Speaking on a panel at the University of Basel entitled “Reforming FIFA,” suspended former FIFA President Sepp Blatter spoke (which is ridiculous to begin with) about what he believed the problems were inside the embattled organization and how he would fix it.
Blatter: "All that corruption was the fault of Americans, south and north."
— Keir Radnedge (@KeirRadnedge) April 15, 2016
First of all, asking Sepp Blatter about stopping FIFA corruption is like asking the head of the NRA how to stop gun violence. Blatter, still a bold man despite being investigated by both American and Swiss authorities on suspected corruption and racketeering, said all of the corruption in world soccer came from CONCACAF and CONMEBOL; North and South America.
To be fair, he’s partially right. North and South American football were, and are, incredibly corrupt and shady. There’s no doubting that. But that’s forgetting the entire continents of Africa, Asia and Europe, not to mention the multiple former prominent figures from those continents that are banned from world football right now because of ethics violation (including Blatter) serves only to make Blatter’s ilk seem better than they actually are.
Corruption is everywhere in world soccer, except where Sepp Blatter says it’s not. In his own eyes, Uncle Sepp can do no wrong, even after he’s been banned by FIFA for doing quite a bit of wrong in his time. Par for the course.
