Obviously he is not a very reputable person.
However he has without doubt contributed greatly to the development of modern football WORLDWIDE.
As i have said before the great fear of Non European countries is the return to the days of english/european rule. One non european team in world cups was not so long ago.
Europe already holds the majority of football power anyway if something similar to the pre Fifa comes in then they have the lot.
I'm not sure I agree.
Blatter reminds me somewhat of Richard Scudamore, although Blatter is obviously much worse.
When those Scudamore emails came out, he absolutely should have been sacked. And obviously Blatter now must go. Indeed, it's insane that he's still there!
So why wasn't Scudamore sacked? Money, innit. Coz the Premier League makes a shed load of cash and Scudamore as CEO gets the credit for that.
Blatter has presided over and presumably has been aware of huge amounts of corruption during his tenure. He should be removed and probably jailed. He thinks he shouldn't due to the fact that FIFA makes shedloads of cash and distributes it around the world.
With One Nation, One Vote, Blatter knows that it's a lot cheaper to buy votes in his powerbase of Africa/Asia than in Europe. So that's what was potically expedient for him to do in order to further his reign. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Blatter hasn't directly taken cash bribes. I don't think it's money that motivates him, it's power.
So money coming into football in the Premier League and FIFa is at astronomically high historical levels, therefore Scudamore and Blatter are great CEOs, right?
Wrong.
Money is at astronomical levels (and still growing rapidly) in many sports, it's a byproduct of the globalised and wealth producing society we live in now. Football, as the worlds game, and the Premier League, as the worlds most watched and competitive league, is inevitably going to grow its revenues to historically unheard of levels.
This is not because of Scudamore and Blatter but in spite of them.
Think of the 20 year global economic boom we had that ended in 2008. Every company and bank made ridiculous profits, no matter how recklessly run.
All of us here made easy money in poker coz everybody had loads of money and many didn't mind blowing off a couple of hundred a night playing a game they didn't understand.
When the bust came, we saw who were actually good poker players (not me anymore!). We saw how many of these Captains of Industry who ran huge companies were just bluffers and reckless gamblers. Bank chiefs were often criminally negligent.
Sport and football is still in that boom cycle. Any idiot could be in charge of the Premier League and FIFA and vast sums of money are going to be pouring in, imo.
Perhaps Scudamore is a financial genius (I still think he should have gone after those emails) but I think many people could make the vast sums that the Premier League produces. It's just a Golden product.
When Putin says that Blatter has contributed greatly to the development of modern football, I disagree.
Blatter has presided over a period where modern football has developed greatly. But in spite of him, not because of him.
It would have anyway and in a much better way if we had a non corrupt person in charge.
World Cups in Africa/Asia would have happened coz the global economy demanded it. Money that has gone to Africa/Asia and other poorer footballing nations would have gone there anyway. But with a non corrupt FIFA President, it would have gone to even more grassroots football development rather than into the pockets of blatantly corroupt officials like Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer.
As for football as a tool for fostering cooperation between people, it always had that power. It's the worlds game. The cooperation between people that happened under Blatters reign was the cooperation that resulted in bribes for hosting rights, bribes for TV rights.
The Nobel Peace Prize? Yeah, right.
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