scandal/","duration":"PT1M3S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3899243/sepp-blatter-fifa-president-soccer-scandal/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```