For a week the world has been stunned at the financial corruption charges America has brought against the top leaders of football’s international governing body. Moments ago, its newly-re-elected President announced he will resign.
Americans have never been huge fans of soccer – known to the rest of the world as football – unless we were playing in the World Cup. So it surprised much of the world when the U.S. Department of Justice announced last week it had indicted nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives for racketeering conspiracy and corruption.
It seemed the only one not indicted was FIFA President Sepp Blattter, who was actually re-elected just two days after the DOJ indicted nine of his top officials.
Moments ago, after insistence he would not resign, Sepp Blatter just announced he is resigning.
After 17 years at the helm of the corrupt and homophobic organization, Blatter, a 79-year old Switzerland native, has called for a meeting to replace himself.
Last week, the Washington Post published a scathing and stunning investigation into the human cost of building international sporting even stadiums.
The 2010 and 2012 Olympics in Vancouver and London each had one worker death.
The 2010 World Cup in South Africa had two. The Brazil 2014 World Cup had 10. The death toll exponentially escalates from there.
You can see the entire chart here:
UPDATE:
Blatter’s statement:
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Image by AsianFC via Flickr and a CC licenseÂ