Sepp Blatter

Joseph 'Sepp' Blatter (born March 10, 1936 in Visp, Wallis, Switzerland) was elected president of FIFA on June 8, 1998, succeeding Dr. João Havelange (Brazil).

Criticism

Blatter has made many changes to football which fans of the sport do not always want to see since he was voted the president of FIFA. Some controversial topics revolving around Blatter include:

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• His personal desire to see the World Cup finals held at an African 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 gold" 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 excempted team was Brazil, the World Cup 2002 champion.

Blatter's presidency has also earned him many critics who deplore what they see as a dictatorial 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.

Related Topics:
Dictator - Manchester United - Rio Ferdinand - Laws of the Game

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On the other hand, Blatter has also earned the praises 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.

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