--- title: FIFA Scandal: Top Soccer Officials Say Sepp Blatter Must Go description: Top soccer officials call on FIFA President Sepp Blatter's to resign ahead of the organization's presidential vote in Zurich. canonical: https://time.com/3901120/fifa-soccer-sepp-blatter-vote-football-corruption/ author: David Stout article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-29T05:30:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:08:13.242Z article:section: Sports og:title: Top Soccer Officials Say FIFA Chief Must Go og:description: “The game deserves better. Period” og:url: https://time.com/3901120/fifa-soccer-sepp-blatter-vote-football-corruption/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81cd76654b1f4602/6988522ce53aba2a434ddedf/474959782.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3180 og:image:height: 1789 og:image:alt: 65th FIFA Congress - Opening Ceremony og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Top Soccer Officials Say FIFA Chief Must Go twitter:description: “The game deserves better. Period” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81cd76654b1f4602/6988522ce53aba2a434ddedf/474959782.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Top Soccer Officials Say FIFA Needs a New Leader > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with Ally. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## 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 [David Stout](https://time.com/author/david-stout/) ## David Stout May 29, 2015 5:30 AM UTC 14 people were arrested at FIFA's annual meeting in connection with a corruption investigation into soccer officials and business partners. by [David Stout](https://time.com/author/david-stout/) ## David Stout May 29, 2015 5:30 AM UTC FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s 17-year reign as the strongman of soccer’s international governing body may be coming to an end soon, as authorities from across the sporting world continue to call for his resignation hours before officials cast their ballots in the federation’s presidential election in Zurich on Friday. Blatter’s reputation has taken an absolute pounding in the past 48 hours, after the U.S. Justice Department unveiled an unprecedented corruption probe into the organization on Wednesday that has lead to the indictment of 14 of the association’s current and former executives, including nine senior officials. As the investigation continues to make international headlines, public figures worldwide and civil society groups, from the [likes](http://rt.com/uk/262665-fifa-urgent-question-parliament/) of British Prime Minister David Cameron to [Transparency International](https://www.transparency.org/news/pressrelease/transparency%5Finternational%5Fblatter%5Fmust%5Fstand%5Fdown%5Fand%5Felections%5Fsuspended), have called on Blatter to step down. Meanwhile, top international soccer officials appear be rallying around Blatter’s chief rival, Prince Ali bin Hussein, ahead of Friday’s vote. “Sincerely, as someone who loves FIFA and its history, I am sickened, and I am vexed,” UEFA president Michel Platini [told](http://www.uefa.org/about-uefa/president/news/newsid=2252563.html) reporters on Thursday. “People don’t want \[Blatter\] any more as FIFA president, and I don’t want him any more either.” The UEFA chief’s comments came as U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati [stated publicly](http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/latest-blatter-cancels-speaking-engagement-zurich-31356430) during a press conference on Thursday that he would be casting his vote for Jordan’s Prince Ali. “If you get good governance and good leadership, you make good decisions, and those good decisions will lead to the right outcomes,” Gulati told reporters. “So for us, this is a vote for good governance.” Victor Montagliani, president of the Canadian Soccer Association, also came out this week in support of Prince Ali. “The game deserves better. Period,” [said](http://globalnews.ca/news/2023932/canada-will-not-vote-for-sepp-blatter-in-fifa-presidential-election/) Montagliani. Despite the litany of voices calling for his resignation, Blatter appeared undeterred. During a speech at the opening ceremony of FIFA’s 65th Congress in Switzerland on Thursday, Blatter [tried](http://resources.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/bodies/02/60/97/44/20150528%5Fblatterspeechopening%5Fneutral.pdf) to distance himself from the constellation of corruption allegations leveled at the federation. “We cannot monitor everyone all of the time. If people want to do wrong, they will also try to hide it,” said Blatter. The FIFA president went on to stress that the U.S.- and Swiss-lead investigations would be a “turning point” that would help clean up soccer’s ranks. “More needs to be done to make sure everyone in football behaves responsibly and ethically — everywhere,” said Blatter. “Tomorrow, we have the opportunity to begin on what will be a long and difficult road to rebuilding trust.” ## 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":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3901120/fifa-soccer-sepp-blatter-vote-football-corruption/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3901120/fifa-soccer-sepp-blatter-vote-football-corruption/"},"headline":"Top Soccer Officials Say FIFA Needs a New Leader","datePublished":"2015-05-29T05:30:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T09:08:13.242Z","description":"The tide appears to be turning against Sepp Blatter as officials back his rival in elections being held for FIFA's top job","url":"https://time.com/3901120/fifa-soccer-sepp-blatter-vote-football-corruption/","keywords":["Soccer","Sports topic","Football","FIFA","Sepp Blatter"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81cd76654b1f4602/6988522ce53aba2a434ddedf/474959782.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"David Stout","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/david-stout/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81cd76654b1f4602/6988522ce53aba2a434ddedf/474959782.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"65th FIFA Congress - Opening Ceremony","caption":"65th FIFA Congress - Opening Ceremony","creditText":"Alexander Hassenstein—FIFA via 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/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/soccer/","name":"Soccer"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3901120/fifa-soccer-sepp-blatter-vote-football-corruption/","name":"Top Soccer Officials Say FIFA Needs a New Leader"}}]},{"@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/3901120/fifa-soccer-sepp-blatter-vote-football-corruption/","duration":"PT1M3S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3901120/fifa-soccer-sepp-blatter-vote-football-corruption/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```