--- title: Putin Says FIFA President Sepp Blatter Worthy of Winning Nobel Prize description: The Russian president does not believe Sepp Blatter is involved in corruption canonical: https://time.com/3974145/putin-sepp-blatter/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-27T22:38:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T09:38:12.948Z article:section: World og:title: Putin Says Sepp Blatter Deserves Nobel Prize og:description: The Russian president does not believe Sepp Blatter is involved in corruption og:url: https://time.com/3974145/putin-sepp-blatter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad3996ee425b54a8/69885cac524fc0e134df3c41/blatter-putin.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Preliminary Draw of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Putin Says Sepp Blatter Deserves Nobel Prize twitter:description: The Russian president does not believe Sepp Blatter is involved in corruption twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad3996ee425b54a8/69885cac524fc0e134df3c41/blatter-putin.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Putin Says FIFA President Sepp Blatter Worthy of Winning Nobel Prize by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jul 27, 2015 10:38 PM CUT  FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter shakes hands with Vladimir Putin, President of Russia ahead of the Preliminary Draw of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia at The Konstantin Palace on July 25, 2015 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter shakes hands with Vladimir Putin, President of Russia ahead of the Preliminary Draw of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia at The Konstantin Palace on July 25, 2015 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.Laurence Griffiths/FIFA&mdashGetty Images by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jul 27, 2015 10:38 PM CUT Vladimir Putin [said](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/putin-thinks-fifas-sepp-blatter-deserves-a-nobel-prize%5F55b6888fe4b0074ba5a59686 "undefined") that FIFA President Sepp Blatter “deserves the Nobel Prize.” The Russian president spoke favorably of Blatter in an interview with a Swiss broadcaster on Monday, invoking the indictments of other FIFA officials on bribery and fraud charges and saying, “I don’t want to go into details but I don’t believe a word about him being involved in corruption personally,” Reuters reports. Putin added that Blatter’s fellow “heads of big international sporting federations, or the Olympic Games, deserve special recognition. If there is anyone who deserves the Nobel Prize, it’s those people.” Russia will host the FIFA World Cup in 2018; by then, Blatter will no longer be president, as he has announced that he will [resign](http://time.com/3905860/sepp-blatter-fifa-president-resigns/ "undefined") when a FIFA Congress elects his successor on [Feb. 26, 2016](http://time.com/3965344/fifa-election-michel-platini-support-uefa/ "undefined"). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3974145/putin-sepp-blatter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3974145/putin-sepp-blatter/"},"headline":"Putin Says FIFA President Sepp Blatter Worthy of Winning Nobel Prize","datePublished":"2015-07-27T22:38:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T09:38:12.948Z","description":"The Russian president does not believe Sepp Blatter is involved in corruption","url":"https://time.com/3974145/putin-sepp-blatter/","keywords":["russia","Vladimir Putin","Soccer","World Cup","FIFA","Sepp Blatter"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad3996ee425b54a8/69885cac524fc0e134df3c41/blatter-putin.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad3996ee425b54a8/69885cac524fc0e134df3c41/blatter-putin.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Preliminary Draw of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia","caption":"Preliminary Draw of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia","creditText":"Laurence Griffiths/FIFA&mdashGetty 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":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/russia/","name":"russia"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3974145/putin-sepp-blatter/","name":"Putin Says FIFA President Sepp Blatter Worthy of Winning Nobel Prize"}}]}] ```