Who is Sepp Blatter anyway? 30 Facts about Joseph S Blatter

Image Credit Wikimedia

As Sepp Blatter rubs his hands and prepares to be re-elected as President of Fifa - unopposed - some people are asking who exactly is the head of this troubled organistion, this ducker and diver, this slipperiest of eels? Joseph S Blatter, otherwise known as Sepp is something of a mystery.  Many people know little about the man - so we thought we would put this right.  Here are 30 facts and quotes about and from Sepp Blatter for you to take in and digest. Just don't do it on an empty stomach.

1. Sepp was born Joseph S Blatter on 10 March 1936 in Visp, Switzerlad.

2. He was never a professional footballer or involved in the management of a professional team.

3. He was elected as President of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) on 8 June 1998 – the eighth person to get the job.

4. Although not professionally involved with football until later in his working life he was the Head of Public Relations of the Valaisan Tourist Board in Switzerland.

5. He showed an interest in other sports, however, spending time as the General Secretary of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation.

6. He was also the elected President of WSoFoF (World Society of Friends of Suspenders).  This was a not so secret organisation dedicated to stopping women wearing pantyhose and demanding a restoration of the more traditional suspenders.

7. He once said: “Fifa cannot sit by and see greed rule the football world. Nor shall we.”

8. He helped to organise the Olympic Games of '72 and '76 as well as being the Director of Sports Timing and Relations of Longines, the Swiss luxury watchmaker currently owned by Swatch.

9. He once said: “A financial sanction is not an adequate measure. You can always find someone with enough money to pay (the fine)."

10. He became Technical Director of FIFA in 1975. He then became General Secretary in 1981, a post he held for 17 years.

Image Credit Wikimedia

11. In 1998 he became President.  This was among much controversy, concerning rumors of backroom dealings and financial irregularities. Surely not.

12. Farra Ado, then the vice-President of the Confederation of African Football claimed to have been offered to $100,000 to vote for him in the ’88 election.  This claim was made in the British press and is a matter of public record.

13. Sepp Blatter once said:” There is a movement in club football, which I don't necessarily consider a prime example of solidarity, because it leads us to conclude the rich are getting richer and they are using everything in the market to create an exodus from Africa.”

14. He was re-elected in 2002.

15. In 2004 he surprise women footballers by suggesting that they really ought to "wear tighter shorts and low cut shirts... to create a more female aesthetic" in order to gain more male followers.

16. In 2007 he was re-elected for another four years.  Only 66 of FIFA’s 207 members nominated him. In 2009 he stood again and was elected again.

17. Michel Zen-Ruffinen collected a dossier claiming that FIFA had lost up to $100m under Blatter. This was handed to Swiss authorities but they cleared Blatter of any wrong doing.  FIFA paid all the costs.

18. Blatter removed Zen-Ruffinen (his Deputy) from office just before the 2002 World Cup.

19. Blatter once said: “The source of wealth is from individuals with little or no history of interest in the game, who have happened upon football as a means of serving some hidden agenda. “

Image credit Wikimedia

20. Blatter personally intervened during the 2006 World Cup when referee Valentin Ivanov issued 16 yellow and 4 red cards during the match between the Netherlands and Portugal. He said that Ivanov should have given himself a yellow card.

21. Blatter promised to apologise to Ivanov.  He never did. Ivanov was removed from further duties.
Blatter laughed at the Irish request to be the 33rd entrant at the 2010 World Cup because of the infamous Thierry Henry incident.  Publicly laughed. He is popular in Ireland.

22. Blatter has systematically refused goal-line technology or video replays to inform decisions made by referees.  Most other sports have this technology and use it.

23. Blatter said at the time: "It is obvious that after the experiences so far at this World Cup it would be a nonsense not to re-open the file on goal-line technology. [...] We will come out with a new model in November on how to improve high level referees. [...] I cannot disclose more of what we are doing but something has to be changed.

24. There are no plans to introduce goal-line technology for the 2014 tournament.

25. There has been widespread reporting that Blatter cut a deal with UEFA head Platini to make sure that Europe received the 2018 cup.  The tournament went to Russia.

26. He once said: “What I am most proud of is the legacy of hope that FIFA and football leaves around the world. It makes all of the efforts and energy I pour into this job worth it.”

27. Blatter is understood to have made direct reference to the evils of the media in a speech to the executive immediately before they voted for 2018 and 2022.

28.  He once said: "Whether associations, teams or players at each and every level, we all have a duty to ensure that our conduct does not lead to anybody being marginalized. Football has to set an example for others to follow.”

29. Blatter has been awarded over thirty awards, including a knighthood from from the Sultanate of Pahang and the Global Award for Peace, awarded by the International Amateur Athletic Association

30.  He once said: "I am sure there will be fair play this year."  This is not a 2011 quote.

Maradona Turns 50: 50 Facts for Diego's Birthday

Everyone at the World in Sport wishes Diego Maradona a very happy 50th Birthday.  

To help celebrate this occasion we would like to present you with fify facts and quotes about the famous (and infamous in equal measure) Argentinean soccer player.

 Happy birthday Maradona!


1 - Diego Armando Maradona was born on 30 October 1960, three days after Muhammad Ali won his first professional boxing fight.

2 - There has always been a rivalry between Maradona and Pele.  Talking about Pele’s award for ‘Best Ever Player, Diego said "Pele should go back to the museum."

3 - Maradona’s first name has its origins in Greek and Hebrew despite being used largely in Italian and Spanish these days.  It means either a supplanter or a teacher.

4 - Maradona has two children – legally.  In a slightly ambivalent attitude towards fatherhood he once said: "My legitimate kids are Dalma and Giannina. The rest are a product of my money and mistakes."

5 - Maradona’s middle name is Armando – it means man in the army.  Perhaps if we take it as a metaphor for his soccer career, it is quite appropriate.

6 - He represented his country, Argentina 91 times (though to his opponents it must have seemed much more than that).

7 - During that time he scored 34 goals for Argentina.

8 - He represented Argentina in four World Cups, 82, 86, 90 and 94.

9 - He played for Boca Juniors, being instrumental in their rise to the League Championship in 1982 before he moved to Barcelona.

10 - In 1985 he left Barcelona for Napoli where he contributed greatly to their winning two Series A titles – their only such title to date.

Image Credit Flickr User Mr.Boombust

11 - Maradona was skipper for Argentina sixteen times – this is the world record for the most appearances as skipper for a country in tat tournament.

12 - Maradona was only 15 when he started his professional career, making his debut for Argentinos Juniors on March

13 - He has really been in 5 World Cups.  He represented Argentina in their youth squad in 1979, winning the Youth World Cup in Japan.  The team won 3-1 against the Soviet Union.

14 - At 16 he made his international debut.  This was at the Bombonera stadium in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.  The match was against Hungary

15 - Che Guevara is one of his heroes.  He has a tattoo of the revolutionary on his right arm. He is also best mates with Fidel Castro. 

16 - Diego was a consistent target for dirty tricks in his international career.  During the 1986 World Cup in Mexico alone there were 53 fouls against him.

17 - 1986 was a good year for Maradona.  He captained his country to World Cup victory against West Germany, beating them three goals to two in the final.

18 - The same tournament gave England fans his most notorious moment.  In an infamous moment he scored against the English team in the quarter final – using his hand.  After the incident, which he would not live down in the English press for many a year, he said: “The goal was scored a little bit by the hand of God, a little by the head of Maradona.”

19 - After smashing a photographer’s camera for being intrusive, Diego said "I did it with the hand of reason."

20 - Maradona had a problem in the USA at the 1994 World Cup.  He played only two games ad scored only a single goal (against Greece).  The reason?  He failed a dope test and was sent home with his tail between his legs. In 1991 Maradona also left Napoli after he had failed a test for cocaine.

Image Credit Flickr User juaedc

21 - Maradona and Claudia Villafane married on November 7 1989.  They were married for fifteen years, divorcing in 2004.

22 - He left owing Napoli a little bit of money to the Italian tax man.  Officials said in 2009 that Maradona owed them €37 million. However, more than half of this is interest on the original debt.

23 - Despite their rivalry, when Maradona became a chat show host on Argentinian television in 2004, Pele was his very first guest.

24 - Maradona became manager of the Argentina’s international squad two years ago, in October 2008.

25 - The next month saw his team get off to a great start – beating Scotland 1-0 on 19 November.

26 - It hasn’t always been a bed of roses since then.  During the World Cup qualifiers the team lost by an astounding six goals to one against Bolivia. 

27 - Despite this terrible defeat the team managed to get through to the tournament.  To his critics (who were legion) Maradona retorted. "To those who did not believe: now suck my d**k - I'm sorry ladies for my words - and keep on sucking it. I am either white or black. I will never be grey in my life. You treated me as you did. Now keep on sucking d**ks. I am grateful to my players and to the Argentinean people. I thank no one but them. The rest, keep on sucking d**ks.”  Not one for revenge then.

28 - FIFA weren’t terribly happy about this foul mouthed outburst.  They slapped a two month ban on him.

29 - Maradona got his own verbal revenge against FIFA when he complained vociferously about the new ball to be used in the 2010 World Cup tournament in South Africa. "I would ask all Fifa directors to stop talking about me and to start working on having a proper football. This ball is useless. It's impossible to control."

30 - Back in 1998 he said, about the World Cup of that year. "The players have all got square feet. They are like Robocops, they have more need of lubricant than massage. I don't believe the tournament could be worse."

Image Credit Flickr User Diego 3336

31 - He will stick by his players.  When Lionel Messi failed to score a single goal in the 2010 tournament he said. “Anyone saying he didn't have a great World Cup is an idiot.”

32 - Yet some will stick the knife in.  A former team  mate, Valdano, said of him.  “He is someone many people want to emulate, a controversial figure, loved, hated, who stirs great upheaval, especially in Argentina... Stressing his personal life is a mistake. Maradona has no peers inside the pitch, but he has turned his life into a show, and is now living a personal ordeal that should not be imitated.”

33 - Such is his following back home, the Argentine Football Association asked FIFA to put his famous No 10 shirt in to retirement, in his honor.  Unsurprisingly, FIFA said, “No, niet, non”.

34 - Maradona has a stadium named after him – the team Argentinos Juniors honored him by naming their ground Estadio Diego Armando Maradona.

35 - Politics are something upon which Maradona has been more than willing to comment.  After the 1986 Hand of God incident he said about England: “It was as if we had beaten a country, more than just a football team."  The two countries had been at war for real only four years previously.

36 - Maradona has had his own personal problems with drugs.  Interviewed in 1996 he said: "I was, I am and I always will be a drug addict. A person who gets involved in drugs has to fight it every day."

37 - The new millennium came and FIFA in their wisdom decided to award a player of the century title.  They couldn’t make their minds up and in the end awarded it to Maradona and Pele jointly.  Maradona said: "The people voted for me. Now they want me to share the prize with Pele. I'm not going to share the prize with anybody."

38 - In 1990 he was held in such high esteem that when asked which players he was putting on the pitch the Argentinean Manager Carlos Billardo famously replied: “Maradona – and ten others.”

39 - Although Maradona has not done a Cantona and acted in movies he was the subject of a documentary by the Serbian Filmmaker Kusturica.  It made its world premier at Cannes in 2008.

40 - Sir Bobby Robson said of the player in 1986: "With Maradona, Arsenal could have won the World Cup." Bob Wilson said of Maradona: “a flawed genius who has now become a genius who is flawed.”

Image Credit Flickr User Paulo Camera

41 - FIFA have called his 1986 goal against England the Goal of the Century.  No, not the Hand of God goal – the one which happened four minutes afters when he dribbled past desultory defenders to put one past England goalie Peter Shilton.  That made the score 2-0.

42 - In 2006 at the World Cup in Germany Maradona fell out of his pram about Pele – again.  He refused to go to the tournament’s opening ceremony, saying "I'm not here to look at bloody Pele walking around."

43 - Pele got his own back.  This year, reflecting on Maradona’s tenure as Manager of the Argentinean National Squad, Pele said: “But it isn't Maradona's fault. It is the fault of whoever put him in charge.”

44 - Maradona’s average goal-per-game in domestic club competitions is 0.526

45 - After only Batistuta and Crespo he is the third highest goal scorer for Argentina – ever.

46 - Ever since 1986, it is common for Argentines abroad to hear Maradona's name as a token of recognition, even in remote places.

47 - Psychologists have even got in to the scramble to say things about the famous player.  Pyschologist Gustavo Bernstein has said: “Maradona is our maximum term of reference. No one embodies our essence better. No one bears our emblem more nobly. To no other, in the last twenty years, have we offered up so much passion. Argentina is Maradona, Maradona is Argentina.”

48 - Maradona’s fans are famous for being the ultimate devotees.  In 1998 they started the Church of Maradona in Argentina.  So this 2- October this year is actually 50 DD (Despues de Diego or After Diego).

49 - For all his ups and downs, Maradona remains one of the best player the world has ever seen.

50 - There is little doubt that everyone wishes him another very happy fifty years!