The world’s media demanded yesterday that Fifa’s veteran president Joseph Blatter step down following the shock arrests of top officials in the organisation suspected of corruption and fraud.
“He must go!” shouted the front page of the Le Matin daily in Switzerland, where Fifa is based and where its annual congress kicked off yesterday.
“Blatter has no more credibility,” it added, a day after seven football officials were swept up in a police sting at a luxury Zurich hotel.
US authorities said nine officials were among 14 people facing up to 20 years in jail if found guilty in the long-running corruption case involving more than $150-million (R180-billion) in bribes. Blatter, who has headed Fifa for 17 years and is stands for re-election today, was not on the list.
The US investigation said South African officials paid $10-million (R120-million) in bribes to host the 2010 tournament, while Swiss investigators raided Fifa’s Zurich headquarters as part of an investigation into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar.
In Johannesburg, The Times slammed the “World Cup of fraud”, decrying that “South Africa’s 2010 triumph” had been “blighted by Fifa corruption”.
In Britain, the Guardian meanwhile held its nose at “The stench of corruption”, while the Sun tabloid decried the role of “Sepptic Blatter”, lamenting that he had allowed the development of “a cancer at the very heart of the beautiful game”.
The Sun also suggested Britain should be handed the 2018 World Cup.
In Germany, the Bild tabloid front page simply called for Blatter to “Get out!”, while an article inside Europe’s most-read paper referred to him as “The Godfather”. France’s Liberation continued the mafia theme with “Fifa Nostra” emblazoned on its front page beside a mock-up of the cover of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather featuring a football on a puppeteer’s strings.
In The Netherlands, De Telegraaf splashed “FIFA the fraud” across its front page.
“The evidence seems overwhelming. Blatter is in fact at the head of a gang of fraudsters,” the paper said, calling for “a new start”, without him.
Sweden’s paper of reference Dagens Nyheter meanwhile suggested Blatter might manage to weather the storm. “There is no president of any federation that could survive such a scandal, but Sepp Blatter is not just any president, and Fifa is not just any federation,” it said.
In Australia, which sank A$43-million (R484-million) into its unsuccessful 2022 cup bid, media hailed the probe that could get to the bottom of allegations bribery was behind the Qatar award.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s football writer Michael Lynch described Blatter as “the man most closely associated with the culture of sleaze and corruption that has characterised the governing body of the world’s most popular sport”.
State media in Russia – locked in a standoff with the US over Ukraine – offered a rare defence of Fifa, instead slamming the US investigation as a bid to wrench the 2018 World Cup from Russia’s grasp.
The arrest of the top officials made it “clear the US want to get full control over Fifa, which as an international and purely sporting organisation has been acting independently as it should”, government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta wrote, denouncing a “coup” against Blatter after he refused to buckle to demands from the US to scrap the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Get out, world’s media tells Blatter
“He must go!” shouted the front page of the Le Matin daily in Switzerland, where Fifa is based and where its annual congress kicked off yesterday.
“Blatter has no more credibility,” it added, a day after seven football officials were swept up in a police sting at a luxury Zurich hotel.
US authorities said nine officials were among 14 people facing up to 20 years in jail if found guilty in the long-running corruption case involving more than $150-million (R180-billion) in bribes. Blatter, who has headed Fifa for 17 years and is stands for re-election today, was not on the list.
The US investigation said South African officials paid $10-million (R120-million) in bribes to host the 2010 tournament, while Swiss investigators raided Fifa’s Zurich headquarters as part of an investigation into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar.
In Johannesburg, The Times slammed the “World Cup of fraud”, decrying that “South Africa’s 2010 triumph” had been “blighted by Fifa corruption”.
In Britain, the Guardian meanwhile held its nose at “The stench of corruption”, while the Sun tabloid decried the role of “Sepptic Blatter”, lamenting that he had allowed the development of “a cancer at the very heart of the beautiful game”.
The Sun also suggested Britain should be handed the 2018 World Cup.
In Germany, the Bild tabloid front page simply called for Blatter to “Get out!”, while an article inside Europe’s most-read paper referred to him as “The Godfather”. France’s Liberation continued the mafia theme with “Fifa Nostra” emblazoned on its front page beside a mock-up of the cover of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather featuring a football on a puppeteer’s strings.
In The Netherlands, De Telegraaf splashed “FIFA the fraud” across its front page.
“The evidence seems overwhelming. Blatter is in fact at the head of a gang of fraudsters,” the paper said, calling for “a new start”, without him.
Sweden’s paper of reference Dagens Nyheter meanwhile suggested Blatter might manage to weather the storm. “There is no president of any federation that could survive such a scandal, but Sepp Blatter is not just any president, and Fifa is not just any federation,” it said.
In Australia, which sank A$43-million (R484-million) into its unsuccessful 2022 cup bid, media hailed the probe that could get to the bottom of allegations bribery was behind the Qatar award.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s football writer Michael Lynch described Blatter as “the man most closely associated with the culture of sleaze and corruption that has characterised the governing body of the world’s most popular sport”.
State media in Russia – locked in a standoff with the US over Ukraine – offered a rare defence of Fifa, instead slamming the US investigation as a bid to wrench the 2018 World Cup from Russia’s grasp.
The arrest of the top officials made it “clear the US want to get full control over Fifa, which as an international and purely sporting organisation has been acting independently as it should”, government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta wrote, denouncing a “coup” against Blatter after he refused to buckle to demands from the US to scrap the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
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