Blatter reacts to a protester tossing money in the air. (Photo, Reuters.) 10-8-15
The "Emergency Summit" might be coming soon; an international roundtable of soccer leaders solving their problems like never before.
Both Sepp Blatter (the President of FIFA) and Michel Platini (the President of UEFA) were suspended for 90 days, by FIFA. It was a turn of events that took over news broadcasts around the world, yet again. After recovering from the troubles with FIFA five months earlier, things just got worse instead of better for the image of the grand old soccer body. A number of FIFA members requested an emergency Executive Committee meeting to cover their tracks for the time being, to keep the organization of world football in place. At this point, Platini was the President of UEFA, anticipating the move to replace Blatter as FIFA President. Any help from UEFA at this point, to lift the ban of Platini in any regard, would have led to ethical troubles. On top of the ethical troubles that already were there.
The FIFA website described, in brief, the interim President, Issa Hayatou, leaving out the allegations of corruption that have followed him since 2010. People around the world were saying, “Surprise, surprise.” Hayatou is from Cameroon, born in 1946, a former soccer and basketball player who became a physical education teacher, later stepping into the role of General Secretary of the Cameroonian Football Federation from 1985-88, eventually becoming the President of the CAF (Confederation African de Football), acting as a FIFA Vice President since 1992. His immediate task as interim President was pretty clear: Desperately try to settle things down, while acting as normal as possible, until a vote can take place for the position of full-time FIFA President.
The suspension was also placed on FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke. Valcke, Platini and Blatter had the ban placed on them by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the Ethics Committee led by Hans Joachim Eckert. For ninety days the ban will block the three men from all national and international football related activities. FIFA rules state that after the ninety days go by, there is the option to continue the ban, but not exceeding forty-five days. (Not one to draw a big crowd, but also thrown into the mix, was the former FIFA Vice President Chung Mong-Joon, accused of corruption, who was charged 100,000 Swiss Francs and banned for six long years.) To many, the suspension of Blatter is a long time in the making. The heat was really thrown onto Blatter back in May of 2015, as intense investigations promised to bring him to justice. As of 10-8-15, he was accused of giving Platini an illegal payment/bribe/helping hand of over a million dollars. UEFA made no urgent attempt to name a replacement President, noting that they would comply with the arrangements made within the FIFA ban of Platini. After all, the replacement that would have stepped into Platini’s shoes, as UEFA interim President, was Angel Villar Llona, who was dealing with an Ethics Committee investigation for not cooperating with an inquiry into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids. With humility and disgrace, UEFA announced that Platini would step aside, from his official duties, for the time being, as the President of UEFA. As of 10-8-15 he did not attend UEFA meetings and cancelled multiple business-related trips.
Lost in the wilderness of allegations and corrupt votes and bribes and legal cases, Platini was thought by many to take over the post of FIFA President, held by the battered, tattered Blatter. With this suspension, that position was yet again up in the air, for the next bidder. The necessary pieces that coincide with this post have been mired in past allegations of corruption and foul play like a list of horses that have failed at the Triple Crown. There were problems in the past and this trend continues, seemingly forever, into the future.
After suspending Blatter and seizing his personal items for further scrutiny, members of the Swiss Secret Service have unearthed personal belongings integral to understanding the thought process of former President, Sepp Blatter. From Blatter's personal journal*, the following is a hand-written diagram for getting back into the President's seat:
Key
Blatter (me)
BP (Bad People)
President
Diagram 1
Blatter BP1 BP2 President
Diagram 2
BP1
Blatter President
BP2
Diagram 3
BP1
Blatter :) :) :)
BP2
*Eh, not really.
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