The Fall of Sepp

07/07/22 • 48 min

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The most powerful man in world sports. The king of international soccer. FIFA President Sepp Blatter commanded the attention of global superstars and political leaders alike during his 17-year reign. He had also survived every scandal that came his way - and there were a lot of them. He seemed to be made of teflon and then, in a blink of an eye, his luck ran out.

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The Indictments

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In December 2010, FIFA President Sepp Blatter, surrounded by celebrities and politicians from around the globe, announced that Russia and Qatar would host the next two World Cup tournaments. The news shook the world. The choice of two authoritarian regimes, with troubling human rights records and little if any soccer infrastructure, set off alarm bells. How could this happen? Among those asking the question, federal agents in the United States who decided to take a closer look at soccer’s governing body.

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The Colonialist

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An organization like FIFA does not become corrupt overnight. So how did it happen? Well, long before FIFA became stuff of criminal lore, soccer’s governing body was simply known to be racist and morally corrupt. From supporting South Africa’s racist apartheid regime to propping up authoritarian dictators, FIFA’s so-called Golden Years were more blood red than gold. At the top of the pyramid for much of this, an Englishman named Stanley Rous.

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Lords of Soccer - The Fall of Sepp

Transcript

Speaker 100:00:02.399

This is today, friends. The dollar bills, hundreds of them, gently cascaded down on the head of FIFA's disgrace, seventy nine year old president Well the money shower, looking like something out of a strip club fantasy, was an act of public shaming. British comedian Simon Broadkin, posing as a North Korean soccer official, made it rain just seconds after Set Bladder, the godfather of international soccer in FIFA's long time but in battled preside